Johnson qualified sixth for this race which will decide the 2010 championship. Hamlin hada disappointing qualifying effort, he ended p in the 37th spot.
He won this race in 2009 from one spot farther back.
The difference in having to catch the Lowe's #48 this year is that a Cup title is on the line. The reigning four-time champion, Johnson trails Hamlin by 15 points in the standings. Johnson will start Sunday's race 31 spots ahead of Hamlin and 22 positions in front of Kevin Harvick, the other championship contender.
Johnson, who's won the Homestead-Miami pole twice (2007, '09), clinched his second-best starting position (sixth) in the Chase races. He won the pole at Dover on Sept. 26, but in the eight other Chase events Johnson's average starting position was 17.5.
Four of Hamlin's eight victories this year were from a starting position of 14th or worse. His two victories at Texas on April 18 and Nov. 7 came from the 29th and 30th spots, respectively.
Including Sunday, Hamlin and Harvick will have started in the top 10 in just nine of 36 races. That's 15 fewer top 10 starts than Johnson. Last weekend in Phoenix, a notoriously difficult passing track, Hamlin started 17th and finished 12th.
"With the multi-groove track like Homestead … most guys prefer to run up high," Hamlin said. "I always seem to run lower here so I get a whole lot cleaner air than what guys do. Passing has not been as big of an issue at this track in the past as Phoenix has been for me. If I have half of the car that I had at Phoenix here this weekend, we should be OK."
We should see a close race Sunday afternoon, and the title could be decided a matter of inches.
