Rain at Bristol puts Johnson on pole

The starting order has been determined based on the final 2007 owner standings, which is used for the final time this year before the current points are implemented to determine qualifying status for the next event at Martinsville.

Johnson will thus start from pole position for the third time this season, with his teammate Jeff Gordon alongside him. Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth will take the green flag from the second row of the grid, while Casey Mears will round up the top five.

The reigning Nextel Cup champion said his approach to morning practice changed based on the weather forecasts, putting more emphasis in race set up than on qualifying trim. He finished 28th in that session, which was brought to a halt after an hour due to rain.

"We were going to start in qualifying trim but it looked like qualifying was going to be rained out," Johnson said. "So we opted to switch over to race practice and just sacrifice the speed that we would be looking for in qualifying, ensuring that we're going to have a good race set up."

Points' leader Kyle Busch, who won at Bristol last year in the debut of the current specification of Cup car, will only start 22nd because that's the position where his No. 18 car finished in the owner points last year, driven by former Joe Gibbs Racing racer JJ Yeley.

Dario Franchitti will see the green flag wave for his Bristol debut from 26th on the grid. The Scot had a tough practice session in the morning in which he was the slowest of the 46 cars on track.

To make matter worse for him, the morning Nationwide series practice was cancelled, meaning he has had limited track time on his first visit to the half-mile oval. Franchitti needs a good result this weekend if he is to remain in the top 35 in the owner standings. Otherwise he will have to qualify on speed for the next race.

Kurt Busch will start from 36th, based on his status as 2007 race winner, followed by Dale Jarrett, who makes his final Cup points start on Sunday thanks to being a former champion.

Brian Vickers, David Reutimann - who ended up fastest in the shortened morning practice - Michael Waltrip, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemechek and Mike Skinner were the drivers not in the top 35 in the 2007 owner points who made the field for Sunday based on their number of qualifying attempts and current owner standing.

Jeff Green, who was filling in for Bill Elliot in the Wood Brothers car did not make the field. Neither did John Andretti and Patrick Carpentier, who will both have to continue to qualify on speed for the coming races.