By alley - Aug 8, 2015, 3:01 PM ET

CUP: Allmendinger takes Watkins Glen pole

AJ Allmendinger made it two pole positions from the two road course events on the NASCAR Sprint Cup calendar after dominating qualifying at Watkins Glen.

The JTG Daugherty Racing driver, who also claimed pole at Sonoma in June, had set the pace in the first round of qualifying by 0.229 seconds from Kevin Harvick.

Allmendinger, whose only Sprint Cup win so far came at Watkins Glen last year, then hit the front in the second round as the only driver to go below 1m09s, posting a time of 1m08.993s.

Martin Truex Jr was the closest driver to him, 0.146s behind, while Tony Stewart maintained his recent strong qualifying form to take third, and Harvick was forced to settle for fourth.

Jeff Gordon was fifth ahead of Kyle Larson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kyle Busch, who started a run of four wins in five races with victory at Sonoma, managed eighth.

Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski were next up, while Justin Allgaier was the last of those who made it through to the second round as he secured a best-yet grid position of 12th.

There were a number of big-name drivers who missed out on progressing from the first round, with 2015 race winners Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano occupying the first four places outside of the top 12.

STARTING GRID

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	A.J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	1m08.993s
2	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Chevrolet	0.146s
3	Tony Stewart	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	0.194s
4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	0.229s
5	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	0.357s
6	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	0.484s
7	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	0.504s
8	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	0.528s
9	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	0.550s
10	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	0.572s
11	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	0.945s
12	Justin Allgaier	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	1.018s
13	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	0.551s
14	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	0.571s
15	Carl Edwards	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	0.633s
16	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	0.670s
17	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	0.678s
18	Clint Bowyer	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	0.684s
19	David Ragan	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	0.712s
20	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	0.737s
21	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	0.956s
22	Danica Patrick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	0.969s
23	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	0.985s
24	Sam Hornish Jr.	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	1.010s
25	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	1.050s
26	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1.068s
27	Matt DiBenedetto	BK Racing	Toyota	1.091s
28	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	1.129s
29	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	1.132s
30	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	1.221s
31	Michael McDowell	Leavine Family Racing	Ford	1.245s
32	Chris Buescher	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	1.313s
33	Cole Whitt	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	1.445s
34	Trevor Bayne	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	1.712s
35	Alex Kennedy	Circle Sport	Chevrolet	1.785s
36	Landon Cassill	Hillman Smith Motorsports	Chevrolet	2.097s
37	David Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	2.121s
38	Boris Said	Go FAS Racing	Chevrolet	2.164s
39	Alex Bowman	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet	2.174s
40	Michael Annett	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	2.227s
41	Jeb Burton	BK Racing	Toyota	2.579s
42	J.J. Yeley	BK Racing	Toyota	2.898s
43	Timmy Hill	Phil Parsons Racing	Chevrolet	3.751s