Judging by Friday afternoon you would never guess Jeff Gordon considers Texas Motor Speedway his worst track. Earlier in the day, Gordon topped the speed charts in the opening practice session and not long afterwards captured his first career pole at the 1.5-mile track in Fort Worth, Texas.

The driver of the No. 24 DuPont/Nicorette Chevrolet posted a lap of 28.652 seconds at 188.469 mph. The run marked the 67th career pole for Gordon and his fourth of the 2008 season.

"This is huge," Gordon said once the session was over. "I can't believe we just sat on the pole here at Texas, I think this is my first ever pole here. This is a great way to get the weekend started for the DuPont/Nicorette Chevrolet. Really excited about this team and the effort they have put in, especially trying to come back and improve ourselves here at Texas. It's a great start to the weekend, but only half the battle."

Last time the series made its way to the Texas Motor Speedway, Gordon was - to put it plainly - awful. After struggling much of the afternoon, Gordon finally hit the outside wall in Turn 4 and finished a disappointing 43rd - only the third of his long career.

'I?m always optimistic every time we go to any race track, whether we've been good there or bad there, that as a race team we're good enough to overcome anything that tries to tear us down," Gordon explained. "That's the only way you can approach it, let the car speak for itself on the race track."

Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Martin Truex Jr. just barely missed out on the extremely unique Beretta trophy. Truex Jr. laid down a lap of 28.723 seconds at 188.003 mph - just .071 seconds off Gordon's mark.

Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray and April's pole sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five. Matt Kenseth laid down an impressive lap to grab the sixth-spot, while points leader Jimmie Johnson will roll off seventh. Tony Stewart ran the eighth fastest time, with Reed Sorenson and Scott Riggs making up the rest of the top-10.

Second in points, Carl Edwards, will start Sunday's Dickies 500 from the sixteenth-spot, while Greg Biffle will roll off nineteenth.

A super tight field, all 43 cars were separated by only 0.728 seconds. Eight drivers - Sam Hornish Jr., Marcos Ambrose, Joe Nemechek, Ken Schrader, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Bill Elliott and Joey Logano - raced their way into the field. However, five cars failed to make the show including Tony Raines, Bryan Clauson, Chad McCumbee, Max Papis and Johnny Sauter.