Johnson claims Homestead Cup pole

Johnson set a lap of 30.545 seconds at an average speed of 176.788 mph, knocking Ryan Newman off the top spot by 38 thousandths of a second, and taking his fourth pole of the year, the 13th of his NASCAR Nextel Cup Series career.

"I am not surprised with the pole because I thought that today when we unloaded we had a good car and we had a shot at it," Johnson said.

"I felt like the conditions were changing and things were really going into Kasey Kahne's hands, and when I saw his laptime go up I was really happy.

"We had a good practice session and at the end we tried some things that didn't work, so we went back to what we had before that. I am just really happy to cross Friday off the list."

The reigning champion could edge even closer to the championship just by leading the first lap of the race, which would give him five extra points. If he manages to do so, he would need to finish no worse than 19th to clinch the title.

Jeff Gordon has been the king of Friday this year, taking seven pole positions during the season, but this time he could only manage an 11th place starting position for Sunday's race, where he says he will drive free of any pressure that will be on Johnson's shoulders instead.

"I don't think we can lose second so for us it's just going out there and running hard, running our race with nothing to lose and everything to gain," said Gordon.

"But for those guys that have everything to lose, you've got to be careful because you can be too aggressive trying to go for five-in-a-row and make a mistake or you can be too cautious and make a mistake."

Kasey Kahne, who had been fastest in practice will start from the second row of the grid beside Matt Kenseth and ahead of Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and Roush Fenway rookie David Ragan.

"The No. 48 team is tough to beat no matter what time of the week it is," Kahne said. "I'm happy to start the race from the top five to try to end the season strong. We've had an up and down year and it would be good to end with some momentum and have a good off-season."

Patrick Carpentier and Sam Hornish Jr made the field for the second consecutive weekend, having both made their oval Cup debut last weekend at Phoenix. Carpentier qualified 28th, one place ahead of Sam Hornish Jr and five in front of former open-wheel rival Juan Pablo Montoya.

"It was good. I've got to say we have good power," said Carpentier. "The car was good. We just had too much push in turns three and four. At first I thought that it was not even close, but it was not too bad... I'm pretty happy."

AJ Allmendinger will miss the season finale after being bumped from the field by his teammate Brian Vickers, who was the highest-qualified Toyota, although not the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers as Sterling Marlin outqualified him.

John Andretti, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip and Todd Bodine failed to make the field, as did Burney Lamar who crashed on his qualifying run.

Pos  Driver             Car        Speed    Time
 1.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  176.788  30.545
 2.  Ryan Newman        Dodge      176.569  30.583  + 0.038
 3.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      176.350  30.621  + 0.076
 4.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       176.074  30.669  + 0.124
 5.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      175.942  30.692  + 0.147
 6.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  175.850  30.708  + 0.163
 7.  David Ragan        Ford       175.850  30.708  + 0.163
 8.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  175.707  30.733  + 0.188
 9.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  175.661  30.741  + 0.196
10.  Carl Edwards       Ford       175.370  30.792  + 0.247
11.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  175.171  30.827  + 0.282
12.  David Gilliland    Ford       175.148  30.831  + 0.286
13.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  175.029  30.852  + 0.307
14.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  174.995  30.858  + 0.313
15.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  174.803  30.892  + 0.347
16.  Sterling Marlin    Chevrolet  174.786  30.895  + 0.350
17.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     174.774  30.897  + 0.352
18.  Kyle Busch         Chevrolet  174.582  30.931  + 0.386
19.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  174.565  30.934  + 0.389
20.  Johnny Benson      Toyota     174.560  30.935  + 0.390
21.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  174.554  30.936  + 0.391
22.  Johnny Sauter      Chevrolet  174.531  30.940  + 0.395
23.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     174.503  30.945  + 0.400
24.  J.J. Yeley         Chevrolet  174.368  30.969  + 0.424
25.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       174.340  30.974  + 0.429
26.  Dale Jarrett       Toyota     174.340  30.974  + 0.429
27.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      174.193  31.000  + 0.455
28.  Patrick Carpentier Dodge      174.098  31.017  + 0.472
29.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      174.076  31.021  + 0.476
30.  David Stremme      Dodge      174.048  31.026  + 0.481
31.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      174.020  31.031  + 0.486
32.  Denny Hamlin       Chevrolet  173.986  31.037  + 0.492
33.  Juan Montoya       Dodge      173.829  31.065  + 0.520
34.  Jeremy Mayfield    Chevrolet  173.818  31.067  + 0.522
35.  David Reutimann    Toyota     173.773  31.075  + 0.530
36.  Bobby Labonte      Dodge      173.762  31.077  + 0.532
37.  Greg Biffle        Ford       173.661  31.095  + 0.550
38.  Ricky Rudd         Ford       172.889  31.234  + 0.689
39.  Paul Menard        Chevrolet  172.800  31.250  + 0.705
40.  Kyle Petty         Dodge      172.331  31.335  + 0.790
41.  Robby Gordon       Ford       172.243  31.351  + 0.806
42.  Tony Raines        Chevrolet  151.732  35.589  + 5.044
43.  Bill Elliott       Ford       Champion's Provisional