Talladega, Ala. ? Rookie Jimmie Johnson won the pole Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, putting himself right where he was for the season-opening Daytona 500.

The difference this time is Johnson has the experience of the Daytona race, a big difference going into Sunday’s Aaron’s 499.

Jimmie Johnson climbs out of his car Friday in Talladega, Ala., after winning the pole position for Sunday's Aaron's 499.

“I learned a lot at Daytona,” Johnson said after turning a lap of 186.532 mph on the high-banked 2.66-mile Talladega oval NASCAR’s longest and fastest track. “I learned a lot of things not to do.”

Johnson wound up 15th in that race despite getting caught up in a multicar wreck that did severe body damage to his No. 48 Chevrolet.

“This is the same car that was pretty much destroyed in the race at Daytona,” he said. “The guys at Hendrick Motorsports worked real hard to get this thing back together. We had to borrow a motor from the engine department and we didn’t have a chance to go to the wind tunnel or take it testing.

“This morning, when the car came off the truck, we didn’t know what to expect,” added Johnson, whose two career poles have both been at the two tracks where NASCAR requires horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph.

Robby Gordon, off to a tough start in his first full season with Richard Childress Racing, took the outside front row spot for Sunday’s race at 186.409, followed by Michael Waltrip at 186.401 and crowd-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 185.913.