Johnson captures the pole for Sunday’s Tums 500 at Martinsville Speedway

[media-credit id=100 align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit]Chase contender Jimmie Johnson sets fast lap in qualifying at Martinsville Speedway for the Sunday’s Tums 500. Johnson turned a lap of 97.598 MPH (19.402 SECS), edging out Brian Vickers who was fastest in practice and therefore was the last car to attempt qualifying.

Johnson waited patiently in the cockpit of his No.48 Lowes Chevrolet until Vickers completed his lap. Johnson said after, “The reason I stayed in the car, have you ever seen how many times a drivers does an interview, then gets knocked off the pole?” “I wasn’t going to do anything until it was over!” He also pointed, however, that he is definitely not superstitious.

Vickers missed the top spot by only .02 secs, still a great effort just a few hours after announcing that he would be back in the No.55 Micheal Waltrip Toyota for nine races again next season with Aarons as the sponsor for three of those races and Vickers noted they are looking for a partner for the other six.

Points leader Brad Keselowski, who holds a seven point lead over Johnson, will start 32nd Sunday at a track that he started seventh and finished ninth at in the spring. He will have a rather large hole to dig out of to maintain his lead on the championship standings.

“Certainly would like to qualify better and that’s at the forefront of my mind but I’d much rather race towards the front rather than qualify towards the front if I had to pick between the two. I feel like we’ll be capable of pulling that off once the race gets started.” Keselowski said.

“When the playoffs hit, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, crazy things happen. And with that being said, yeah, we come here thinking that we should be able to get some points on the 2 (Brad Keselowski), but you never know.” Johnson said.

There were four other Chase contenders in the top ten. Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Clint Bowyer placed fifth through eighth respectively.

Dale Earnhardt Jr returned to action this week and will take the green in 20th spot after being second fastest in practice. A team member noted the race setup is better than the qualifying setup and that they will race well on Sunday.