DOVER, Del. — Jeff Gordon felt like a rookie.

In one of those hard-to-believe stats except for maybe the most diehard Gordon fans, the four-time NASCAR champion had gone 47 races without a pole — the longest drought of his career.

All it took was a trip to top sponsor DuPont's backyard to put him back on top. Gordon took the top spot with a lap of 156.162 mph Friday at Dover International Speedway, his first pole since June 24, 2005, on the road course at Sonoma.

"It feels like my first pole ever," Gordon said. "When it goes by for a while, you feel like you lost that magic touch or that combination that it took to get on poles."

Gordon is fourth in the points standings heading into the second race of NASCAR's 10-man Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Maybe a new chassis for the No. 24 Chevrolet this weekend helped him.

"(It's) really the best car we have out there right now for this type of race track," he said.

Other than Gordon, it wasn't really a strong qualifying effort for the other nine drivers in the Chase. Series leader Kevin Harvick will start 25th. Matt Kenseth enters third and will start third. Mark Martin was the only other driver in the top-10 of the points standings (sixth) who will start on the first five rows (ninth).

Kyle Busch, the last of the 10 in the standings, was all the way back in 27th place.