Championship leader Jimmie Johnson has struck another powerful blow in the fight for the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship by taking pole position for Sunday's season-ending Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Even though the defending series champ only needs to finish 18th in Sunday's 267-lap race to successfully retain his title he showed his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon that he wasn't going to take it easy and cruise home in the top 20 as he secured his fourth Bud Pole award of the 2007 season with a best lap of 30.545secs (176.788mph).
After trailing his protégé by a fraction in Friday's first practice session at the 1.5-mile variable banked circuit Johnson's sole remaining title rival couldn't match the points leader in qualifying with the famous #24 Chevrolet setting the 11th fastest time with a best lap of 30.827secs. Although Gordon is by no means badly placed for the start of Sunday's race Johnson has added extra pressure because it is now likely that he will get a five-point bonus early in the race for leading a lap.
Ryan Newman will start alongside Johnson on row one in the #12 Penske Racing Dodge while Kasey Kahne, who led the opening practice session earlier in the day, will lead off row two ahead of the #17 Roush-Fenway Ford of Matt Kenseth.
Newman's teammate Kurt Busch will start fifth with Mark Martin sixth in his final drive for the #01 team before he moves across the Ginn/DEI stable in 2008 to the #8 Chevrolet. Rookie David Ragan will start seventh with Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick eighth, his Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton ninth and the second Roush-Fenway Ford of Carl Edwards rounding out the top ten.
More than ever, this weekend marks a lot of 'lasts' with the current car design enjoying its last appearance before the Car of Tomorrow takes over full time in 2008 but of the drivers making their final appearances with their current organisations Dale Earnhardt Jr was best placed in 13th position on the grid in his final drive for the #8 DEI team. Kyle Busch will start 18th in his last appearance as a Hendrick driver while Johnny Sauter and JJ Yeley will start 22nd and 24th respectively in their final rides for Haas CNC and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Further down the 43 car starting line-up David Stremme will begin his final outing for Chip Ganassi in 30th place with Tony Raines 42nd in his last ride for the #96 Hall of Fame team.
Greg Biffle, who has dominated the last three events here at Homestead will start a disappointing 37th one place ahead of Ricky Rudd, who will begin the last race of his career from 38th position.
In the battle for the eight non guaranteed places on the grid veteran Sterling Marlin led the way in the #09 Phoenix Racing entry and will start 16th, one place ahead of Red Bull Racing's Brian Vickers. Dale Jarrett made it in with 26th fastest time while Patrick Carpentier and Sam Hornish Jr both made it through the qualifying gauntlet for the second week running. Completing the field was veteran Johnny Benson, rookie David Reutimann and Past Champion's provisional holder Bill Elliott.
AJ Allmendinger, John Andretti, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip, Todd Bodine and Burney Lamar failed to qualify with Lamar crashing on his qualifying lap.
