Johnson will be Sunday’s pole sitter

Ryan Newman’s time was
disallowed because of roof height.

SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Midway through Friday’s qualifying session at Kansas Speedway, Jimmie Johnson ripped off a lap of 175.063 mph and withstood challenges from Ryan Newman (174.893 mph) and Matt Kenseth (174.284 mph) to win the pole for Sunday’s Lifelock 400, the third race in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Newman, however, didn’t hold his front-row spot for long. His time was disallowed after the roof height of his No. 12 Dodge was found to be too low. Accordingly, Newman, who is guaranteed a spot in the race because of his top-35 status in owner points, will start from the rear of the field on a provisional.

Kenseth moved up

Johnson toured the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway in 30.846 seconds, fast enough to edge Newman for the top starting spot by .03 seconds. Because of Newman’s demotion, Kenseth moves up to the outside of the front row. Scott Riggs (173.963 mph) will start third Sunday, followed by Jeff Gordon (173.695 mph) and Denny Hamlin (173.684 mph).

It was the second straight pole for Johnson, his third this year and the 12th of his Cup career. Interestingly, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet grabbed the top spot with a lap he didn’t think was exceptional.

“I really wasn’t very happy with the lap, to be honest,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think I’d run that fast, and when I heard the time, I didn’t think it would stand up. I thought I was going to knock the wall down in [Turns] 2 and 4.”

Johnson and his team devoted Friday morning practice primarily to qualifying setups (he was second fastest in the session), but the reigning Cup champion thinks his history of strong performances at Kansas — though not necessarily strong finishes — will stand him in good stead when the green flag falls.

“We didn’t work on race trim at all, so I’m not quite sure how it’ll perform on Sunday,” Johnson said. “But I think we’re going down the right road right now [on the 1.5-mile speedways], so hopefully we can capitalize on it.”