and fifth respectively. With 5,533 points, Kurt Busch was in sixth, twenty-two points ahead of Carl Edwards, as Jeff Burton with 5,496 points, was thirteen ahead of Kyle Busch, and forty-one in front of Greg Biffle who rounded out the top ten. Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer were eleventh and twelfth with 5,432 and 5,426 respective points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 220 points, forty-one points ahead of their rival Toyota. Ford, with 141 points, was twenty-two points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third. Johnson was the race's defending champion. Practice and qualifying Three practice sessions were held before the Saturday race—one on Thursday, and two on Friday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, while the second session lasted 45 minutes. The final session lasted 65 minutes. During the first practice session, Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Newman was fastest ahead of Joey Logano and Kyle Busch in second and third respectively. Mark Martin placed fourth, and David Reutimann finished fifth. Stewart, Reed Sorenson, Scott Speed, David Ragan, and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session. Forty-nine cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three were allowed to race due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Gordon clinched his 69th career pole position with a time of 28.192 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Edwards. A. J. Allmendinger qualified third, Martin took fourth, and Paul Menard started fifth. The six drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Joe Nemechek, Casey Mears, Mike Bliss, Jason Leffler, Kevin Conway and Johnny Sauter. Once the qualifying session completed, Gordon commented, "We used to qualify so well here, but competition and cars and different things changing over the years, we just sort of lost our way here, and I'll be honest, [Thursday], the way it was going, I didn't think we had any shot at this pole." On the next evening, Kasey Kahne was quickest in the second practice session, ahead of Reutimann and Biffle in second and third. Kurt Busch was fourth quickest, and Martin Truex Jr. took fifth. Brad Keselowski, Allmendinger, Newman, Logano, and Ragan followed in the top-ten. Other drivers in the chase, such as Johnson, was fifteenth, and Harvick, who was twentieth. During the final practice session, Edwards was fastest with a time of 29.031. Sorenson and Kurt Busch followed in second and third with