HAMPTON, Ga. — An all-star top 10 will lead the field to the green flag Sunday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, including a star-studded front row with Jeff Gordon on the pole and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside.
Completing the top 10 starters for the Kobalt Tools 500 are Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards (winner of the last two races), six-time AMS winner Bobby Labonte, points leader Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin.
That qualifying even went off was surprising to the pole winner, who didn’t think he had the car to beat Friday even when the expected foul weather held off.
“I’m excited about this one,” Gordon said after earning his second career AMS pole. “I didn’t expect this one. I expected it to rain; then I expected someone to beat me for the pole. This one goes to the team. We share so much information and it goes a long way when you can tap into that. We weren’t very good early, but we got better and better.”
Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, coming off a 29th-place finish at Las Vegas, will start 11th, and seven-time AMS pole-winner Ryan Newman goes off 12th. Other notable starts will be Tony Stewart in 32nd and Matt Kenseth in 36th.
Dale Jarrett, in his next-to-last qualifying effort, will take the past champion’s provisional, which left Georgia native Bill Elliott out after a poor qualifying effort.
