Johnson takes pole position at Bristol
Date published : 21 Aug 2010 - 02:53:58
Jimmie Johnson claimed his first pole position of the season in qualifying for Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol.The reigning champion ran a lap time of 15.540 seconds at an average speed of 123.475 mph, knocking Carl Edwards off the top of the charts to win his first-ever pole at the half-mile track.The Hendrick Motorsports driver ran a low line on the banking, while Edwards ran a very high one that had seemed to be the way to go during practice. However, Johnson had run the low line for most of his practice laps.Johnson's pole, despite being his first of the season, places him on the front row for the sixth time in the last nine races, a statistic unmatched by his rivals as the season gets closer to the championship play-off."We've been able to qualify well lately, we've just had a little trouble on the longer run on the fast tracks and we recognise that," said Johnson. "I think we have some good changes in store for our cars in those tracks but today the car has been awesome all day."Once [crew chief Chad] Knaus and I find out where we need to work on a given racetrack we seem to do pretty well at it."I was turning right the majority of the corner and really couldn't commit to the throttle, but I guess they say 'loose is fast!'"Edwards continued to show improvement for Roush Fenway Racing with his front-row starting position at a track where he has won twice in the past four years. Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano and Stewart Haas's Tony Stewart will start from the second row of the grid after being on provisional pole.Meanwhile Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann was fifth despite food poisoning sidelining him during the first session of the day, where Aric Almirola took over his car to complete the bulk of the team's running.Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon spun on his warm-up lap but got a second chance to complete his qualifying run and ended up 26th fastest."That was a lot more excitement than I was looking for," said Gordon about his incident. "Just took off, I could feel the track and tyres had good grip, got down into [Turn] 3 and the car just rotated way better than I thought it was going to and around it came."Very fortunate that I didn't damage the car any worse and didn't cross the start-finish line."Phoenix Racing's Bobby Labonte was the highest qualifier of the non-guaranteed drivers in 30th place, right ahead of series returnee Jeff Green, who drove the #26 Ford for Latitude 43 Motorsports.Casey Mears just made it into the field in the final spot, taking over from Max Papis in the #13 Germain Racing Toyota, which he is set to drive for the rest of the season.Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, Kevin Lepage, JJ Yeley, Brian Keselowski and Mike Bliss all failed to qualify for Saturday's 500-lap event.Pos Driver Car Speed Time Gap 1. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 123.475 15.540s 2. Carl Edwards Ford 122.937 15.608s + 0.068s 3. Joey Logano Toyota 122.764 15.630s + 0.090s 4. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 122.584 15.653s + 0.113s 5. David Reutimann Toyota 122.497 15.664s + 0.124s 6. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 122.372 15.680s + 0.140s 7. Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 122.287 15.691s + 0.151s 8. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 122.248 15.696s + 0.156s 9. Martin Truex Jr Toyota 122.178 15.705s + 0.165s10. AJ Allmendinger Ford 122.154 15.708s + 0.168s11. Kasey Kahne Ford 122.131 15.711s + 0.171s12. Paul Menard Ford 122.131 15.711s + 0.171s13. Mark Martin Chevrolet 122.022 15.725s + 0.185s14. Matt Kenseth Ford 121.999 15.728s + 0.188s15. Brad Keselowski Dodge 121.999 15.728s + 0.188s16. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 121.968 15.732s + 0.192s17. Denny Hamlin Toyota 121.952 15.734s + 0.194s18. Reed Sorenson Toyota 121.890 15.742s + 0.202s19. Kyle Busch Toyota 121.867 15.745s + 0.205s20. Kurt Busch Dodge 121.813 15.752s + 0.212s21. Greg Biffle Ford 121.790 15.755s + 0.215s22. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 121.651 15.773s + 0.233s23. Scott Speed Toyota 121.512 15.791s + 0.251s24. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 121.474 15.796s + 0.256s25. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 121.466 15.797s + 0.257s26. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 121.420 15.803s + 0.263s27. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 121.382 15.808s + 0.268s28. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 121.290 15.820s + 0.280s29. Regan Smith Chevrolet 121.274 15.822s + 0.282s30. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 121.113 15.843s + 0.303s31. Jeff Green Ford 120.999 15.858s + 0.318s32. Scott Riggs Toyota 120.953 15.864s + 0.324s33. Travis Kvapil Ford 120.915 15.869s + 0.329s34. David Gilliland Ford 120.915 15.869s + 0.329s35. Michael McDowell Toyota 120.915 15.869s + 0.329s36. Todd Bodine Toyota 120.816 15.882s + 0.342s37. Robby Gordon Toyota 120.763 15.889s + 0.349s38. David Ragan Ford 120.710 15.896s + 0.356s39. Tony Raines Ford 119.678 16.033s + 0.493s40. Kevin Conway Toyota 119.589 16.045s + 0.505s41. Elliott Sadler Ford 119.395 16.071s + 0.531s42. Landon Cassill Chevrolet 119.388 16.072s + 0.532s43. Casey Mears Toyota 120.664 15.902s + 0.362s
