Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, captured the pole for Saturday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. His lap of 27.040 seconds, 133.137 m. p.h. was his third career pole at the one-mile track in the Arizona desert.
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS - POLE WINNER - PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT ON HIS RUN:
“We were kind of guessing that the track would cool down and get a little bit more grip with the number we drew. And it did. It really paid off. The first lap, I knew I couldn’t go fast enough to sit on the pole on the first lap so I just gave it up and drove in nice and easy and got heat in the brakes and the tires and everything. And then I got a good drive off of Turn 4 and took the white flag. The car really did a lot that I wanted it to do. I didn’t get through Turns 1 and 2 perfect, but man, I got through (Turns) 3 and 4 I think better than I’ve ever gotten through 3 and 4 at this track and that really made up a lot of speed. “
ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW MUCH FASTER YOU WERE THAN THE SECOND PLACE CAR OF JAMIE MCMURRAY?
“I think I was more surprised at how fast he went, when he went, you know. That was an incredible lap. I felt like we needed three-tenths from practice, which would have gotten us ahead of Junior when he was on the pole, but I think we got four-tenths. And then when McMurray went and ran a. 15, I said, ‘Sorry, we got four-tenths, we don’t have that much’ (laughs). And then to go out and run that kind of lap was surprising. I came on the radio after the lap and said I got through (Turns) 3 and 4 really good, but I don’t know about (Turns) 1 and 2. And then Steve Letarte said, ‘That’s the pole’. And I was shaking my head. We couldn’t believe that we ran that fast. It’s pretty incredible how much this place picks up as the sun goes down. “
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