In his #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS and with a lap recorded at 173.919 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, Jimmie Johnson earned the pole for the championship-ending Ford 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Already a three-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, Johnson has a 1008-point lead over second place man Mark Martin and only needs to finish 25th or better in Florida to become the first driver in NASCAR to win four consecutive NASCAR premier championships.

Scott Speed qualified second in his Red Bull Racing Toyota at 172.695 mph. Marcos Ambrose was third with a lap clocked at 172.678 mph in his No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Toyota Camry. Mark Martin qualified fourth, one spot ahead of Tony Stewart and his Stewart-Haas Chevy.

Leading into qualifying on Friday, Johnson had been adamant in proclaiming that a powerful qualifying run would be tantamount in clinching the title.

“The safest place to run on the track is up front,” said Johnson. “You think of double-file restarts, the safest place to be is being the race leader, picking which lane you want to be in and set the pace coming to the green. Everything in my eyes points towards trying to win the race. That's what we're here to do.”

Martin, who ran a lap of 172.353 mph in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, hopes to be the first Hendrick Motorsports’ driver to win at Miami-Homestead.

“There's no reason why we can't win this weekend, why one of our cars can't win, just because we haven't before,” said Martin. “I mean, I have no concerns whatsoever about the performance of my racecar. I'm very comfortable that what we've been doing is gonna work just as well here as other places.”

Chimed in team owner Rick Hendrick: “We have never won here, so that's definitely a goal that we'd like to really cap off a great year by winning this race,” added team owner Rick Hendrick. “That's something we'd really like to do. But it's going to be a great weekend. We're going to celebrate another championship. So we're just happy to be here and look forward to Sunday.”