Johnson wins pole for Coca-Cola 600

Jimmie Johnson

Mike Mercurio/AR1.com

Jimmie Johnson’s efforts to turn his season around took a step in the right direction on Thursday as the defending six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion powered to the top of the speed charts to score his first pole of season for Sunday’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Johnson moved to the front of the grid with a lap of 27.705 seconds (194.911 mph) in the third and final session to bump Brad Keselowski from the top spot and collect his 33rd-career and his second pole in NASCAR’s longest race.

Kasey Kahne was third, followed by Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer.

Johnson’s pole-winning effort might be just what the defending series champion needs to jump-start his season, which has gotten off to the slow start with just four top-five finishes and no victories in a year on where wins are the ticket to getting into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

"It certainly shows that we are going to be strong this weekend," said Johnson. "I’m not sure that it sends a message that two or three race wins would send. That’s the position I want to get in. I’d love to rattle two or three wins and have people fear the 48 again as they have in the past. I don’t think a pole position does that in the garage area but you have to start somewhere. So if we can start here today and keep things moving forward from today, we’ll be good shape."

There was a time when Johnson couldn’t be beat on this track, winning four-straight races from ’04-’05 and posting eight consecutive top-five finishes. However in the last six races, Johnson has posted three finishes of 22nd or worse, including two DNF’s.

His season so far in 2014 hasn’t gone much better, just four top-five finishes and two finishes outside the top 20, and still winless after 12 races.

But Johnson still knows how to wheel around this track, and he has history in his side – as the last driver to win the 600 from the pole back in 2004.

"I guess statistically and if you’re looking at the odds or something, the better you qualify, it will show with a better performance on Sunday," said Johnson. "We feel good about it. There’s no guarantees with 600 miles. Anything can happen. We’re so happy to start in this position than 20th or something."

"We’ve been good and had a chance to win at a few tracks. And then at some our bad tracks, we went in there and ran terrible. I’ll be the first to admit it. I think we deserve a fair evaluation at times. We’ve been close to wins and we’ve been pathetic at other tracks. This is a good track for us. Next week is a good track for us and we need to capitalize on those opportunities and get some wins."

Johnson had been fifth following the second round of knock-out qualifying behind Patrick, who stormed to the top spot over Kyle Busch in the closing minutes of the second session.

At the start of the third session, Kahne was first to take over the pole as Patrick’s third-round lap fell short. Keselowski briefly held the pole only to find himself bumped from the top spot moments later by Johnson.

His runner-up starting spot is his best in the 600 since winning the pole here in 2011.

“I was pretty happy with our effort here in qualifying today," said Keselowski. “We were pretty miserable to begin with and it’s a credit to my guys. They kept working on it and somehow we ended up second. I’m really not sure how.

“I’m proud of that effort and really happy for my guys to see their hard work rewarded, but the main goal is to win Sunday and hopefully we can pull that off."

Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS qualified 4th Thursday

HHP/Rusty Jarrett for Chevrolet

Patrick’s fourth-place qualifying effort was the fastest ever by a female at a 1.5-mile track in NASCAR history and her career-best at a non-restrictor-plate track.

“The car was really good," said Patrick. “I think the big difference that came for me was in the second round. (Tony) Gibson (crew chief) made really good adjustments and anticipated the offset from run one to run two really well and the balance was really good.

“We have a lot to be proud of. Let’s face it this is the part of the weekend that I dreaded every time. I had to train myself to not say I hate qualifying."

Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the top ten qualifiers.

Kurt Busch, who is attempting to run both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca Cola 600 in the same day, qualified 28th. He will have to start in the rear of the field in any case due to having to miss the mandatory drivers meeting prior to the 600.

Two drivers failed to qualify for Sunday’s race: J.J. Yeley and Dave Blaney.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER

COMING INTO CHARLOTTE AND SITTING ON THE POLE, THINGS ARE LINING UP FOR YOU.

