Johnson claims Charlotte pole

In a delayed qualifying session after rain hampered on-track activities all day, Johnson backed up his impressive pace from earlier in practice with a lap of 28.070 seconds at an average speed of 192.486 mph, the fastest-ever qualifying average for the current specification of Sprint Cup machines.

Cool temperatures had a lot to do with the speed set by Johnson on his qualifying run, but the Hendrick driver looked dominant once again at a track where he has won five times already in the past.

"What a lap," said Johnson. "The speeds that we're running around here in this car are pretty amazing. It was just a great lap. We were great off the truck and were able to fine-tune a little bit and lay down another good one in qualifying."

This weekend's event will mark the first half of the series' playoff, which the reigning champion leads by 12 points over his Hendrick team-mate Mark Martin, who got closest to his time and will start beside him on the front row of the grid.

"It was so much fun to drive that car today, even though I only ran four laps [in practice]," said Martin. "They were four great laps. I knew I needed to step up my game from practice and I did but it wasn't enough. I wanted to make sure I made it back [to the pits], so at least I made it back."

Kasey Kahne had set provisional pole right before Johnson completed his run, but ended up beaten by the Hendrick duo and will start from the second row of the grid beside Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth.

Behind them the Stewart Haas pairing of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman will line up fifth and sixth ahead of Mike Bliss, the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers at the wheel of the #71 TRG Chevrolet.

Brad Keselowski will start eighth on his final outing of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, while Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-ten.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 18th with his car repaired after he got into the back of Jeff Burton's during practice. However it was Brian Vickers who qualified the furthest down the field among the Chase contenders.

David Gilliland qualified 14th on his first outing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the #02 car, while Dave Blaney and Travis Kvapil failed to make the field for Saturday's 500-mile event. Sterling Marlin was hampered by an engine failure during practice and failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   192.376   28.070
 2.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   191.816   28.152 + 0.082
 3.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       191.056   28.264 + 0.194
 4.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        190.550   28.339 + 0.269
 5.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   190.469   28.351 + 0.281
 6.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet   190.416   28.359 + 0.289
 7.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet   190.409   28.360 + 0.290
 8.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet   190.362   28.367 + 0.297
 9.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   190.248   28.384 + 0.314
10.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      190.248   28.384 + 0.314
11.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   190.221   28.388 + 0.318
12.  Joey Logano         Toyota      190.027   28.417 + 0.347
13.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota      189.980   28.424 + 0.354
14.  David Gilliland     Toyota      189.727   28.462 + 0.392
15.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       189.673   28.470 + 0.400
16.  Scott Speed         Toyota      189.607   28.480 + 0.410
17.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      189.567   28.486 + 0.416
18.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet   189.467   28.501 + 0.431
19.  Robby Gordon        Toyota      189.215   28.539 + 0.469
20.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        189.168   28.546 + 0.476
21.  David Reutimann     Toyota      189.129   28.552 + 0.482
22.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       189.096   28.557 + 0.487
23.  Greg Biffle         Ford        188.917   28.584 + 0.514
24.  Bobby Labonte       Ford        188.739   28.611 + 0.541
25.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   188.679   28.620 + 0.550
26.  A.J. Allmendinger   Dodge       188.646   28.625 + 0.555
27.  David Stremme       Dodge       188.574   28.636 + 0.566
28.  Carl Edwards        Ford        188.554   28.639 + 0.569
29.  David Ragan         Ford        188.488   28.649 + 0.579
30.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      188.206   28.692 + 0.622
31.  Paul Menard         Ford        188.180   28.696 + 0.626
32.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   188.029   28.719 + 0.649
33.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      187.983   28.726 + 0.656
34.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   187.885   28.741 + 0.671
35.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota      187.780   28.757 + 0.687
36.  Bill Elliott        Ford        187.669   28.774 + 0.704
37.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       187.533   28.795 + 0.725
38.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       187.376   28.819 + 0.749
39.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   187.117   28.859 + 0.789
40.  Max Papis           Toyota      186.896   28.893 + 0.823
41.  John Andretti       Chevrolet   185.707   29.078 + 1.008
42.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   184.773   29.225 + 1.155
43.  Terry Labonte       Toyota      Champion's Provisional