Johnson grabs Brickyard pole

He set a superb lap of 49.515 seconds at an average speed of 181.963 mph, reducing his practice times by around four tenths of a second and beating future Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin to pole by a full tenth.

"It certainly was a good laps for us," said Johnson, who dominated practice on Friday and looks the clear favourite to win for the second time at Indy, following his 2006 victory.

"We had a car that I could really be aggressive with. This track is kind of inviting and it sucked me into a few small mistakes when I was out there, but to put up a time like that, I'm just thankful for all of the hard work my guys have been doing."

While Johnson benefited from an early qualifying draw, allowing him to run on a cooler track, Martin went out when conditions were far from ideal. Still the 49-year-old was able to put his No.8 DEI Chevrolet on the front row for the third time at Indianapolis.

"I didn't expect to qualify this well with this draw," Martin said. "But I knew we would have a great race car. My team gave me a car at Phoenix and Richmond, and I felt like they would translate into these flat corners as well."

Ryan Newman, who went out second to complete his qualifying lap, finished third on the starting grid as the fastest Dodge. He will share the second row with Pocono race winner Kasey Kahne.

Four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon made it two Hendrick cars in the top-five, lapping around three tenths of a second off his teammate's benchmark. He will share the third row of the grid with Gillett-Evernham's Elliot Sadler.

Jamie McMurray was the fastest Ford in eighth, ahead of his Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

The fastest Toyota driver on a track that is supposed to reward power, was two-time Brickyard 400 winner Tony Stewart who will start 14th, right beside last year's runner up and 2000 Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya.

"It's obviously better if you can get a good starting position here, but the nice thing about Indianapolis is that the pit boxes are big and you don't have to worry about getting trapped," said Stewart.

"But track position is always really important here. If you can get up there early and stay up the rest of the day, you can get yourself in a position to win. But you have to get up there before halfway through the race."

Patrick Carpentier was the fastest rookie in 15th place, while 2007 Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr has not enjoyed a good stock car debut weekend at Indianapolis, spinning on his first lap in practice on Friday and ending up only 38th on the starting grid and far from his teammate's times.

"We felt like we should have picked up about four tenths from yesterday," Hornish said. "The car was just all bouncing around. Something is not quite right with it and really makes the car hard to steer when it's like that. We've kind of been fighting that problem the last couple weekends and trying to figure out what exactly is causing that."

Making the field on his first qualifying attempt at Indy is Australian Marcos Ambrose, who will start the race from 24th on the grid at the wheel of the No.47 Ford Fusion.

"I've never been so anxious, nervous, and apprehensive in all my life," Ambrose said. "Two laps on the race track here at the Brickyard, which is so famous and so intimidating as well, I just had to suck all that up and let her rip.

"We gained 1.1 seconds from the two laps I did yesterday to make the show, so I'm just happy for these guys. It's a big weekend for us to make this race."

Bill Elliot, Tony Raines and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify.

Pos Driver                Car           Time       Gap
 1. Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet     49.515
 2. Mark Martin           Chevrolet     49.616  +0.101
 3. Ryan Newman           Dodge         49.732  +0.217
 4. Kasey Kahne           Dodge         49.776  +0.261
 5. Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet     49.849  +0.334
 6. Elliott Sadler        Dodge         49.890  +0.375
 7. Kurt Busch            Dodge         49.905  +0.390
 8. Jamie McMurray        Ford          49.911  +0.396
 9. Carl Edwards          Ford          49.942  +0.427
10. Matt Kenseth          Ford          50.023  +0.508
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet     50.038  +0.523
12. Greg Biffle           Ford          50.067  +0.552
13. Juan-Pablo Montoya    Dodge         50.084  +0.569
14. Tony Stewart          Toyota        50.145  +0.630
15. Patrick Carpentier    Dodge         50.146  +0.631
16. David Ragan           Ford          50.261  +0.746
17. Brian Vickers         Toyota        50.303  +0.788
18. Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet     50.319  +0.804
19. Kyle Busch            Toyota        50.345  +0.830
20. David Gilliland       Ford          50.447  +0.932
21. Jason Leffler         Chevrolet     50.467  +0.952
22. Reed Sorenson         Dodge         50.511  +0.996
23. Denny Hamlin          Toyota        50.514  +0.999
24. Marcos Ambrose        Ford          50.524  +1.009
25. Martin Truex Jr       Chevrolet     50.568  +1.053
26. AJ Allmendinger       Toyota        50.581  +1.066
27. Bobby Labonte         Dodge         50.594  +1.079
28. Travis Kvapil         Ford          50.622  +1.107
29. Robby Gordon          Dodge         50.676  +1.161
30. Michael McDowell      Toyota        50.678  +1.163
31. Casey Mears           Chevrolet     50.698  +1.183
32. Jeff Burton           Chevrolet     50.724  +1.209
33. David Reutimann       Toyota        50.749  +1.234
34. Michael Waltrip       Toyota        50.770  +1.255
35. Scott Riggs           Chevrolet     50.796  +1.281
36. Joe Nemechek          Chevrolet     50.823  +1.308
37. Paul Menard           Chevrolet     50.848  +1.333
38. Sam Hornish Jr.       Dodge         50.911  +1.396
39. JJ Yeley              Toyota        50.923  +1.408
40. Terry Labonte         Dodge         51.000  +1.485
41. Bill Elliott          Ford          51.267  +1.752
42. Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet     51.471  +1.956
43. Dave Blaney           Toyota        51.728  +2.213
44. Johnny Sauter         Dodge         51.803  +2.288
45. Tony Raines           Chevrolet     51.996  +2.481
46. Stanton Barrett       Chevrolet     52.258  +2.743
47. Regan Smith           Chevrolet     no time