One one-thousandth of a second was all that separated Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin at the end of Friday afternoon's qualifying session at the Dover International Speedway. Gordon took the top-spot by laying down a fast lap of 22.921 seconds at 157.061 mph. Martin's lap was about as close as it could be, with a time of 22.922 seconds at 157.054 mph.

This run marked Gordon's third pole of the year, fourth at the Monster Mile and 66th of his career. Still without a win this year - and probably tired of being reminded of that fact - Gordon will start Sunday's race in the best spot, both on the track and in the pits.

With track position and pit road selection such major factors at Dover, a special emphasis was put on qualifying for many of the teams in the garage. One of the tightest pit roads on the circuit, having first choice of pit stalls could mean the difference between winning the race off pit road and being mired in traffic.

"I think on Sunday it's going to be about the pit stall," Gordon admitted, "but today what I liked about it was the fact we had a fast race car and it feels good, it feels comfortable and it's doing what I wanted it to do, even when it wasn't we made adjustments and made the car better. That's just a great team group effort and the results speak for themselves. Tomorrow will be the big test to see what we have for Sunday."

"The track position and pit stall choice will help," outside pole-sitter Mark Martin explained. "It's so competitive today, that will make our lives a little easier. Sure, we would have loved to have had first choice and taken that first pit stall, but we'll take second choice and be happy."

After a week off, Martin is back behind the wheel and at one of his best tracks. The veteran driver has three top-10 finishes in his last three races and is sure to be a factor come Sunday.

"It's really a privilege for me to drive for the U.S. Army and Dale Earnhardt Inc.," he added in typical Martin fashion. "I have had so much fun driving Tony Gibson's cars this year. I believe that this is the most fun I've ever had. We're on a mission to get a win in the 8 car and this would be a great place to do it."

Martin knows if he wants to win on Sunday, the man he'll have to beat is the same man that got the best of him today.

"Jeff has run really, really well this year," Martin said of his future teammate. "It's been a very competitive year. Anybody that wants to count him out better stand back and watch out. He can put on a firestreak like you couldn't believe, and that can come any day at any racetrack, and once that starts it will carry over to other race tracks. No one needs to count him out.

"Right now momentum is important and we haven't had it on our side," Gordon pointed out. "We're still looking for that win and any positives we can pull out of this season and get ourselves back in this Chase, and this is a great way to do it the second race in this Chase."

Commenting on Martin's comments, Gordon admitted things haven't gone as planned, but he feels their team is always a threat.

"I feel like we always have that in us," Gordon said of going on a winning streak, "but when you haven't seen a real glimmer of that up to this point, then it's about just doing itt one week at a time and not trying to think too big or too far ahead. Right now it's just getting the comfort and speed when you unload off the truck or making adjustments that make improvements as we go through the day or the weekend."

Denny Hamlin will roll off from the third spot after earning his ninth top-10 qualifying run of the season - even though Hamlin pointed out seven of those were caused by rain outs. Penske Racing's Kurt Busch will roll off fourth, while last week's winner Greg Biffle rounded out the top-5.

Of the 46 drivers on the entry list for Sunday?s Camping World RV 400 presented by AAA, three drivers failed to make the show.  Chad Chaffin and Johnny Sauter were not fast enough on the speed charts, while a crash in practice ended the weekend for Stanton Barrett.

There are two practice sessions for the Cup cars tomorrow afternoon, with the race scheduled for a 2 p.m. ET start on Sunday. Be sure to check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com for all of the latest live from the Monster Mile.