“It’s nice to have a fast car off the truck. I think we were second or third in the first practice session. We go back to last weekend and we had the fastest lap in All-Star qualifying. It was a decent car in the race; struggled a little bit in traffic. As we get into practice on Saturday, that’s really going to be the goal for us. I think we have some good ideas to secure the car up and help the clean air balance versus the traffic balance that we’ve been working on. In qualifying today, it was really interesting to start with the sun kind of out and warmer track temps. As the sessions went on, the grip level came in and the adjustments we made got the car better and better. To have my fastest lap around here come on my third time out on the track is pretty mind-boggling the way it works out. So I’m very proud of the team. We had a strong race car all day and are obviously very happy about our performance."

YOU’RE THE ONLY DRIVER TO WIN FROM POLE HERE SINCE 1998. CAN WE INFER FROM THAT, THAT WHEN YOU QUALIFY WELL HERE THAT YOU’RE A THREAT TO WIN THE RACE? AND IS THE TRACK STARTING TO BECOME MORE LIKE IT WAS WHEN YOU DOMINATED BEFORE THE REPAVE?

“I don’t think it’s there yet. It’s definitely getting rougher and losing some grip. In the All-Star race we saw that four tires were definitely better than two. So it’s slowly coming. Whatever the composition of this asphalt is that they put down, it’s tough. It’s taken a long time to finally give up and get to this point. We’re getting into a sweet spot and I feel that in the next three to five years it will continue to evolve and get us to where we were before and provide some great racing.

“We’ve won a lot of races from the back, too. In today’s form of racing though, track position is so, so important. A good pit stall pick. I guess statistically and if you’re looking at the odds or something, the better you qualifying, it will show with a better performance on Sunday. We feel good about it. There’s no guarantees with 600 miles. Anything can happen. We’re so happy to start in this position than 20th or something."

YOU GET ASKED QUITE A BIT ABOUT NOT WINNING A RACE YET, AND YOU REPEATEDLY TALK ABOUT HOW IT DOESN’T BOTHER YOU. DO YOU GET THE IMPRESSION SOMETIMES THAT PEOPLE WANT IT TO BOTHER YOU? AND DO SOME PEOPLE GET SATISFACTION OUT OF YOU NOT BEING ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON?

“I think there are some people getting satisfaction out of it. But honestly no matter what I do, people talk about it and I don’t mean that in a bad way. If I win, then I’m winning too much. If I’m not winning, then it’s ‘Why aren’t you winning?’ So I can’t do it right either way. I learned a long time ago to not pay attention to the outside voices and influences and just worry about my race team. We’ve been good and had a chance to win at a few tracks. And then at some our bad tracks, we went in there and ran terrible. I’ll be the first to admit it. I think we deserve a fair evaluation at times. We’ve been close to wins and we’ve been pathetic at other tracks. This is a good track for us. Next week is a good track for us and we need to capitalize on those opportunities and get some wins. Again, it doesn’t matter what I do. It’s a good situation to be in because I have had so much success. But no matter what we do, I think they’ll talk about the 48."

THIS IS YOUR FIRST POLE UNDER THE NEW FORMAT. IN LIGHT OF THAT, SHOULD THE COMPETITION BE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF ON SUNDAY?

“Qualifying is on Thursday and (the race) is so far away. You’re really worrying about beating the tires up versus a fuel run when you’re out there. It certainly shows that we are going to be strong this weekend. I’m not sure that it sends a message that two or three race wins would send. That’s the position I want to get in. I’d love to rattle two or three wins and have people fear the 48 again as they have in the past. I don’t think a pole position does that in the garage area but you have to start somewhere. So if we can start here today and keep things moving forward from today, we’ll be good shape."

YOU WEREN’T VERY GOOD IN THE ALL-STAR RACE. YOU DIDN’T APPEAR TO BE FAST IN PRACTICE. YOU DIDN’T DOMINATE THE RACE LIKE YOU HAD AFTER WINNING IT THE LAST TWO YEARS. DID YOU FIND SOMETHING DIFFERENT BETWEEN THEN AND NOW, OR WAS IT JUST ONE OF THOSE WEEKENDS WHERE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN? OR HAVE YOU HAD TO RETHINK SETUPS AND SO FORTH?

