The 28-year-old Briton from Kawasaki overhauled Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) in the closing stages of Saturday's second Superpole session (SP2) in California, continuing his dominance of qualifying this year.
Sykes topped the qualifying standings with a time of one minute and 21.811 seconds, claiming his fourth Superpole of the season at the ninth GP of 2014.
Frenchman Guintoli (1:22.339) was second fastest, while Chaz Davies of Ducati was third with a time of 1:22.384.
Davies' team-mate Davide Giugliano (1:22.422) will head the second row in Sunday's races after finishing fourth in qualifying, while Marco Melandri (Aprilia) grabbed fifth spot with 1:22.703 and Eugene Laverty (Suzuki) was sixth with a hot lap of 1:22.725.
Sykes has won three of the past four races and five of the last eight to lead the overall standings with 284 points.
Guintoli (241) is second ahead of Sykes' Kawasaki team-mate Loris Baz (236), with Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda) fourth with 235 points and Melandri (192) in fifth.
Rea crashed during SP2, but was unscathed and will start 10th on the grid.