LOUDON, New Hampshire: Jeff Gordon came into the media center after winning the pole in New Hampshire and found that the moderator was not yet at his post.
No problem: Gordon began interviewing himself.
The four-time NASCAR champion was in a familiar position at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday after qualifying for his 72nd career pole position. Gordon will be joined in the front row by Kyle Busch, with Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers behind them.
“I think we surprised ourselves a little bit with this pole,” said Gordon, whose last championship was in 2001 — before the current Sprint Cup format. “This is something we didn’t expect. Think we expected to be strong in the race here, but for qualifying, we haven’t sat on the pole at a non-restricted track in quite some times. So, this was a big one. And, certainly good timing.”
Gordon, who heads into the race Sunday ranked 12th in the Sprint Cup standings, ran a lap at 134.911 mph in qualifying Friday. Busch was second, at 134.753 mph, and defending series champion Tony Stewart was third.
“We’ll have a good pit spot and hopefully we can keep that track position all day and not have to beat our car up trying to get up there,” Stewart said.
Gordon, who barely qualified for the Chase, is hoping a strong finish in New Hampshire will help him overcome a 35th-place finish in Chicago, when he hit the wall with about 80 laps to go. He was the only one of the 12 Chase drivers who didn’t finish in the top 18.
“Qualifying is important. But, there are no points for the pole,” Gordon said. “Doesn’t guarantee anything for the race. Certainly it is a nice boost and something to build on. ... At this point, we have a lot of work to do, and it’s not going to happen all in one race. It’s going to happen over nine races.”
He said he still felt good about Chicago.
“We were running fourth when we wrecked last week. Your confidence gets broken when you are running 25th,” he said. “That is the thing that has really gotten us through this season, is that we’ve had a lot of problems that have been frustrating, and we’ve had to battle through them. But our cars have been really, really fast.”
Points leader Brad Keselowski qualified 15th. Denny Hamlin was 32nd in qualifying after his Joe Gibbs Racing crew made its second costly mistake of the Chase, incorrectly setting the tire pressure to race level. It comes five days after the gas man failed to fill Hamlin’s tank on the final pit stop at Chicago.
Hamlin wound up finishing 16th in the Chase opener, and fell from the points leader to fourth. The deepest starting spot for a race winner in New Hampshire is 38th by Jeff Burton in 1999.
“He drove from 16th or something like that to second the last time we were here after the last stop,” Gordon said. “Those guys are good. Their car looked really strong. I don’t think it is going to be an issue.”
Jose Wise was disqualified from the race because a post-qualifying inspection showed improper gas pressure in his rear shocks.
Gordon claims NASCAR pole in New Hampshire
Gordon claims NASCAR pole in New Hampshire
Premier League ready? Wrexham takes on world champion Chelsea in the FA Cup
- The prospect of playing the likes of Chelsea every week is not just the hope for Wrexham’s owners but the mission
- “They said that from day one and everyone laughed at them,” Williamson said
LONDON: Next up for Wrexham are world champion Chelsea.
While a place in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup is at stake when the teams face off at the Racecourse Ground on Saturday, for Wrexham it will be a timely gauge of just how “Premier League-ready” it is.
Speaking to industry experts last week, Wrexham CEO Michael Williamson said the Welsh club — owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney — would be ready for the topflight of English soccer when the time comes. Even as soon as next season, just three years after they were playing non-league.
“What we’ve proven is that with our culture we’re pretty damn good at being ready,” Williamson told the FT Business of Football Summit.
Even with celebrity owners, huge financial backing and a global reach through the fly-on-the-wall documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham,” it cannot be overstated just how remarkable the club’s rise has been.
Back-to-back promotions have taken them from playing non-league games in a crumbling stadium to the second-tier Championship and in contention for the playoffs to the Premier League.
The prospect of playing the likes of Chelsea every week is not just the hope for Wrexham’s owners but the mission.
“They said that from day one and everyone laughed at them,” Williamson said. “We know what we have to do. It’ll be really difficult but we can do it because we’ve proven that we can, not just survive when we get promoted, but that we can actually thrive.”
Wrexham’s meteoric rise has meant they have constantly played catchup to try to keep pace with their on-field success. More than 60 players have been signed since the takeover was completed in 2021, with 16 joining last summer to build a squad capable of competing in a division with former Premier League champion Leicester and a host of clubs with very recent topflight experience.
Even still, the spending is nothing like that of England’s topflight. Nathan Broadhead became Wrexham’s record signing in August for a reported $10 million. Before him, Sam Smith cost a reported $2.7 million.
Compare that to Chelsea, which have spent close to $2 billion under American owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital since buying the club in 2022. That money helped Chelsea win the Club World Cup last year — but they have not come close to winning the Premier League and they could miss out on qualification to the Champions League this season.
Strive to survive
Wrexham’s spending is likely to have to increase significantly again to bridge the widening gap between the Premier League and the Championship, with promoted teams increasingly struggling to make the step up.
Last season, all three promoted teams — Leicester, Ipswich, Southampton — were relegated. The year before, Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton all failed to survive in their first season in the topflight.
“We’d have to look at a squad change and we’re definitely planning that,” Williamson said in the event of Wrexham securing a fourth straight promotion.
While player changes have been frequent, manager Phil Parkinson has been a constant and was recently told by McElhenney that he has a job for life.
His immediate focus is on an FA Cup upset against Chelsea.
“We’ll be going all out to produce a really good performance, and we’ll see where that takes us on the night,” he told the North Wales Chronicle. “But we know we’ve got to respect Chelsea. What a squad of players they’ve got. They’ve spent billions over the last 10 years.
“They are Club World Cup champions — I don’t think we should forget that — so statistically we are playing the best club in the world.”
