HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Kurt Busch came to Homestead-Miami Speedway with more in mind than just winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship.

"I was just joking in the prequalifying interview that we needed a pole to get into the Bud Shootout, and now here we are," Busch said after taking the top spot in qualifying Friday for the season-ending Ford 400.

His first official pole in two years qualified Busch for the made-for-TV Shootout, a race at Daytona in February for the previous season's polesitters. It also could make his job easier Sunday, when he starts the race Sunday with an 18-point lead.

Four drivers are bunched within 82 points of him in the closest championship battle in NASCAR history.

"It is a tremendous plus for us to be in this position to start up on the pole and to have the other competitors behind us," said Busch, the last of 55 drivers to make a qualifying run on the 1½-mile oval.

The pole also gives Busch the best opportunity to earn a five-point bonus for leading at least one lap in the race.

Busch needs all the edge he can get with Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin gunning for him. A matter of two or three positions could spell success or failure in the race.

It's the second week in a row that the fourth-year Cup driver will start from the top qualifying spot, though last week's pole was handed to him as the points leader when time trials were rained out at Darlington. This is the first pole Busch has won on the track since taking the top spot here in November 2002.

He went on to win that race, although the Homestead track has since been reconfigured with more banking in the turns.

Busch's Ford turned a lap of 179.319 mph Friday, easily beating the 179.307 of Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle for the third pole of his career.

"It was just one of those laps," Busch said. "It's really been a storybook effort so far in this championship chase."

Johnson came to Homestead - the last race in NASCAR's new 10-man, 10-race playoff-style championship - with considerable momentum. He has won four of the last five races to come from far off the pace and give himself a shot at the title.

But his qualifying effort took away some of the steam he had built up. While the other contenders eventually qualified among the top 16, Johnson went out early and had a disastrous lap of 175.029.

As driver after driver went around the track, Johnson watched his starting position drop lower and lower until it reached 39th in a field of 43. It's the worst qualifying effort of his three-year Cup career.

Johnson didn't wait around to see the final result. His team put a cover on his car and he hurried out of the garage.

"The car was really, really loose," was the only thing he said before walking quickly to his team's hauler.

Four-time series champion Gordon, three points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson and 21 shy of Busch, will start fifth Sunday. Earnhardt, fourth in the standings and 72 points out, will start 16th. Martin, 82 points behind teammate Busch, locked up the 11th spot.

Gordon was pleased with his team's qualifying effort and is looking forward to the race.

"I feel like we need to approach it like we're racing 42 other guys and go for a win," said Gordon, a third-place finisher the past two weeks. "This is a track I haven't won at in the Cup series, but I feel like we've got momentum from the last couple of weeks.

"I think we're focused on our own program and on what we need to go out there and do to win the race, instead of focusing on Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin. We're going to go out there and do a better job throughout the race."