Things were definitely looking up for Jimmie Johnson on Saturday at Homestead (Fla.)-Miami Speedway, where he is hoping to put the finishing touches on a record-tying third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in the season finale.

After a 30th-place qualifying effort Friday, Johnson's No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was fastest in the first of two practices on the 1.5-mile oval before slipping to fourth in the second and final session.

Series runner-up Carl Edwards was in the opposite situation. Edwards, who trails Johnson by 141 points going into today's Ford 400, qualified fourth, but had a so-so final day of practice. He was seventh in the opening session, but fell to 23rd in the last hour.

That wasn't a good omen for Edwards, who has to lead laps and finish at or near the top to have any hope of catching Johnson, who needs to finish only 36th or better to match Cale Yarborough's 30-year-old record of three straight Cup titles.

"Just the fact that we're starting in front Jimmie, that's a small victory for us," Edwards said after qualifying. "The better chance we can have, the better pit stall selection we can have, the more traffic he's in, all of those things add up to a better chance for us to make this Cinderella story happen and come back from nowhere and win this."

One of the few things that could give Edwards a chance is for Johnson to have a parts failure of get caught up in a crash.

Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, said starting in midpack is not where he would like his driver to be.

"There is a lot of mayhem that goes on back there, especially at this racetrack with the way the groove widens up," Knaus said. "You get people all over the racetrack, so that's always a concern.

"People say, 'Well, that's just bad luck if you get caught up in a wreck when you're at the back of the field.' But, quite honestly, if you hadn't qualified so poorly you wouldn't be back there and you wouldn't be in the wreck. Obviously, engine issues, mechanical issues . . . you just don't even know what's going to happen."

Edwards won the season-ending Ford 300 but came up 21 points short in his attempt to overtake Clint Bowyer for the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.

All Bowyer had to do to keep Edwards from winning a second straight title in the second-tier series was finish in the top eight. He did that easily, taking fifth to stay on top of the standings, right where he has been most of the year despite winning only one of 35 races.

Edwards wrested the lead from Kyle Busch late in the race and stayed out front to the end of the 200-lap event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He earned his seventh Nationwide victory and kept Busch from recording a record 11th series win.