Joliet, Ill. ? Jeff Gordon is on such an unbelievable streak even he is amazed by it.

Gordon won his fourth straight pole on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit Friday afternoon, shattering the track record at the Tropicana 400 with a lap of 186.942 mph, or more than two miles faster than the previous mark of 184.786 mph set last year by Tony Stewart.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have some good streaks along the way, but this streak is pretty amazing right now,” said Gordon, who is looking for his third straight victory Sunday. “I just want to maintain this one as long as I can.”

Gordon is the first driver to win four straight poles since Bill Elliott in 1985. The victory leaves him one shy of the NASCAR record, and he could match it in two weeks at Loudon, N.H.

“Oh, God, that’s a tough place to qualify,” Gordon said.

He wasn’t sure how much luck he was going to have at the Chicagoland Speedway, though, either.

“I say how shocked I am to be here, but I am. Only because we were putting out our best effort all day today and we were the fourth- or fifth-place car,” he said. “Guys had us beat … and it was by a few tenths. I didn’t know how we were going to find that speed.”

Szegedy avoids orange, qualifies 12th in Busch

Joliet, Ill. — Todd Szegedy is seeing orange after his first try at Busch Series qualifying.

Szegedy was coming out of turn four on his first lap of qualifying for the Tropicana Twister 300 on Friday when he saw a “big orange thing.” An inflatable orange, 30 feet in diameter and weighing 60 pounds, had snapped off its tethers in high winds and was rolling slowly toward him on the track at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I used to like orange juice. Now it almost killed me,” Szegedy joked afterward. “I don’t even live in Florida.”

Szegedy squeezed by the orange without incident and then pulled off the track. His attempt was wiped out, and he finished 12th when qualifying resumed after an almost two-hour rain delay.

Defending champion Bobby Hamilton Jr. ran away with the pole, just as he did for last year’s race at the 11/2-mile D-shaped oval. Hamilton set a Busch track record with a lap at 183.611 mph, more than a mile faster than Kyle Busch.

Rain hampers trucks

Sparta, Ky. — Rain washed out qualifying Friday for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway.

The lineup for today’s race will be set according to the series points standings, meaning Dennis Setzer will be on the pole.

Defending race champion Carl Edwards, who won last week’s series race at Kansas Speedway, will be on the outside of the first row.

Tracy nips Bourdais

for Toronto Champ pole

Toronto — Paul Tracy stayed far away from nemesis Alex Tagliani on Friday and took the provisional pole position for the Toronto Molson Indy — barely.

The hometown favorite, who won the race from the pole last year and also won here in 1993, turned a fast lap of 59.407 seconds (106.351 mph) on his sixth of 14 laps around the 1.775-mile, 11-turn temporary street course on the edge of downtown Toronto.

Nobody was able to beat the defending Champ Car World Series champion, but Sebastien Bourdais did come within 0.003-seconds of the leader, turning a lap of 59.410 (106.346).

The fast lap assured Tracy a front-row start, no matter what happens in today’s final round of time trials and earned the suburban Scarborough native one point, moving him into a tie with Tagliani for fourth place in the season standings.