Gordon takes 4th pole in row

JOLIET, Ill. - Jeff Gordon stayed on a roll Friday by winning the pole for the Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

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Gordon now has won four consecutive pole positions and two consecutive races heading into Sunday's main event (2:30 p.m., NBC-Ch. 26).

Not only was Gordon's lap the quickest in time trials, his speed of 186.942 mph broke Tony Stewart's year-old track record by more than 2 mph. It also put him one pole away from the Nextel Cup Series record of five in a row set by Cale Yarborough in 1980, Bill Elliott in 1985 and Bobby Allison in 1972.

Kasey Kahne qualified second at 186.871 mph, followed by Jimmie Johnson in third at 186.290, Brian Vickers in fourth at 185.759, Greg Biffle in fifth at 185.733, Jeff Burton in sixth at 185.510, Mike Bliss in seventh at 185.414, Ryan Newman in eighth at 185.274, Joe Nemechek in ninth at 185.236 and Stewart in 10th at 185.204.

Gordon, Johnson and Vickers all drive for Hendrick Motorsports. All three were among the top four a week ago at Daytona.

Pole qualifying was delayed by almost two hours by a mid-afternoon thunderstorm. That also made the track cooler and allowed 16 drivers to beat Stewart's record of 184.786 mph.

ATTACK ORANGES: A pair of 30-foot-tall orange balloons used in part of Tropicana's sponsorship of today's Busch and Sunday's came loose from their moors during Friday's qualifying.

The balloons came loose minutes before a thunderstorm.

One balloon landed in the fourth turn of the track as Todd Szegedy was qualifying his Busch Series car. Szegedy moved to the middle groove to avoid the balloon as it rolled on the track.

"That would be the one thing that made me famous," Szegedy said. "I was just wondering why my crew chief was saying, 'Hey, the yellow is going to be coming out.' I didn't see the yellow, and then I saw the big orange thing."

FIX-IT PROJECT: Tony Stewart crashed his primary car during the second practice session Friday, forcing him to switch to a backup car for Sunday's race.

"I went into (turn) three right when they said the 02 (Hermie Sadler) had blown up," Stewart said. "But by the time the spotter said the red and black flags were out, I was already spinning. There was nothing you could do. It was nobody's fault."

PIT STOP: Bobby Hamilton Jr. won the pole position for today's Twister 300 (2 p.m., NBC-Ch. 26). His Team Marines Ford broke the Busch Series track record with a lap of 183.611 mph. Kyle Busch (182.125 mph) is second, while Joe Nemechek (182.088) is third, Matt Kenseth (182.039) is fourth and Kevin Harvick (181.861) is fifth.

Reach Don Coble at doncoble@bellsouth.net.