BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) – Ryan Newman lived up to his new nickname, “Rocketman.”

He was too fast for the rest of the field and got his third pole of the NASCAR season in qualifying Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The top starting position for Sunday’s Food City 500 was the 21st of his career. Newman, winless in the first five races this season, led the circuit last year with 11 poles and eight victories.

He ran a lap at 128.313 mph, just shy of his year-old track record of 128.709. His fast lap Friday took just 14.954 seconds on the high-banked, 533-mile oval.

“When you get around this place as fast as we did, it’s certainly not that easy,” Newman said. “You have to hit your marks and you have to do it at a really fast speed. It’s easy to make a mistake.”

Jeff Gordon, who has three poles and five wins here, made it very close with a lap of 128.288. The time difference between Newman’s Dodge and Gordon’s Chevrolet was just 0.003 seconds.

“Ryan put up a really good number,” said Gordon, somewhat disappointed to barely miss the pole. “We may have just tightened the car up a little too much. It was tight in the middle of the corners.”

Four-time series champion Gordon, starting from the front row at Bristol for the fifth straight time, said it’s impressive that the 26-year-old Newman is the favorite in qualifying just about everywhere these days.

“He’s the guy to beat and you want to knock him off so bad,” Gordon said. “I think those guys are doing a great job utilizing their resources, and Ryan is doing a great job getting the most out of his car.”

Newman, in his third full season in NASCAR’s top series, insists he isn’t all that impressed with his qualifying prowess.

“It’s all about getting a good starting spot for Sunday, getting a good pit selection and leading a few laps to get the five-point bonus that goes with it.”

But Newman conceded that winning poles starts the weekend off on the right foot and gives his Penske Racing South crew considerable satisfaction.

Greg Biffle, who earlier in the day won the pole for Saturday’s Busch series race here, was third in Cup qualifying at 128.176, followed by Newman’s teammate and nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace at 128.074.

Rookie Kasey Kahne, who has two poles this season, was fifth at 127.860.

Jamie McMurray had to qualify in an unproven backup after his primary car failed inspection Friday morning because of an unapproved rear window and was confiscated by NASCAR.

That didn’t appear to bother last year’s top rookie. He went out last among the 45 drivers who made qualifying attempts and wound up sixth with a lap of 127.529.

“It’s been a long day, but we came out of it in pretty good shape,” McMurray said. “I’m not sure what happened this morning, but Bristol isn’t the type of track where you can gain an advantage like that.”

Rounding out the top 10 were rookie Brendan Gaughan, another of the Penske drivers; Michael Waltrip, former Bristol winner Elliott Sadler and rookie Johnny Sauter.

Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the top two drivers in the season points and each the winner of two races in 2004, did not fare as well. Points leader and series champion Kenseth qualified 23rd, five spots behind Earnhardt.

Jimmie Johnson, who won last Sunday at Darlington, will start Sunday’s race 11th.

Derrike Cope, Ward Burton and Kirk Shelmerdine crashed on the slick track early in the qualifying session but all three made the 43-car field.