Rain puts Johnson on pole with Chasers right behind (cont'd)

Kevin Harvick rounds out the three Richard Childress Racing drivers in sixth, and he'll want to get his licks in on Saturday to improve on a 20.7 average finish. Harvick has made 15 starts at Lowe's, and he has a runner-up finish back in 2001, but that's about it other than two more top-10 results.

Tony Stewart will be in search of karmic payback on Saturday, lining up seventh and seeking the victory that eluded him in May. Stewart was leading by better than five seconds with three laps to go when his right-front tire let go, causing him to spin and eventually finish 18th.

Stewart, coming off a victory at Talladega last week, has one victory, six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 19 starts here, and since he drives for The Home Depot, would really like to earn another victory at Lowe's. His average finish is 13.2.

Jeff Gordon is pretty slick at Lowe's himself, having five victories in 31 career starts and a whole mess of top-five (15) and top-10 (17) finishes. He needs a victory in the worst way, having not crossed the line first since this race last year (35 races).

Gordon, who will start eighth, has nine DNFs among those 31 starts, and his average finish of 16.4 is middle of the road among Chasers.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. would like a rewind back to 2000, when he came out of nowhere to win the All-Star race here. Exactly half his 18 starts have resulted in top-10 finishes, and he has five in the top five, but none better than third back in 2004. His average finish is also mid-pack among Chasers at 16.3.

Matt Kenseth earned his first career Sprint Cup victory at Lowe's back in 2000, taking the Coca-Cola 600, and that remains his only triumph at LMS. Eight top-10s, five top-fives and an average finish of 15.2 are his stats when he rolls off 10th.

Kyle Busch is looking for anything good right now, and a victory might not bring the swagger all the way back, but anything is better than his luck so far. He's finished third twice at Lowe's, including earlier this season, and has three top-10 finishes. Of course, he also has three DNFs as well. His average finish of 23.3 is worst among Chasers by more than two spots.

Denny Hamlin will shake off the cobwebs from his wall-banger at Talladega to start 12th, and he needs some help as well. In just six starts, he has three top-10 results with a best of eighth. His average finish is a respectable 16.3.

Many of the Chasers are good at Lowe's, and many have been consistently good throughout a long period of time. Johnson took over the active lap-leader title from Bill Elliott a couple of years ago, and both Stewart and Gordon have more than 500 laps led at LMS.

Johnson's total of 1,169 laps led in 14 starts at LMS is 10 more than Elliott's and 66 more than Mark Martin, who have combined for 104 starts.

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