Ford, with 120 points, was fifteen points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. Mark Martin was the race's defending champion. A number of drivers competing in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup entered the race optimistic about their chances of winning the championship. Biffle argued that he, Burton, or Stewart were "capable of winning it". Johnson, who already had eighteen previous wins in the Chase, observed that "those 10 races in the Chase is its own world. The people act and react differently under pressure, and for the last four years we have done a great job in that environment." Hamlin commented, "Reliability is the only thing we need to work on. It's taken us out of the last three Chases, not being reliable. You have to have it to be the champion." Ray Evernham also opined on Hamlin, "I think Denny knows that he has the talent to win the championship. I think that he's got focus right now and a good, veteran crew chief in Mike Ford. If Toyota gives him the speed, he could be a threat." Practice and qualifying Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday, and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, and the second 50 minutes. The final session lasted 60 minutes. During the first practice session, Stewart was fastest, placing ahead of Edwards in second and Marcos Ambrose in third. A. J. Allmendinger was scored fourth, and Kyle Busch placed fifth. David Ragan, Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Biffle, and Hamlin rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session. Forty-five drivers attempted to qualify; due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, only forty-three could race. Keselowski clinched his first pole position in the Sprint Cup Series, with a time of 28.515. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Bowyer. Stewart qualified third, Jamie McMurray took fourth, and Juan Pablo Montoya started fifth. Johnson, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twenty-fifth, while Harvick was scored in twenty-seventh. The two drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter. Once qualifying concluded Keselowski said, "I felt I got a shot at the pole before I qualified but you never really know. When I ran the lap I knew I gave up a little bit of time right in the middle of