TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The Wood Brothers will miss their first NASCAR race in seven years after Ken Schrader failed to qualify for today's Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Schrader was among nine drivers who failed to qualify Saturday. Jeff Gordon won his third pole of the season and 60th of his career.

This ends the Wood Brothers' streak of 249 consecutive starts. The last time the Wood Brothers failed to make a race was the spring Talladega event in April 2000.

Schrader and the Wood Brothers were not guaranteed a starting spot because they are outside the top 35 in the owner points.

The Wood Brothers were 36th entering the weekend.

"We've dodged bullets the last three weeks, but sooner or later one of them is going to hit you,'' said team owner Eddie Wood. "We threw everything we had at it, but it just wasn't enough.''

Also missing the race are Brian Vickers, who won last fall's Talladega race, Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney.

Bouncing the boss

Rookie David Reutimann bumped Waltrip out of the race. It was the second time this season Reutimann has done that.

Reutimann grabbed the last spot in the field when his lap of 190.204 mph bettered Waltrip's speed of 190.045.

"I really thought his time was solid enough to get him in the show," Reutimann said.

"He was close, but all of us 'go-or-go home' guys are so close out there that really all it takes is a little bit too either be in the show or to be heading home."

Waltrip knew that after his lap and had to anxiously watch the rest of the qualifying session to see his fate.

Waltrip is going home for the eighth consecutive race even though his speed was faster than 23 of the cars that did make it in.

He was also hurt when teammate Dale Jarrett needed a provisional -- his sixth, and final for the season -- to make the race.

Waltrip is lobbying for new qualifying procedures that would have all the drivers not locked into the field qualify at the same time to ensure equal track conditions. But with NASCAR unlikely to make any changes, Waltrip left frustrated -- again.

"I'm happy with my team ... and we ran the best lap that we've run all weekend," he said. "But the frustrating part of all this is that there is not a NAPA car on the race track Sunday afternoon and that's what they pay us to do. On every level it's frustrating."

Another good day for Gordon

Gordon won the pole with a lap of 192.069 mph -- the same speed as David Gilliland. The tie was broken by where both teams are in the points standings. Gordon is the series leader.

Denny Hamlin starts third with Sterling Marlin and Ricky Rudd, Gilliland's teammate, completing the top five.

Big problems

Both Hamlin and Jeff Gordon are among those concerned entering today's race about a multi-car crash.

Hamlin said a repaved track and the current restrictor plate bunch the pack so tight that it creates numerous problems. Hamlin says he has a hard time seeing where on the track he is when he's surrounded by cars.

"It's hard for you to really judge are you holding your line or not,'' Hamlin said. "When you're running in a straight line and you've got a car right dead in front of you and one both diagonally, you can't see the racing surface.''

Gordon asked what kind of race this will be said: "It's going to be wild. There's no doubt about it.

"When you have a car that is comfortable, it allows everybody to push the limits that much harder. It's not a matter of if, it's when. When is that wreck going to happen? That to me is the unknown.''

Pit stops

NASCAR decided not to change the size of the restrictor plate for the Cup cars after speeds exceeded 198 mph in practice. Speeds dropped enough to make Cup officials more comfortable with the speeds.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.