Jimmie Johnson wins pole in California

Jimmie Johnson

With ticket sales soft, hometown hero Jimmie Johnson once again won the pole position at California Speedway for the Pepsi 500. The only driver to turn a lap at Auto Club Speedway in less than 40 seconds Friday afternoon, Jimmie Johnson survived a strong challenge from A.J. Allmendinger to win the pole for Sunday's Pepsi 500 Sprint Cup race.

The 18th driver to attempt qualifying at the two-mile track, Johnson posted a speed of 180.397 mph, but his position at the head of the field wasn't secure until Allmendinger (179.659 mph), the last of 44 drivers on the track, fell short of Johnson's time by .16 seconds.

Jeff Gordon (179.565 mph) will start third, followed by Kasey Kahne (179.158 mph) and rookie Patrick Carpentier (178.860 mph). Elliott Sadler (178.492 mph) will start sixth as the Dodges of Gillett Evernham Motorsports grabbed positions four through six on the grid.

"All in all, I'm just extremely pleased with the lap and the progress we made throughout the day to make the car faster," said Johnson, the defending race winner and two-time defending Cup champion. "We're happy to start up front. I just hope we can take advantage of that."

Gordon was 21st fastest in Friday's practice session, but his crew gave him a setup more to his liking for the qualifying run.

"I'm shocked, and I'm ecstatic right now," Gordon said. "I missed [Turns] 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 were awesome. That was a great, great lap for us."

Carpentier, whose status with GEM for next season remains uncertain — particularly after the addition of Reed Sorenson was announced this week — posted his best qualifying run since winning the pole at New Hampshire in June.

His fifth-place effort came a week after failing to make the race at Bristol, a situation Carpentier attributed to imprudent use of practice time.

"I was discussing the changes [to the car] from this morning with the guys," Carpentier said. "It was a little bit too loose, and last week, we got so loose in qualifying, and it was my fault — it was both our faults.

"We stopped too early in practice. This time, I tell you, we used it all the way to the end. It was good. We made the perfect changes."

Lineup