Persistent, often heavy rain has put Jimmie Johnson on the pole for Sunday's FedEx 400 at the Dover International Raceway. A.J. Allmendinger will start second, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, and Joey Logano. Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick round out the top-10. Scott Riggs is the one driver to miss the race.
This is the first time in 2011 that NASCAR has had to fall back on its new qualifying policy. Starting with this season, starting grids are set in order of practice speeds in the event of a qualifying washout. The ten previous qualifying sessions had all been dry. The last time qualifying for a Sprint Cup race was rained out was last July at Daytona.
Johnson and Allmendinger earn the front row by having the two-fastest times in yesterday's first practice session. They were the two fastest cars in last September's Dover race, but Allemendinger was trapped on pit road by a caution and unable to work his way back to the front of the field. Johnson, as noted by SB Nation Atlanta earlier this week, has dominated Dover the last two years with three wins in four starts and 985 out of 1600 laps led.