What a difference a year makes.  Last year the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine ended its qualifying session on the back of a flatbed truck following one of the scariest incidents in recent history.  Friday afternoon, David Reutimann put the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota on the pole for this weekend’s Samsung 500.

"Again that was the 00 car last year got in a bad situation and got really, really tore up. On the positive side it got Aaron’s a lot of exposure so that was a plus,” Reutimann said of last year’s horrific wreck. “In the end, this is the kind of exposure you’re trying to get for Aaron’s and everybody involved at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota.”

In just three years time the Michael Waltrip Racing team has gone from missing races and battling for the top-35 to competing for the top-10 and top-5.  Still a young race team, this organization is finally starting to turn the corner and the results are paying off.

“Three years is not that long of time to have a race team and I don’t think people can fully appreciate how hard this business is to keep your head above water sometimes,” Reutimann went on to say. “Sometimes when you’re treading water trying to get to the next race you appreciate times when things are going well. You appreciate them that much more and the people that were around you and there when things were bad and now things are a lot better. You like to share that with people still.”

Points leader Jeff Gordon was second fastest of the forty-nine cars that took time.  One of only two tracks the driver with 81 victories has never one at (the other is Homestead), Gordon had one of the worst outings in this event in 2008, finishing a rare 43^rd. The four-time Cup Series champion responded in November by sitting on the pole and finishing second.

“It’s certainly been good all day,” Gordon said after his run. “I was pretty pleased with the lap. With the wind gusts and the way it was, I was a played it a little big conservative to get back to the throttle in (Turns) 3 and 4. We’d been fighting a little bit of a push and it felt like the wind was contributing to it. So, we flew through (Turns) 1 and 2 and still put a really solid lap down. David (Reutimann, pole winner) really put a great (Turns) 3 and 4 together. I thought I put down a pretty good lap. But Matt (Kenseth) and I were talking about it. Even though I did, going early like that, you think a lot of guys are going to beat you. So I am pretty pleased to be on the outside front row. It was another good qualifying effort here at Texas for us. Hopefully we can back that up on Sunday.”

Roush Fenway Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and David Ragan put their Fords third and fourth on the charts, while Paul Menard backed up his strong practice run with a fifth-place qualifying lap.

Last week’s winner Jimmie Johnson put his No. 48 Chevrolet in the ninth-spot and defending race winner Carl Edwards will start 13^th.