Talladega, Ala. ? Although Jeremy Mayfield gained his first pole in more than two years, he doesn’t figure the Talladega Superspeedway aces from Dale Earnhardt Inc. should be too worried.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Mayfield said of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip. “We beat them in qualifying, but they don’t ever qualify that well.”

Mayfield qualified his Dodge at 186.489 mph. Earnhardt Jr., who has won the last three races on the 2.66-mile oval, was 13th-fastest. Waltrip will start Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 from the 16th spot in a field of 43.

They have combined for seven victories in the last seven races at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway — the tracks where NASCAR requires carburetor restrictor plates.

“It’s no secret, though, that those two are going to beat the ones to beat,” Mayfield said after his seventh career pole. “It will be tough to beat those DEI cars, but I think we have definitely closed the gap.”

Mayfield, who joined Ray Evernham’s team at the start of 2002, earned his first pole since October 2000 at Rockingham.

“We needed this,” he said.

Mayfield had not qualified better than 10th this season. He also is without a top-20 finish since running eighth in the season-opener in Daytona.

“I really believe we’ve got a good race team here and … I knew we were going to have a good car,” he said. “I just didn’t know it was going to be this good. It’s the best since I’ve been here with this team.”

Kevin Harvick was second in a Chevrolet at 186.166, followed by the Ford of Elliott Sadler at 186.047, the Chevy of four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon at 186.021 and the Dodge of Bill Elliott, Mayfield’s teammate, at 185.956.

Earnhardt was disappointed after going 185.176. His Monte Carlo had been the fastest in practice.

“We should have run a little faster than that,” he said. “But we kind of had a little trouble getting through (inspection), and I think it slowed the car down a little bit.

“But we ain’t never really been great qualifiers here. We don’t have any poles at Daytona or Talladega. We just race good, and that’s all that really matters.”

Waltrip, who won the Daytona 500 this year for the second time, ran 184.729. He also appeared unconcerned about his qualifying effort.

“We’ll just race them on Sunday,” he said. “The car is running good, and we should be good on Sunday.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, last week’s winner at Texas; Mark Martin and rookie Casey Mears.

Webber fastest in qualifying

Sao Paulo, Brazil — Mark Webber became the first Jaguar driver to turn a fastest lap in Formula One qualifying, finishing ahead of Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday.

Five-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher had the fifth-fastest lap on the 2.671-mile Interlagos circuit in the first round of qualifying, finishing in 1 minute, 25.585 seconds.

Webber, who started his Formula One career last year, had a time of 1:23.11. Barrichello was second in 1:23.249.

Kalitta sets record

Las Vegas — Doug Kalitta led a record-setting day of qualifying Friday at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals. Kalitta powered his Top Fuel dragster to a track-record time of 4.499 seconds at 330.63 mph.