HOMESTEAD, Fla. --- Jimmie Johnson has to finish no worse than 36th in the Ford 400; Carl Edwards has to finish third or better. Both will start Sunday's season finale very close to those cutoff points.

Johnson qualified 30th Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway; Edwards was fourth.

"I had some trouble coming to the green (during qualifying)," Johnson said. "It's not looking good. Oh well, we'll roll with it. But this team in the past, we've shown our strength many times and not qualifying well."

David Reutimann won the pole at 171.636 mph. Former Formula One driver Scott Speed was second at 171.461. Defending race winner Matt Kenseth was third.

"This is a great way to start your weekend. Our team is a second- year organization. Last year we were just worried about getting into races, let alone winning poles," Reutimann said.

It was the first Sprint Cup Series pole for the son of dirt racing legend Emil "Buzzie" Reutimann. While Johnson and Edwards will settle a championship, Reutimann's team needs a good finish to help wrap up sponsorship for the 2009 season.

"I'm not really intelligent enough to focus on anything else," Reutimann said of the Johnson-Edwards battle. "The 48 (Johnson) knows the situation he's in. You don't want to be the guy who determines what happens in the Chase. My goal is to go out there and do my thing."

Speed will be making his fifth Sprint Cup start after spending the year in the Craftsman Truck and ARCA series.

"We didn't have a lot of laps (seven) in practice and that was good," he said. "We didn't have time to mess it up."

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.