Pocono qualifying: Earnhardt, Gordon and Martin in top 15

LONG POND, Pa. (June 4, 2010) – Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin earned spots in the top-15 in Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying session at Pocono Raceway, while Jimmie Johnson will line up 25th for Sunday's 500-mile affair. Earnhardt will roll off the grid Sunday in the third-position. During his qualifying laps, Earnhardt wheeled his No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy around the 2.5-mile triangular racetrack in 53.22 seconds, just twelve-tenths of a second behind pole sitter Kyle Busch. Earnhardt, who posted the fourth-fastest lap time during the first practice session on Friday, never has finished outside the top five when starting fifth or better. Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, will start 10th in Sunday’s event. Gordon, who owns an average start of 10.8 at Pocono, also scored in the top-10 on the speed charts during Friday’s practice session. He finished the session seventh fastest. Martin rounds out the top-15 for the Hendrick Motorsports trio with a 14th-place starting position in his No. 5 Hendrickcars.com/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet, led Friday’s practice session with a speed of roughly 167.961 mph, but struggled to match that effort during qualifying. Johnson’s No. 48 Chevy became loose in Turn 2 during his qualifying run, giving the team the 25th starting spot. But if history is any indication, the deep starting spot won’t be a factor for Johnson on race day. In three previous starts outside the top 10, Johnson rallied to score top-10 finishes at the tricky triangle, and won the August 2004 event. TNT will televise this Sunday’s race starting at 1 p.m. ET.