Red Bull Racing driver Brian Vickers won the sixth pole of his career Friday, touring the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval at 183.429 mph. That relegated three-time reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Johnson to the outside of the front row for the 500-mile race. Johnson had a lap at 183.164 mph.

“The only thing I can think is Vickers and I went to In-N-Out Burger last night and I had a double and he had a single,” Johnson said, joking. “I guess that extra patty killed me.”

“After what happened last week, controversy aside, the only thing that matters in my mind when I think about Daytona is we didn’t collect the amount of points we needed or wanted to collect to race for a championship.” said Vickers.

He said he and his team would love to put Daytona behind them going from the pole to lead every lap and win Sunday’s race.

“I think the next challenge is going to be a lot more difficult than the first one,” Vickers said.

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