“We’ve definitely come back with a different setup and leaned on our teammates. The 5 car looked real strong in the race and was able to cut through traffic real well. A lot of credit to all our teammates and probably most of all to the No. 5 car in what they did. Our fast lap that we ran in qualifying (for the All-Star Race) gave us a great reference point for today. The balance and simulation – although the setup is different – gave us a nice target to shoot for and balance to build the car around. We did learn some things last weekend that led to speed today. Maybe we learned what not to run in the race last weekend and we will be in much better shape this weekend."

WHY IS THE RACING BETTER THIS SEASON?
“It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been up front to see all that. The one race I was leading at California I thought was a pretty exciting race. You had a lot of tire issues going on. It looks like we had it in the bag and blow a tire and the No. 18 emerges from a decent day and ends up a surprise winner of sorts. I think some of that has been going on. When I think of Richmond and how the No. 22 car was able to make stuff happen in the final few laps and get from deep in the field up to the lead and win. There has been the drama late in the race and I don’t know what has created it personally and it’s hard to say and every year NASCAR works hard to tweak the rules and doing whatever they can to provide great side-by-side racing. I don’t know what it is right now, but it seems to be putting on the performance that we all are hopeful for especially late in the race. I’m sure there are still long points in the race where there is green flag runs and we are logging miles, but the finishes of these races seem to be pretty exciting."

IS THIS QUALIFYING NOT LIKE A RACE ON THE TRACK BUT MENTALLY AND STRATEGICALLY IS IT LIKE A RACE?
“There is a rhythm a lot like a race out there. You get a couple of chances at it. In the past it was real easy to go out when you would run one lap and be as brave as you could and hope it sticks and just kind of go on from there. Now you’ve got three shots at it at minimum to get the pole. In that first session you’ve got two to three shots at it depending on how you work your time and when you roll out. You do strategize a little differently. You certainly drive the car hard, but you save the real bravery until the final segment. That is kind of what happened today. Our best lap came at the end and we got the car dialed in and I went out there and hope that my grip level and that my commitment level and it worked out. It’s nice to have that where you can build into it. Especially days like today the thing that helps us a lot and we have been working hard on it at Hendrick we have watched other cars get faster through qualifying sessions. That is something the Hendrick Motorsports cars really haven’t had at a lot of the tracks. We did that tonight. We are hitting on some things that should help us run faster longer."

THE NO. 20 AND NO. 4 WERE LATE GETTING OUT AND DID NOT MAKE RUNS DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE ANYBODY THAT MONITORS THE CLOCK?
“Oh yeah we have someone on pit road. Chad (Knaus) chooses to be on top of the transporter where he can feel more calm over there and he can get a more global view of what is going on. Maybe there is something in that that is helpful. I would assume everybody is on the radio counting down. Listening to what NASCAR is saying and then relaying that information. That is shocking they didn’t make it out. I’m sure there is an interesting meeting going on right now somewhere."

IN THE FIRST SESSION YOU AND CHAD HAD SOME MISCOMMUNICATION WHAT DID YOU MAYBE FIGURE OUT BETWEEN THAT FIRST RUN AND THE LAST ONE?
“For starters Chad comes here to win. When things done go well you are not going to get a good response. We all know that after listening to him long enough on the radio. He just wanted to know what happened with the car. I felt like I tried a little too hard and was a little too aggressive and at the same time we over adjusted the car for the session. Then the second outing we went a little too far with it back the other direction and then the third session got it right. He was just eagerly trying to diagnosis what went on because he initially thought we would have to go out again that first segment which is no fun to put an extra lap on the tires and really hurts your opportunity to try to win the pole. Chad not having a filter at times and trying to understand what was going on that was some of the choice words that you heard."

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