Johnson captures the Quaker State 400 pole at Kentucky

[media-credit name=”Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”252″][/media-credit]Jimmie Johnson captured the pole for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway with a lap of 181.818 mph in 29.700 seconds in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.

This was Johnson’s first pole since September 2010.

“It was a very comfortable lap; a very good lap. Qualifying has not been our strong suit over the last two years. So, I’m very happy to get this pole today. It’s a very cool race car and I’m very proud of our relationships with Lowe’s and all the great things they do.” Johnson said.

Last years inaugural polesitter and race winner Kyle Busch qualified second with a lap of 181.421 mph.

“It was alright. Certainly hoped for a little bit more there, but unfortunately didn’t achieve what we needed to. So, we’ll go into tomorrow’s night race with good pit selection and starting up front — which is good for us. Typically don’t qualify well, but this is a place that we like coming to and you need to qualify well at, so I’m glad we did that.” Busch said.

Denny Hamlin third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Ryan Newman qualified fifth.