Jeff Gordon earned his 64th career pole Friday night as he laid down a lap of 29.927 seconds at a speed of 185.251 mph.

“This is a tough place to sit on the pole,” Gordon explained. “It’s tough to get around here quick; it’s a fast race track.”

Gordon’s newest teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start outside the front row after a lap of 29.990 seconds at 184.862 mph.

Martin Truex Jr. will start third, followed by Carl Edwards and Bobby Labonte.

The new style car mixed with the hard compound tire has speeds much slower than usual. Speeds were considerably slower than a year ago when Ryan Newman laid down a lap at 193.124 mph.

Truex Jr. – who’s average speed was 183.807 mph – explained, “I never thought we would go so slow at Atlanta.”

Dale Jarrett used the Past Champion’s Provisional to make the field, while Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Johnny Benson, Burney Lamar and John Andretti failed to qualify.