Jimmie Johnson wins pole for NASCAR All-Star race

Jimmie Johnson

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Jimmie Johnson claimed the top spot for Saturday night’s 25th running of the NASCAR Sprint All Star race, notching his first career pole in eight starts in the winner-take-all event.

Friday’s unique qualifying session had each driver run three laps and a four-tire pit stop. Johnson and his Lowe’s Home Improvement crew posted a top lap of 121.416 seconds, including a 14.1 second pit stop to knock Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the top spot.

Johnson, a perennial winner at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, will be looking for his third win in the all star event, and his eighth win overall at the 1.5-mile facility.

“Tonight's a lot about bragging rights," said Johnson. “And I think with track position as important as it's going to be in the race, to be where we are is a great situation and we focused on it hard today and everybody did their job.

“I'm real proud of the team. We worked as a unit today and executed on all fronts. I'm very pleased with that and I look forward to it."

Kurt Busch secured the second position with a total time of 122.187 seconds including a 13.1 second pit stop. Matt Kenseth will start third, followed by Earnhardt, Jr. and Mark Martin.

“The crew takes a lot of pride in having good pit stops on these kind of days and on race days, so it was pretty solid," said Kenseth. “They’ve obviously won a couple of races for us and have had us in contention to win. We’ve been a little more inconsistent than we’d like, but they’ve been working really hard on it and our cars have been getting better and the pit stops are getting better, so I feel good about that."

Several drivers posted laps times fast enough to start in the top five but fell victim to penalties on pit road.

Kyle Busch had the second position locked up until a five-second penalty for a loose lug nut knocked him to 13th, while Carl Edwards was hit with a 15 second penalty for having three loose lug nuts. Jeff Burton – whose crew won Thursday nights Pit Crew Challenge – and Clint Bowyer were both penalized for speeding on pit road.

Tony Stewart also suffered a miscue on pit road when he left his pit stall after only a two-tire stop. Stewart stopped and backed up back into his stall for his crew to complete the stop.

Denny Hamlin was the only driver not to complete his qualifying attempt after breaking a drive shaft leaving his pit stall.

The 18 starters in tomorrow night’s race will be joined by the two top finishers in the 40-lap Sprint Showdown which will be run prior to the all star race. An additional driver from the Sprint Showdown will advance to the all star race via the Sprint Fan Vote.

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