HOMESTEAD, Fla.
NASCAR chairman Brian France wants Jimmie Johnson to be commended for his four-year run atop NASCAR, and not used as an example of why the championship format might be flawed.
Johnson heads into Sunday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway poised to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive titles, all under the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format implemented in 2004. His dominance has made it easy for Chase critics to blast the system, which France called unfair.
"The only way fair to look at it is not to pick apart the format, but recognize excellence," France said Friday. "I don't think historians could have predicted how good they are. What I wouldn't want to do is take away from the accomplishment of Jimmie and his team. In this format, dominating four straight years is incredibly difficult to do."
Johnson won the pole position with a qualifying lap of 173.919 mph.
"We did an awesome job today, and I feel that the start will go smoothly," Johnson said.
Scott Speed qualified second and Marcos Ambrose third.
The first year of the Chase was the most competitive, and five drivers entered the finale mathematically eligible to win the title. Kurt Busch beat Johnson by eight points for the championship.
The next season was won by Tony Stewart, and Johnson began his run in 2006. Although the 2007 Chase was a close fight between Johnson and Jeff Gordon, Johnson has rolled into Homestead the past four seasons well in control.
This year, he needs only to finish 25th or better to beat Hendrick teammate Mark Martin for the historic title.
France said NASCAR has no plans to tweak the format to prevent one driver from dominating.
"This isn't a formula exercise in a computer," France said, "to get you some result that you want. This is about sports and live things that happen by the best drivers and the best teams in the world and who performs at a high level."
France answered questions for nearly 45 minutes, covering everything from the sport's economic difficulties, NASCAR's toughened drug policy and Danica Patrick's potential move into stock cars.
Patrick has met with several race teams about possibly running a limited schedule in one of NASCAR's three series.
Johnson won his fourth pole of the season in the No. 48 Chevrolet hours after it was announced he signed a contract extension to drive for Hendrick Motorsports through the 2015 season. He has 23 career poles in 291 Cup races.
Johnson was so pumped at taking the pole he yelled, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Wow!" over his radio. Crew chief Chad Knaus told him, "God, I love you."
He's not looking for any driver to concede the title to him.
"Everybody needs to race because we're all here for a reason," Johnson said. "Everybody is trying to finish as strong as they can. It's not, let's not race. It's, let's race, but let's just give each other a little bit more room."
Martin and Tony Stewart round out the top five.
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who still has second place within reach, qualified 20th.
Johnson, Martin and Gordon are trying to give Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2-3 finish in the season points standings.
Max Papis, David Stremme, Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek and Mike Skinner failed to qualify.
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