Long Pond, Pa. ? Jimmie Johnson quickly put aside the failure of a week ago and overcame a bad start Friday to win the pole at Pocono Raceway.

Johnson crashed while running third last Sunday at Dover International Speedway, where he was trying to win for the third straight week. His return to the track for practice Friday was not impressive.

“We had a motor problem, and luckily we got it straightened out,” he said. “We found a valve spring that failed.”

Johnson realized after the team made adjustments that he could be a contender for the pole.

“Once we got out on the track I knew all my shift points were better,” he said.

But Johnson said the pole didn’t make up for the failure at Dover.

“It didn’t pump us up, and we lost a lot of points last week,” he said. “They don’t pay any points for qualifying.”

Despite his roll, Johnson knows he has a considerable distance to travel to catch series leader Matt Kenseth, who is 339 points ahead of him after 13 of 36 races.

“We’re seventh in points with a lot of mistakes,” Johnson said. “If we can clean our mistakes up, we could be right up there.”

On Sunday, in the Pocono 500, Johnson will try to regain the form that made him a winner last month in the non-points NASCAR all-star race and Winston Cup’s Coca-Cola 600. He tried to nurse an ill-handling car toward the front in Dover, but crashed and wound up 38th.

Johnson earned his first pole of the season and fifth of his career with a fast lap of 170.645 mph. He got around the triangular track in 52.741 seconds.

But that fell far short of Tony Stewart’s 3-year-old track record of 172.391 mph.

Johnson will try Sunday for his fifth career victory.

Second to Johnson’s Chevrolet was the Dodge of Ryan Newman, which got around the 21¼2-mile layout at 170.513 mph. Newman won the pole the last two weeks — giving him a series-leading four this season — and the race in Dover.

“It was a good run, obviously,” Newman said. “We’re happy to be on the front row where track position is very important.”

Newman said his lap was a tribute to the team’s ability to sense what changes needed to be made to the car.

“It was good off the truck, and we worked and got it better,” he said.

Bobby Labonte was third in a Chevrolet at 170.309. He will line up on the inside of the second row, flanked by teammate Stewart, who went 170.203.

Labonte was somewhat surprised by his run after being only the 18th-fastest in practice. He credited Stewart’s crew chief with helping him overcome a lack of speed by suggesting changes in the car’s setup.

“We weren’t that good and talked to Greg Zipadelli and those guys, and I have to thank them for that,” Labonte said. “They helped us out.”

Stewart ran his lap at 170.203, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 170.152.

Mark Martin and defending race champion and three-time Pocono winner Dale Jarrett were next. Bill Elliott, whose five career victories are the most on the mountaintop, qualified eighth despite battling effects of a foot broken three weeks ago.

Elliott Sadler and Kurt Busch completed the top 10. Kenseth, who leads second-place Earnhardt by 170 points, wound up 25th.