Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon take front row at Richmond

“I was as surprised as anybody,” said Earnhardt, who won the 11th pole of his career. “It feels good. I've not really been the best of qualifiers the last couple of years. We have a lot of improvements we've made this year. It feels good to get a pole.”

It's the first pole for NASCAR's most popular driver since the 2011 Daytona 500.

It came at the expense of Gordon, who is trying to race his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Gordon wound up second, and was pleased with the effort.

“Mission accomplished,” he said.

Gordon needs a strong race and a bit of help to earn one of the two wild-card berths in the 12-driver Chase field. Although eight drivers go into the race mathematically eligible for the final two spots in the Chase field, the talk has focused on a battle between Gordon and Kyle Busch for the last slot.

Busch, a four-time Richmond winner who picked up his only victory this season here in May, qualified 15th. But Gordon knew that's not far enough in the pack to not worry about Busch.

“In my opinion, it's really Kyle's to lose,” Gordon said. “For us, it's really nothing to lose, everything to gain.”

Earnhardt is already locked into the Chase and is racing only for bonus points Saturday. The Chase field will be re-seeded after the race, with everyone but the two wild-card drivers starting their title hunt with three bonus points per victory.

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