On Track – Friday at The Glen

Jimmie Johnson won his first road course pole award Friday at The Glen.

He turned a lap of 71.340 seconds at 123.633 mph on the 2.45-mile road course track – good for the #1 starting spot.

It is his first pole and 17th top-10 start this season and 20th career.

(Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images)

“Was just one lap,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of laps to be made and a lot of racing on Sunday, but hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for us.”

Johnson has yet to win at either one of the two road courses on the current cup schedule. In 8 starts at the Glen, he’s posted 3 top-5 finishes and 4 top-10′s.

“There’s going to be a lot of pushing and shoving,” as Johnson gave his prediction for Sunday’s race. “It’s hard racing. It’s what the fans have been asking for.”

Johnson was among the first set of drivers to qualify. Kurt Busch hit the track almost immediately after and came close to topping Johnson. Busch posted a time of 71.348 at 123.619 mph – good for a front row start beside the polesitter.

Last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin will start third followed by Marcos Ambrose, David Stremme, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Boris Said and Juan Pablo Montoya inside the top-10. Other notables include: Kasey Kahne – 12th; Tony Stewart – 13th; Mark Martin – 29th; Jeff Gordon – 31st; Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 32nd, Carl Edwards – 33rd and Matt Kenseth – 42nd.

For the starting line-up, click here.

Here are the top-10 practice speed’s from Sprint Cup Series First Practice (driver/best speed/seconds):

1    Kurt Busch   124.362  -   70.920
2    Denny Hamlin   123.535 -   71.400
3    Kevin Harvick    123.386  -  71.480
4    Kyle Busch   123.370  -  71.490
5    Casey Mears     123.264 -  71.550
6    David Stremme    123.231  -  71.570
7    Jimmie Johnson     123.203 -  71.590
8     Sam Hornish Jr.    122.899  -  71.770
9     Brian Vickers      122.797  – 71.830
10  Martin Truex Jr.    122.787  – 71.830

There were several on track incidents. Clint Bowyer got stuck in the “kitty litter”. Patrick Carpentier, driving the #55 for MWR, wrecked and will race in the back-up. Joe Nemechek lost an engine which spewed oil on the track. Practice was stopped and delayed for about 20 minutes for clean-up.

Points leader Tony Stewart sat down with media mid-afternoon on Friday to answer, among all questions, plans to start up a third race team at Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart’s answer, “I don’t think we’ve ruled that out yet. It’s getting to the point in the season if we’re going to do a third team and have a third team for next season it would have to happen pretty quickly. At least having the sponsor and driver lined up to make sure that we have an adequate amount of time to get all the tools and pieces in place for next year. But I would say it’s not very likely right now.”

Nationwide Series 1st Practice (seconds/speed):

1  Kyle Busch  73.371  – 120.211
2  Denny Hamlin    73.447  – 120.087
3  Robby Gordon    73.510 – 119.984
4  Greg Biffle   73.561 – 119.900
5  Kevin Harvick   73.636 – 119.778
6  Joey Logano    73.737 – 119.614
7  Ron Fellows  73.746  – 119.600
8  Scott Speed   74.075  – 119.069
9  Paul Menard   74.093  119.040
10 Justin Marks    74.182  118.897

Nationwide Series Final Practice:

1  Ron Fellows  73.082 – 120.686
2  Marcos Ambrose  73.194 – 120.502
3  Robby Gordon   73.330 – 120.278
4  Carl Edwards   73.366  – 120.219
5  Kevin Harvick   73.370 – 120.213
6  Kyle Busch  73.385 – 120.188
7  Denny Hamlin 73.537 – 119.940
8  Greg Biffle   73.760  – 119.577
9  David Ragan 73.807  – 119.501
10 Brian Vickers  73.834  – 119.457

* All above time & speeds are provided by NASCAR Statistics

Current Nationwide Series points leader, Kyle Busch informed the media his plans in the Nationwide Series while at Dover earlier this week.

“The plan was last year when we were winning all the Nationwide races and running really well. The plan was initially to go full season and then I felt like our Cup stuff sort of stalled. We cut it back. I didn’t go to Milwaukee. I didn’t go to Nashville, and I didn’t go to a couple others…We thought about it and how our cars are really good and Joe and J.D. (Gibbs) said man wouldn’t it be cool to have a Nationwide championship solely JGR owner and driver points, and so I said I want to do it. I want to win a Nationwide championship. Anybody would so our cars have been strong enough and that’s why we have done it. We won six races this year. It’s been good and maybe it’s taken a little bit away from the Cup effort. I don’t think it has but were already talking about next year and cutting it back and getting our Cup efforts back up to where they need to be. Hopefully we can get it down to about 22 or 24 Nationwide Series races, just companion stuff not flying all over the place.”

Busch currently has a 207 point lead over 2nd place Carl Edwards in the series.