With only three more chances to end his winless streak, Jeff Gordon topped the speed charts during Friday's opening practice session at the Texas Motor Speedway. One of the only tracks he has yet to win on, Texas has been a thorn in Gordon's side for many years. However, Friday's practice showed Gordon is not letting history stop him from giving it his all.

Running only nine laps in the session, the four-time Cup Series champion laid down a fast lap of 28.93 seconds at 186.638 mph. Looking to break into Victory Lane for the first time in over a year, Gordon returns to the track he ran one of his worst races in memory earlier this year. After struggling all day long, Gordon hit the wall on his own and recorded only the third 43rd-place finish of his career.

"Texas is a very challenging race track, and we have been 'hit or miss' here," Gordon explained. "We have been good enough to win at times, but we haven't been good enough on a consistent basis to pull it off. We have been leading here with less than 50 laps to go and didn't win.

"Those are frustrating, but nothing like what we experienced here in April."

Perhaps the best free agent on the market, A.J. Allmendinger showed his worth by putting the No. 10 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge in the second spot. Taking the reigns of the No. 10 for the final five races of the year, Allmendinger ran a lap that mirrored Gordon's 28.93 second lap with a speed of 186.632 mph.

Last week's winner and the man running second in the points, Carl Edwards, posted the third fastest time of the session with a fast lap of 29.00 seconds at 186.239 mph. The man Edwards is chasing for the points title, Jimmie Johnson, was sixth fastest in the session with a lap of 29.02 seconds at a speed of 186.085 mph.

With no rain in the area, qualifying is scheduled to begin at 4:30pm E.T. Be sure to check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com to see how they will line them up for Sunday's Dickies 500.