NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson takes Quicken Loans 500 pole at Phoenix

Jimmie Johnson followed up his victory last week at Texas with the pole for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 500 at Phoenix International Speedway.

Johnson, who was eliminated from NASCAR’s Chase after the first round, turned a track-record of 143.158 mph in winning his first pole since the 2014 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (58 races ago). He will start on the front row with Kurt Busch.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is also out of the Chase, was third, with Chase driver Carl Edwards fourth. The track record was bested seven times during the qualifying session.

“This is a good roll for us, for sure,” said Johnson. “It’s good to have some of the swagger back – from the chassis, aero, engineering, the camaraderie amongst the team. We’ve been stacking pennies for a while.”

Johnson said he’s not worried about being a spoiler in Sunday’s race, like he was at Texas. His victory last week means three of seven drivers still need to earn their way into next week’s championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon has already clinched a spot.

“I don’t think I want to play the spoiler; I want the No. 48 team to be everything it’s capable of,” said Johnson, a six-time Cup champion. “If we’re not in the Chase, I don’t want to just get in the way. I don’t mind being in this position, but I’d rather have sleepless nights, worrying about (the Chase).”

Notes

▪ Qualifying for the DAV 200 Xfinity race at Phoenix is at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, with a green flag time of 4 p.m. Chris Buescher is the points leader, while Daniel Suarez has a 36-point lead on Darrell Wallace Jr. for rookie of the year.

▪ Atlanta Motor Speedway announced this week that it has added 4,742 feet of SAFER barriers to its 1.54-mile track. The barriers will be added to both the front and back stretches as well as to inside sections in all four turns that aren’t covered. Work begins in January and is scheduled to be finished by the track’s NASCAR race weekend of Feb. 26-28.

▪ Gordon, who is retiring after this season, has received gifts at each track, including two Shetland ponies for his children last week at Texas. Phoenix is renaming its track Jeff Gordon Raceway on Sunday.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson takes Quicken Loans 500 pole at Phoenix."