Marcos Ambrose has qualified in third position for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway.

The result is the Australian’s best qualifying performance of the season to date, eclipsing his seventh place starting positions at the Daytona 500 and Texas.

“We missed the pole by two-one hundredths (of a second),” said Ambrose, who will line up on the inside of the second row alongside his Richard Petty Motorsports team mate Aric Almirola.

“We have a chance to win tomorrow. We are going to do whatever we can to stay up front all day and try to lead that last lap.”

Veteran Jeff Gordon was fastest qualifier with a lap of 191.623 mph (308.37 km/h), just ahead of AJ Allmendinger who was on top for most of the session.

This is the 71st career pole for Gordon who is third on all-time list. It’s also his first since this race last year.