There were three practice sessions scheduled for Nextel Cup teams preparing for Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville (VA) Speedway. This is the 32nd race of the 36-race Nextel Cup season, and the sixth of 10 races in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.

The first practice session, scheduled to take place Friday before qualifying, was a rain-shortened affair that saw many cars running fewer than 10 laps. Although Jeff Gordon paced Friday morning's practice, the 24 car was on the track for just three laps.

Typically, Cup teams don't make their practice qualifying runs until later in a practice session, and with cars on the track for just a few laps between rain showers, most teams spent the entire practice in race trim.

So there were a lot of questions prior to Friday's time trials - not just about how the cars would do in qualifying, but again about the weather, with rain showers still in the area.

The funny thing is that no matter what the question is about Martinsville this weekend, the answer seems to be Jeff Gordon.

After leading the short practice session on Friday, Gordon appeared to be in the catbird's seat. If qualifying ended up being canceled due to rain, Gordon would have inherited the pole, since the cars would have lined up in order of point standings and he is the current points leader. But, if the rain held off, he would have likely qualified well anyway given his past performance at this track.

Prior to Friday's qualifying, Jeff Gordon led all active drivers with five Martinsville poles and is tied with Rusty Wallace with seven wins, trailing only Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip on the all-time Martinsville wins list. Gordon is also coming off two straight Chase victories, taking Talladega and Charlotte the past two weeks.

With the short practice session Friday morning, no one was too sure about what they would have underneath them when the track dried and qualifying got underway. But it was Jeff Gordon (+301) who turned the fastest lap, a 19.938 at 94.974 miles per hour, giving him his 6th career pole at Martinsville, his 7th pole of the current season, and 63rd overall in the Cup series.

Only three drivers, including Gordon, had sub-20 qualifying laps - the other two were Martin Truex Jr. (+1339) at 19.988, good enough for P2, and Kevin Harvick (+971) at 19.999, placing him 3rd on the starting grid.

Lining up 4th with a 20.013 is Jimmie Johnson (+452), always a serious threat here. In fact, Johnson has the best average finish among active drivers at Martinsville with a 6.6, even better than Gordon's 7.3. Johnson won the last two Martinsville races - spring '07 and fall '06.

Remarkably, Gordon and Johnson have combined to win 7 of the last 9 races on the Virginia paperclip dating all the way back to April of 2003. The only other drivers who've won here during that time span are Rusty Wallace in '04 and Tony Stewart in '06.

The top four qualifiers, Gordon, Truex, Harvick and Johnson, are all Chase contenders. All four are also in Chevy's, as are eight of the top 10 qualifiers. Kasey Kahne (+3770) lines up 5th in a Dodge, followed by Kyle Busch (+816), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (+1658), J.J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray (+2089) in a Ford, and Tony Raines.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart (+1213) and Denny Hamlin (+1111) will start deep in the field, qualifying 30th and 34th respectively. Although 84 of 117 races at Martinsville have been won by drivers starting 10th or higher, 5 of the last 7 winners started 15th or worse. Starting position and pit selection are both important considerations, but the winning car will be the one that rolls best through the center of the corner, sparing the brakes and allowing the driver to get back on the gas as quickly as possible.

Failing to qualify were Sam Hornish Jr., Joe Nemechek, Brian Vickers, Jeremy Mayfield, and Kevin Lepage, while David Ragan and Kyle Petty got in on owner's points.

The weather was much improved for Saturday's two practice sessions, the second and third practice sessions overall, with no threat of rain. Denny Hamlin paced the second practice with a fast lap of 20.100, while Tony Raines won Happy Hour with a time of 20.201. Jamie McMurray's Ford was second in both sessions. Other drivers in the top 10 in both Saturday practices were Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., and Raines.

Eight of the top 10 cars in second practice, and seven of the top 10 in Happy Hour, were GMs. Drivers among the slowest in practice were A.J. Allmendinger, Michael Waltrip, David Gilliland, Paul Menard, Ward Burton, and Dale Jarrett. Roush-Fenway driver Carl Edwards (+2639) was 33rd in second practice, but picked up nicely in Happy Hour, all the way up to 4th with a 20.270. The same can't be said for teammate and fellow Chase contender Matt Kenseth (+3426), who's made no secret of the fact that he doesn't rank Martinsville as one of his better racetracks. Kenseth's lap times placed him 31st and 35th on Saturday's practice charts.

Juan Pablo Montoya (+12500), who starts 26th, was the fastest rookie in today's practice sessions, timing in at 16th and 18th. Kurt Busch (+1445) had the fastest Dodge (13th/5th), while Dave Blaney had the fastest Toyota (14th/17th).