Johnson lapped the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course at 123.633 m.p.h. (71.340 seconds) in his No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for his 20th career Sprint Cup Series pole, but his first since November 2008 at Phoenix. The three-time defending series champion also recorded his first pole in his 16th road course event.

"We did all the right things today," Johnson said. "The car could have been a little bit better. For us, it was a little bit adventurous from time to time in qualifying trim, but I guess we had fewer problems than everybody else in putting in really good laps."

Johnson, who has yet to win a race at either Watkins Glen or Sonoma, CA., was only .008 seconds quicker than Kurt Busch in qualifying.

"I could have gone off track real easy, so I felt like I drove too conservative, and I didn't think we come up shy (of Johnson)," Busch said.

Denny Hamlin qualified third four days after scoring an emotional victory at Pocono. Hamlin's grandmother, Thelma Clark, passed away last Friday in Tampa, FL at the age of 91.

"Our car just had speed in it," Hamlin said. "It was good during Sonoma, and I think we led just as much as (race winner) Kasey (Kahne) did. We were battling for the win there. I didn't expect anything different here. This is actually our better of the two road courses."

Marcos Ambrose and David Stremme rounded out the top-five.

Ryan Newman was sixth, followed by Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, the defending race winner, Boris Said and Juan Pablo Montoya. Said, a road course ace, grabbed the highest starting position among those drivers who were required to qualify on time.

Tony Stewart, the current points leader and four-time winner at Watkins Glen, qualified 13th, while Jeff Gordon, also a four-time winner here, was surprisingly 31st.

Joe Nemechek, Brian Simo and David Gilliland failed to qualify.

Sunday's race is scheduled to start just after 2:00 p.m. (et).