Johnson leads all active drivers with five wins at the California track.
His Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, was second at 188.511 mph, followed by Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer and then Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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Brad Keselowski, the Sprint Cup points leader, was fifth, followed by Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers and Tony Stewart.
The Auto Club 400 practice session had two incidents, one for Jamie McMurray spinning through the frontstretch grass and the other for Landon Cassill pounding the wall hard.
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Cassill tweeted he believed the engine began to expire, causing the spin. It was the second consecutive week Cassill had a parts failure resulting in a destroyed car in practice. He tweeted:
“There's gotta be a better way to knock down a concrete wall. 3600lb racecar is not doing the trick trust me.”
Qualifying is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the 2-mile track.
