Jamie McMurray won a series leading third pole award of the season Friday evening at Chicagoland. The field is now set for tomorrow night’s Lifelock.com 400.

photo credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

“(I’m) Happy with that,” McMurray said. “It is a lot of pressure when you are good in practice and then try to repeat when it comes time to qualify. But Bono (Kevin Manion, crew chief) did a really good job. He made the right changes. That is just all the faster we could go. We had a lot of grip and the balance is good.”

McMurray went out fifteenth to qualifying and his lap of 183.542 mph topped all. “It is just a product of the way the draw works,” said McMurray. “Sometimes you get to go late and sometimes you go early. I’m happy with that. Every single weekend you have to start towards the front, it doesn’t seem to matter what track we go to, you need to start toward the front. Certainly with the way we are going to start in the sunlight and then race in to the night time, we really hope our car is setup for night time. It will be nice to start up front and be able to survive until the sun goes down.”

The Daytona 500 winner has yet to win a race from the pole. It’s his first at Chicagoland and the sixth of his career in 277 Sprint Cup Series races.

Jimmie Johnson was the twenty-third driver to hit the track and came close to the polesitter’s speed. Johnson turned a lap of 183. 281 mph, good enough for the front row.

“We are real happy with race trim,” Johnson said. “Thought we would have a good shot at the pole and came close, just a few hundredths off the time that the #1 (Jamie McMurray) ran. Left a little on the table in turn one, the car was a little uncomfortable down there but nailed three and four and had a good lap with this Lowe’s Impala.”

The reigning series champion became a father for the first time on Wednesday when his wife, Chandra, gave birth to a baby girl. Johnson was planning to head home to North Carolina after qualifying to be his family. “We planned for everything. We didn’t expect her to come this early so that was a bit of a surprise,” Johnson said. “It is just an extremely amazing experience and Wednesday was the best day of my life. It was awesome.”

Johnson has yet to win at Chicagoland.

Tony Stewart will line-up third followed by Greg Biffle, Sam Hornish Jr, Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr, Paul Menard and Juan Pablo Montoya. The points leader, Kevin Harvick will start 27th.

For the starting line-up, click here (nascar.com)

There were no major incidents during two practice sessions Friday.

First Practice | Top Speeds:
1.  Joe Nemechek, 177.078 mph
2.  Casey Mears, 176.725 mph
3.  David Stremme, 176.355 mph
4.  Jeff Gordon, 176.298 mph
5.  Jimmie Johnson, 175,970 mph

Happy Hour Practice | Top Speeds:
1.  Juan Pablo Montoya, 181.002 mph
2.  Jamie McMurray, 180.355 mph
3.  Greg Biffle, 180.180 mph
4.  Jimmie Johnson, 180.018 mph
5.  Carl Edwards, 179.952 mph

TV coverage of the Lifelock.com 400 starts at 6:30 Saturday night on TNT.