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Jimmie Johnson's hopes for a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title moved a step forward when he won the pole in Martinsville on Friday.
Posting a lap of 97.598 mph, Johnson's Chevrolet was marginally faster than Brian Vickers' Toyota at 97.553 at the .526-mile track known as the paper clip for its' unusual shape.
Chase points leader, Brad Keselowski, struggled qualifying 32nd.
It was Johnson's second pole at Martinsville, 28th in his career and third of the year. The most important thing in the five-time champion's mind was pit stall selection on one of NASCAR's shortest tracks.
“Once it was over I mean I know how important pit road pick is and I wanted that first stall,” said Johnson. “After qualifying as poorly as I did here in the spring (22nd), I was focused on these two laps pretty heavily and wanted to make sure I did my job.”
Worse for Keselowski is Johnson's success at the short track including six wins in 21 races including a win from the pole in 2008.
Keselowski, who came to Martinsville with a seven point lead over Johnson, has never won at the track in five attempts. His best finish, ninth, came this spring.
Yet the young driver is cautiously optimistic that he'll have a good finish and stave off his rivals and retain the lead. “I thought last weekend was harder to pass than this weekend will be, to be honest,” Keselowski said.
“And that's not to say it's going to be easy here at Martinsville but there is quite a few more variables that I think work to your favour with strategies and so forth.I feel confident that it'll work its way out here. Obviously it's a very, very long race with 500 laps around here. There are a lot of tools in our tool chest to help us recover from that.”
Vickers, a part-time driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, announced a contract extension with the team for 2013.
Rounding out the top qualifiers, Kyle Busch was third, followed by Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin (who is third in the points, 20 behind Keselowski). Other Chase drivers included last week's winner Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Clint Bowyer in sixth through eighth spots, respectively.
Qualifying was also noticeable for the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. - who missed the previous two races due to a concussion sustained at test in Detroit, but not disclosed until after the Talladega race.
Earnhardt qualified 20th while Mike Bliss and J.J. Yeley failed to qualify on speed.
Posting a lap of 97.598 mph, Johnson's Chevrolet was marginally faster than Brian Vickers' Toyota at 97.553 at the .526-mile track known as the paper clip for its' unusual shape.
Chase points leader, Brad Keselowski, struggled qualifying 32nd.
It was Johnson's second pole at Martinsville, 28th in his career and third of the year. The most important thing in the five-time champion's mind was pit stall selection on one of NASCAR's shortest tracks.
“Once it was over I mean I know how important pit road pick is and I wanted that first stall,” said Johnson. “After qualifying as poorly as I did here in the spring (22nd), I was focused on these two laps pretty heavily and wanted to make sure I did my job.”
Worse for Keselowski is Johnson's success at the short track including six wins in 21 races including a win from the pole in 2008.
Keselowski, who came to Martinsville with a seven point lead over Johnson, has never won at the track in five attempts. His best finish, ninth, came this spring.
Yet the young driver is cautiously optimistic that he'll have a good finish and stave off his rivals and retain the lead. “I thought last weekend was harder to pass than this weekend will be, to be honest,” Keselowski said.
“And that's not to say it's going to be easy here at Martinsville but there is quite a few more variables that I think work to your favour with strategies and so forth.I feel confident that it'll work its way out here. Obviously it's a very, very long race with 500 laps around here. There are a lot of tools in our tool chest to help us recover from that.”
Vickers, a part-time driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, announced a contract extension with the team for 2013.
Rounding out the top qualifiers, Kyle Busch was third, followed by Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin (who is third in the points, 20 behind Keselowski). Other Chase drivers included last week's winner Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Clint Bowyer in sixth through eighth spots, respectively.
Qualifying was also noticeable for the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. - who missed the previous two races due to a concussion sustained at test in Detroit, but not disclosed until after the Talladega race.
Earnhardt qualified 20th while Mike Bliss and J.J. Yeley failed to qualify on speed.