Rain gives Johnson Talladega pole
Jimmie Johnson will start Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from pole position after rain forced qualifying to be cancelled at Talladega Superspeedway
The points leader will start from the front of the field for the third time during the Chase, as NASCAR rules state that the grid is set according to the owner point standing when there is no qualifying session.
Johnson's #48 car leads that ranking, which largely resembles the order in the championship.
"It'll give us a chance to try to get five extra points for leading a lap," said Johnson of his fourth pole of the 2009 season.
"The safest place to race here is leading. If I'm able to stay up front and race around there for a few laps it would be great, but there's so much that you can't anticipate here. We'll chose that first stall down pitroad and hopefully we can use that to our advantage in the race."
Veteran Mark Martin will start beside Johnson, although he said at a track like Talladega the starting order is almost meaningless. However he is optimistic about his chances heading into Sunday's event.
"It doesn't really matter, but I'm thrilled to be in the front row," said Martin. "It's the kind of honour that you enjoy when you've accumulated the kind of success that we've had together.
"I'm proud that what we've accomplished put us on the front row. But it doesn't really matter where you start here. My car was average yesterday in practice and part of that was my fault, but I just feel like this is going to be our lucky day tomorrow."
Jeff Gordon will see the green flag wave from the inside of the second row of the grid beside Tony Stewart. He said his team was expecting rain to hamper qualifying, so his focus during practice was solely on testing in the draft.
"The last few times here it hasn't gone our way," said Gordon, a six-time winner at Talladega who has finished 37th and 38th on his last two outings at the venue.
"I feel like the car was great yesterday. We were anticipating rain today, so we didn't make any qualifying runs. I'm happy because we wouldn't even be close to third (on the grid), so this is positive for us and let's see how it goes from there."
No cars were left out of the field, although Tony Raines had practiced on Friday but withdrew from the event.
Pos Driver Car 1. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 2. Mark Martin Chevrolet 3. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 4. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 5. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 6. Kurt Busch Dodge 7. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 8. Greg Biffle Ford 9. Denny Hamlin Toyota 10. Carl Edwards Ford 11. Kasey Kahne Dodge 12. Brian Vickers Toyota 13. Kyle Busch Toyota 14. Matt Kenseth Ford 15. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 16. David Reutimann Toyota 17. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 18. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 19. Casey Mears Chevrolet 20. Joey Logano Toyota 21. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 22. Jamie McMurray Ford 23. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 24. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 25. AJ Allmendinger Dodge 26. Elliott Sadler Ford 27. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 28. David Ragan Ford 29. Reed Sorenson Dodge 30. David Stremme Dodge 31. Erik Darnell Ford 32. Paul Menard Ford 33. Michael Waltrip Toyota 34. Robby Gordon Toyota 35. John Andretti Chevrolet 36. Scott Speed Toyota 37. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 38. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 39. Joe Nemechek Toyota 40. Dave Blaney Toyota 41. Robert Richardson Jr Toyota 42. Max Papis Toyota 43. Regan Smith Chevrolet
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