BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jeremy Mayfield is in the race. Michael Waltrip is out. A.J. Allmendinger is in. Joe Nemechek is out.

Those making Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway -- and missing it -- shuffled but one constant remained: Jeff Gordon won the pole.

Gordon earned his fifth Bristol pole and his second this season, circling the half-mile track in his Car of Tomorrow at 125.453 mph.

As Gordon rejoiced, so did Mayfield and Allmendinger. Neither had made a Cup race yet this season for their Toyota teams.

Mayfield qualified 23rd for Bill Davis Racing; Allmendinger starts 43rd for Team Red Bull.

Waltrip missed his fourth consecutive race. Nemechek, 19th in the points standings, missed his first race of the season. Nemechek had started 175 consecutive races.

Evernham Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler start second and third, respectively. Tony Stewart is fourth with Jamie McMurray completing the top five. Also, Regan Smith, taking over for points leader Mark Martin this weekend in the No. 01 car, qualified 12th.

Short case

Jeff Burton says he's not worried about the uncertainty with sponsor AT&T lasting all season.

AT&T filed suit last week in federal court to put its logos on Burton's car. AT&T and Cingular Wireless merged with AT&T phasing out Cingular's branding. Sprint Nextel's deal with NASCAR as series sponsor, though, prevents new wireless companies from entering the sport.

AT&T's contention is that nothing was written in Cingular's contract about it changing names and having to leave the sport.

"One of the reasons AT&T went ahead and moved is so it can't linger," Burton said. "An injunction will have a quicker decision than a regular court case. It still could go to court later. For us and for AT&T it can't linger."

Too careful?

Kasey Kahne admits he was careful driving last week as he struggles to get into the top 35 in car owner points. The top 35 in car owner points, based on last year's points, have guaranteed starting spots in the first five races.

Starting next week at Martinsville, the top 35 in car owner points at that time determine who is guaranteed a starting spot.

Kahne tried to be careful at Atlanta knowing he needs to collect points to avoid not having a guaranteed starting spot at Martinsville.

"Last week, I was driving defensive, just trying to be smart about everywhere I went on the track," Kahne said. "I was super loose and we weren't very fast the first coupe of runs. I was doing that and then you have a restart and everybody comes together and you don't have any extra space and then you get in a wreck."

Familiar face

Car owner Ray Evernham said that Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett will be his guest again this weekend. Evernham is in talks with Gillett about becoming a partner in Evernham Motorsports. Gillett was also at Las Vegas.

New look

The Car of Tomorrow features the Chevrolet Impala SS, which replaces the Monte Carlo for these races.

Also, Dodge is using the Avenger instead of the Charger for these races. Ford will use the Fusion and Toyota the Camry in all 36 points races this season.

Pit stops

Crew chiefs Kenny Francis (Kasey Kahne) and Robbie Reiser (Matt Kenseth) are back at the track after serving their four-race suspensions for violations discovered last month at Daytona. ... Richard Childress Racing likely won't attempt to run the new Chevrolet engine until next month at Texas. Scott Wimmer failed to qualify using that motor at Atlanta last week. The team plans an endurance test of at least 500 miles on the engine at Kentucky Speedway before Texas.