NASCAR: Indianapolis Brickyard 400 Qualifying *SPOILER*

(from autosport)


Jimmie Johnson will lead the Sprint Cup field into Sunday's Brickyard 400 after claiming his first ever pole position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He set a superb lap of 49.515 seconds at an average speed of 181.963 mph, reducing his practice times by around four tenths of a second and beating future Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin to pole by a full tenth.

"It certainly was a good laps for us," said Johnson, who dominated practice on Friday and looks the clear favourite to win for the second time at Indy, following his 2006 victory.

"We had a car that I could really be aggressive with. This track is kind of inviting and it sucked me into a few small mistakes when I was out there, but to put up a time like that, I'm just thankful for all of the hard work my guys have been doing."

While Johnson benefited from an early qualifying draw, allowing him to run on a cooler track, Martin went out when conditions were far from ideal. Still the 49-year-old was able to put his No.8 DEI Chevrolet on the front row for the third time at Indianapolis.

"I didn't expect to qualify this well with this draw," Martin said. "But I knew we would have a great race car. My team gave me a car at Phoenix and Richmond, and I felt like they would translate into these flat corners as well."

Ryan Newman, who went out second to complete his qualifying lap, finished third on the starting grid as the fastest Dodge. He will share the second row with Pocono race winner Kasey Kahne.

Four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon made it two Hendrick cars in the top-five, lapping around three tenths of a second off his teammate's benchmark. He will share the third row of the grid with Gillett-Evernham's Elliot Sadler.

Jamie McMurray was the fastest Ford in eighth, ahead of his Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

The fastest Toyota driver on a track that is supposed to reward power, was two-time Brickyard 400 winner Tony Stewart who will start 14th, right beside last year's runner up and 2000 Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya.

"It's obviously better if you can get a good starting position here, but the nice thing about Indianapolis is that the pit boxes are big and you don't have to worry about getting trapped," said Stewart.

"But track position is always really important here. If you can get up there early and stay up the rest of the day, you can get yourself in a position to win. But you have to get up there before halfway through the race."

Patrick Carpentier was the fastest rookie in 15th place, while 2007 Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr has not enjoyed a good stock car debut weekend at Indianapolis, spinning on his first lap in practice on Friday and ending up only 38th on the starting grid and far from his teammate's times.

"We felt like we should have picked up about four tenths from yesterday," Hornish said. "The car was just all bouncing around. Something is not quite right with it and really makes the car hard to steer when it's like that. We've kind of been fighting that problem the last couple weekends and trying to figure out what exactly is causing that."

Making the field on his first qualifying attempt at Indy is Australian Marcos Ambrose, who will start the race from 24th on the grid at the wheel of the No.47 Ford Fusion.

"I've never been so anxious, nervous, and apprehensive in all my life," Ambrose said. "Two laps on the race track here at the Brickyard, which is so famous and so intimidating as well, I just had to suck all that up and let her rip.

"We gained 1.1 seconds from the two laps I did yesterday to make the show, so I'm just happy for these guys. It's a big weekend for us to make this race."

Bill Elliot, Tony Raines and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify.

Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 49.515
2. Mark Martin Chevrolet 49.616 +0.101
3. Ryan Newman Dodge 49.732 +0.217
4. Kasey Kahne Dodge 49.776 +0.261
5. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 49.849 +0.334
6. Elliott Sadler Dodge 49.890 +0.375
7. Kurt Busch Dodge 49.905 +0.390
8. Jamie McMurray Ford 49.911 +0.396
9. Carl Edwards Ford 49.942 +0.427
10. Matt Kenseth Ford 50.023 +0.508
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 50.038 +0.523
12. Greg Biffle Ford 50.067 +0.552
13. Juan-Pablo Montoya Dodge 50.084 +0.569
14. Tony Stewart Toyota 50.145 +0.630
15. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 50.146 +0.631
16. David Ragan Ford 50.261 +0.746
17. Brian Vickers Toyota 50.303 +0.788
18. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 50.319 +0.804
19. Kyle Busch Toyota 50.345 +0.830
20. David Gilliland Ford 50.447 +0.932
21. Jason Leffler Chevrolet 50.467 +0.952
22. Reed Sorenson Dodge 50.511 +0.996
23. Denny Hamlin Toyota 50.514 +0.999
24. Marcos Ambrose Ford 50.524 +1.009
25. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 50.568 +1.053
26. AJ Allmendinger Toyota 50.581 +1.066
27. Bobby Labonte Dodge 50.594 +1.079
28. Travis Kvapil Ford 50.622 +1.107
29. Robby Gordon Dodge 50.676 +1.161
30. Michael McDowell Toyota 50.678 +1.163
31. Casey Mears Chevrolet 50.698 +1.183
32. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 50.724 +1.209
33. David Reutimann Toyota 50.749 +1.234
34. Michael Waltrip Toyota 50.770 +1.255
35. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 50.796 +1.281
36. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 50.823 +1.308
37. Paul Menard Chevrolet 50.848 +1.333
38. Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 50.911 +1.396
39. JJ Yeley Toyota 50.923 +1.408
40. Terry Labonte Dodge 51.000 +1.485
41. Bill Elliott Ford 51.267 +1.752
42. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 51.471 +1.956
43. Dave Blaney Toyota 51.728 +2.213
44. Johnny Sauter Dodge 51.803 +2.288
45. Tony Raines Chevrolet 51.996 +2.481
46. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 52.258 +2.743
47. Regan Smith Chevrolet no time