Jimmie Johnson, driver of the Mountain Green No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, qualified 15 ^th for Sunday’s STP 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. Johnson turned a lap of 30.892 seconds at 174.803 mph on the 1.5-mile oval after making an impressive save on his first qualifying lap.

“My commitment level was a little higher than my grip level in (turns) one and two that first time through,” said Johnson, who is the defending race winner at Kansas. “I just wanted to get a pole bad, and I know we have a racecar that’s plenty capable of it. I think going as fast as we did on our second lap showed the type of car we had. Just coming out cold turkey, I went in there over 100 percent. I know now. I wish I had known that before I turned off into turn one. But it was just an eventful (turns) one and two and I got an okay lap. We know we’ve got an awesome racecar.”

A.J. Allmendinger captured his second career Sprint Cup pole, his first of the season and his first at Kansas by posting a lap of 30.683 seconds at 175.993 mph.

Kevin Harvick will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 30.726 seconds at 175.747 mph. Joey Logano (30.730 seconds at 175.724 mph) was third, while Denny Hamlin (30.740 seconds at 175.667 mph) and Mark Martin (30.772 seconds at  175.484 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-six drivers attempted to qualify for the STP 400. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Tim Andrews, Jeff Green and Tony Raines.

As far as manufacturers went, Dodge took the top spot thanks to Allmendinger’s pole-winning effort. Chevrolet was next best at the hands of Harvick. The top Toyota was Logano, and carrying the flag for Ford was 17 ^th-quick Greg Biffle (30.909 seconds at 174.706 mph).

The STP 400 gets underway at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with a pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.