Johnson takes pole at Dover

The reigning champion, who had a troubled start to the championship play-off last week at Loudon, bounced back to win his second pole of the season, making the most of his late qualifying draw.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver was the 34th car in the order and after working hard on his qualifying set-up during the morning practice, he was able to just edge Richard Petty's Allmendinger, who had set the previous benchmark.

A year ago Johnson went on to dominate at the track known as the 'Monster Mile' after starting from pole, a feat he hopes to be able to accomplish for the second season in a row to give a much needed boost to his points tally.

"There are still nine races left and no time to panic," Johnson said. "We don't need to change what we're doing, we know we're a great race team and we've just got to go race for this thing. [In] this year's Chase every guy in is ready to race and we know that we are and now is time to get to work."

Allmendinger will share the front row of the grid with Johnson, while Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr will line up behind them, ahead of Chase leader Denny Hamlin, the only other title contender among the top five in the order.

Juan Pablo Montoya was sixth, stretching his unmatched sequence of top 10 starts to 10 events, while Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch also claimed top 10 starting spots for Sunday's race.

Following a day of controversy surrounding the penalties imposed on Clint Bowyer, the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets struggled in qualifying, all finishing the session 25th or worse, with Kevin Harvick all the way down in 34th as the worst of the Chase contenders.

Casey Mears was the best of the non-guaranteed drivers in 27th, driving the #13 Germain Racing Toyota, while Jeff Green, Josh Wise and Ted Musgrave failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  155.736  23.116s
 2.  AJ Allmendinger     Ford       155.642  23.130s  + 0.014s
 3.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  155.561  23.142s  + 0.026s
 4.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     155.353  23.173s  + 0.057s
 5.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     155.320  23.178s  + 0.062s
 6.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Chevrolet  155.052  23.218s  + 0.102s
 7.  Greg Biffle         Ford       155.032  23.221s  + 0.105s
 8.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  155.032  23.221s  + 0.105s
 9.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      154.825  23.252s  + 0.136s
10.  Paul Menard         Ford       154.766  23.261s  + 0.145s
11.  Carl Edwards        Ford       154.699  23.271s  + 0.155s
12.  Reed Sorenson       Toyota     154.619  23.283s  + 0.167s
13.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     154.619  23.283s  + 0.167s
14.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  154.593  23.287s  + 0.171s
15.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       154.533  23.296s  + 0.180s
16.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  154.520  23.298s  + 0.182s
17.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       154.414  23.314s  + 0.198s
18.  David Reutimann     Toyota     154.367  23.321s  + 0.205s
19.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  154.348  23.324s  + 0.208s
20.  Joey Logano         Toyota     154.228  23.342s  + 0.226s
21.  Scott Speed         Toyota     154.123  23.358s  + 0.242s
22.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      154.083  23.364s  + 0.248s
23.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       154.037  23.371s  + 0.255s
24.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     154.017  23.374s  + 0.258s
25.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  153.997  23.377s  + 0.261s
26.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  153.741  23.416s  + 0.300s
27.  Casey Mears         Toyota     153.721  23.419s  + 0.303s
28.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  153.682  23.425s  + 0.309s
29.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     153.662  23.428s  + 0.312s
30.  David Ragan         Ford       153.656  23.429s  + 0.313s
31.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       153.322  23.480s  + 0.364s
32.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      153.302  23.483s  + 0.367s
33.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  153.211  23.497s  + 0.381s
34.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  153.048  23.522s  + 0.406s
35.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  152.990  23.531s  + 0.415s
36.  David Gilliland     Ford       152.957  23.536s  + 0.420s
37.  JJ Yeley            Dodge      152.944  23.538s  + 0.422s
38.  Dave Blaney         Chevrolet  152.562  23.597s  + 0.481s
39.  Mike Bliss          Toyota     152.433  23.617s  + 0.501s
40.  Landon Cassill      Chevrolet  152.355  23.629s  + 0.513s
41.  Michael McDowell    Dodge      151.796  23.716s  + 0.600s
42.  Jeff Green          Ford       151.675  23.735s  + 0.619s
43.  Josh Wise           Toyota     150.546  23.913s  + 0.797s
44.  Kevin Conway        Toyota     150.301  23.952s  + 0.836s
45.  Tony Raines         Ford       149.701  24.048s  + 0.932s
46.  Ted Musgrave        Toyota     149.483  24.083s  + 0.967s