Johnson on pole as rain hits again

NASCAR officials rescheduled practice in the afternoon as the prevailing rain prevented it from starting on time, but after only a handful of minutes a slight drizzle forced the red flag to wave, bringing the session to a halt.

Johnson completed just a couple of practice laps in the few minutes of running, while Ryan Newman set a blistering pace on his only lap of the session, running nearly fourth tenths of a second clear of second-placed Greg Biffle.

So for the fifth time thanks to the rain, the reigning champion gets the best pit stall selection for Sunday's race, giving him another boost in his quest to claim a third consecutive title.

"You can't say that NASCAR didn't try today to get everything in," Johnson said. "They spent a lot of time working on the race track today. I guess this evening, moisture as it came in, threw everything for a loop.

"The two laps that I made, there was so much water on the windshield. It wasn't raining, I'm still not sure that it's raining yet. But it was just so thick out there that we had to stop and come in."

Biffle will start alongside Johnson on the front row, and hopes to get a good start to put his car in the lead come the first lap on Sunday.

Although he accepts that last week he was happy to have qualifying cancelled at Martinsville, where he hasn't excelled in the past, he says this time Johnson will have an edge on him thanks to his pit stall selection for the race.

"I think it's pretty obvious that last week it was probably to my benefit at Martinsville with qualifying being rained out and getting to start up front," Biffle said. "This week, six in one, half-dozen the other.

"The thing that probably hurts us the most, if it does make a difference, is the 48 (Johnson) has got the first pit box again, but, other than that, who is to say that he wouldn't have qualified there and who is to say we wouldn't have made a little mistake qualifying, but I just don't think it really matters. It makes it sort of boring."

The starting order will once again mirror almost exactly the status of the car owner standings.

Meanwhile two drivers will have to head back home without a shot at qualifying. Joey Logano will miss a race due to rain for the second time this season, while Ganassi's Bryan Clauson will have to wait again for his Sprint Cup debut.

Pos  Driver             Car
 1.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet
 2.  Greg Biffle        Ford
 3.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet
 4.  Carl Edwards       Ford
 5.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet
 6.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet
 7.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet
 8.  Tony Stewart       Toyota
 9.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet
10.  Matt Kenseth       Ford
11.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota
12.  Kyle Busch         Toyota
13.  David Ragan        Ford
14.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet
15.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge
16.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet
17.  Ryan Newman        Dodge
18.  Brian Vickers      Toyota
19.  Kurt Busch         Dodge
20.  Jamie McMurray     Ford
21.  Bobby Labonte      Dodge
22.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet
23.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge
24.  Juan Montoya       Dodge
25.  Travis Kvapil      Ford
26.  David Reutimann    Toyota
27.  Paul Menard        Chevrolet
28.  David Gilliland    Ford
29.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota
30.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge
31.  Scott Riggs        Chevrolet
32.  Regan Smith        Chevrolet
33.  Dave Blaney        Toyota
34.  Scott Speed        Toyota
35.  Robby Gordon       Dodge
36.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge
37.  Bill Elliott       Ford
38.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota
39.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge
40.  Ken Schrader       Toyota
41.  Chad McCumbee      Dodge
42.  Joe Nemechek       Chevrolet
43.  Tony Raines        Chevrolet

Did not qualify:

     Driver             Car
     Bryan Clauson      Dodge
     Joey Logano        Toyota