Jimmie Johnson put himself in a good position to get his first road course victory after he picked up the pole position for Sunday's Heluva Good at the Glen Cup race.  Johnson put in a lap of 123.633 mph on Friday at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International, beating out Kurt Busch for the top spot by .008 seconds.

The final road race of the season should be a good barometer to see which drivers can emerge to challenge series points leader Tony Stewart in the five races leading up to the Chase. Denny Hamlin, winner of last weekend's race at Pocono, qualified third. Marcos Ambrose, who won last night's Nationwide Zippo 200 at The Glen, qualified fourth followed by Penske driver David Stremme. Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Boris Said, and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top 10 positions. The weather conditions for today's race should make things interesting as rain supposed to wet the track early on. How the teams react to the changing weather on the track and which does the best to adjust to the more slippery conditions will determine which drivers will stay up front.

TOP PICKS
Tony Stewart: Though the series points leader starts 13th on a day where passing will be difficult, Stewart has four wins at Watkins Glen in his Cup career and has either won or finished second the past five races at the road course. Points leader or not, Stewart will be up front for at least part of today and always has a great shot at winning a road race.

Jimmie Johnson: The three-time Cup champion has never won on a road course in his career, but not for lack of trying. Johnson has three top-five finishes at The Glen and hasn't started from outside the top-10 since 2003. Today will be Johnson's best shot at snapping his road course slump, should he be able to stay up front.

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin's remarkable win at Pocono after the death of his grandmother, certainly has him poised to take the next step on his way towards the Chase and possibly move up a spot today. Hamlin has a top five and three top-10's at The Glen and also has never started outside the top-10 after qualifying. If he races with the same fire that he did at Pocono last week, Hamlin will be hard to stop.

SLEEPERS
Juan Pablo Montoya: After his second-place finish at Pocono, Montoya has a chance at back-to-back top-fives as he starts 10th today. Montoya has won on a road course before, Infineon in '07, and finished fourth in last season's race at The Glen. A win or a top-five today would solidify Montoya as a rising contender going into the final four races before the Chase.

Marcos Ambrose: Saturday's Nationwide race winner has a chance of winning the Cup race after qualifying fourth. Ambrose has a top-three at The Glen in Cup competition after finishing third at last year's race. He has won the Nationwide race two years running and looks to become the second driver this season to sweep both races in one weekend.

Kyle Busch: Busch, the '08 Watkins Glen winner, has tumbled to 13th in points since his seventh-place finish at Loudon in June. Busch does have three top-10 finishes at The Glen in his career, all in the past three seasons. A win would put the struggling driver back in the thick of the Chase and boost his chances of making the 10 race playoff.

NO CHANCE
Matt Kenseth: This is the one day where Kenseth will start from the back of the pack at 42nd and be unable to pass all the way to the front. Passing will be too difficult even for the former Cup champion. Kenseth's last top-10 finish at The Glen was a ninth-place run in 2004.

Joey Logano: Logano has had a great rookie season thus far posting his first win at the rain-shortened Loudon race and currently residing 19th in the Cup standings. But Logano is still too young to even think of competing in a road race. And after his run-in with Robby Gordon during the Nationwide race, he will need to mature a little more at places like The Glen and learn to stay away from wreck-magnet Gordon. Logano will start 35th.

Robby Gordon: Gordon gave away a top-five finish in yesterday's Nationwide race just to run Logano off the road. Maybe that makes sense to the seasoned Cup veteran, but that makes zero sense to me. Gordon showed his arrogance once again on the track, which will translate into more Cup futility. Gordon starts 22nd.

NASCAR jimmie johnson, heluva good at the glen, tony stewart, denny hamlin, juan pablo montoya, marcos ambrose, kyle busch