Jimmie Johnson doesn't think Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are the only ones fighting for this year's championship. Proving he won't give up without a fight, Johnson scored his sixth pole position of 2008. Johnson - a native of El Cajon, California - flew around the 2-mile track in 39.912 seconds at a speed of 180.397 mph, beating outside pole sitter A.J. Allmendinger by just under two tenths of a second.

"It was really good. I'm very proud of that lap," Johnson said of his time trial. "We went out kind of at the peak of the heat when things were just starting to break. And there were a few cars we were worried about, including A.J. and I think he did a great job putting down a good smooth lap, and certainly had us scared throughout the afternoon. So all in all, I'm just extremely pleased with the lap and progress we made throughout the day to make the car faster. We're happy to start up front and hopefully we can take advantage of that."

Fellow California kid A.J. Allmendinger - a native of Los Gatos, California - powered his No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry to the second spot after laying down a lap of 40.076 seconds at a speed of 179.659 mph. Allmendinger scored an 18th-place finish in his only race at the Auto Club Speedway in 2007. Currently only fourteen points outside of the top-35 in owner points, starting up front on Sunday should help this team climb back into that all important top-35.

"I thought we won something for how excited everybody is," Allmendinger said. "It was a great run. I knew the .91 lap that Jimmie (Johnson) put down was a pretty solid lap. Everybody at Red Bull builds solid cars. This whole 84 crew is coming together. We've had a few tough couple of weeks but we've been running strong at least when we?re doing it. This is a good way to start the weekend and hopefully we can finish it off the same way."

Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate and California-native Jeff Gordon will roll off from the third-spot on Sunday evening. Still winless in 2008, Gordon is extremely optimistic heading back to the Auto Club Speedway - especially after laying down a quick lap.

"Oh, man, what a lap. We struggled a little bit today," Gordon explained. "We just couldn't get the speed out of the car and we were a little frustrated with practice because obviously having Pepsi onboard for the Pepsi 500 is a big deal. But we ran so well here earlier in the year and we feel like we've made gains since then and we're shaking our heads a little bit. We made some adjustments. I thought Steve Letarte made some great calls. We sat up in the trailer and debriefed after practice and came up with a game plan and it really paid off. I think the track came to us a little bit and now, looking back on it, I feel like we had a car that was good enough to possibly match Jimmie's lap. Had we had it a little closer in practice, I think we could have challenged him. I gave up a lot down in Turn 1. I just didn't want to overdrive it. And the car was awesome in (Turns) 3 and 4. Not that we could have beaten him, but I feel like we could have been real close to him. But to be third, I'm ecstatic."

Kasey Kahne will start outside Gordon in the fourth-spot for Sunday's Pepsi 500. Kahne will lead fellow Gillett Evernham Motorsports drivers Patrick Carpentier and Elliott Sadler who qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Martin Truex Jr., Dave Blaney, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-10.

Chase Contenders:
1.    48    Jimmie Johnson (4th)
3.    24    Jeff Gordon (9th)
4.      9    Kasey Kahne (14th)
11.  18    Kyle Busch (1st)
14.   20   Tony Stewart (6th)
15.   16   Greg Biffle (7th)
18.   88   Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3rd)
21.   11   Denny Hamlin (11th)
22.     6   David Ragan (13th)
26.    99  Carl Edwards (2nd)
27.    31  Jeff Burton (5th)
31.    07  Clint Bowyer (12th)
33.    29  Kevin Harvick (8th)
38.    17  Matt Kenseth (10th)

For the starting line-up click here.