Montoya starts Chase from pole

The Colombian set a time of 28.545 seconds at an average speed of 133.431mph on his second lap, beating Denny Hamlin's previous benchmark by more than three tenths of a second.

Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch ran after him and also beat Hamlin, but both ended up exactly 0.183s away from Montoya's time.

"This is a brand new racecar and it's fast so it's nice to see," said Montoya after claiming his second Sprint Cup Series pole, having set the fastest time in the morning practice earlier in the day too.

"Last time we raced here we ran pretty good and with the rain coming some guys stayed out and we didn't get as good a finish as we should have. Hopefully we have a great sunny day on Sunday and the forecasts look pretty good. We've got a car fast enough to win, so we just have to be there at the end."

Stewart, a two-time winner at the track, will share the first row with Montoya, while Kurt Busch and Hamlin - one of the early runners - will start from the second row. Carl Edwards rounded out the top five, which was swept by Chase drivers. The first of the non-Chasers was Penske's David Stremme who was sixth quickest.

Points leader Mark Martin was 14th, two places ahead of Jimmie Johnson while Brian Vickers was the slowest qualifier of those in the Chase, ending up 26th after enduring fuel pressure issues in the morning practice.

Vickers will share the 14th row of the grid with his team-mate Scott Speed, who beat fellow rookie Joey Logano, winner at the venue in June in a rain-shortened event.

Bobby Labonte was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in eighth, while Derrike Cope and Dexter Bean both failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver             Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  133.431  28.545s
 2.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  132.581  28.728s  + 0.183s
 3.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      132.581  28.728s  + 0.183s
 4.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     132.030  28.848s  + 0.303s
 5.  Carl Edwards       Ford       132.012  28.852s  + 0.307s
 6.  David Stremme      Dodge      131.943  28.867s  + 0.322s
 7.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  131.852  28.887s  + 0.342s
 8.  Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet  131.847  28.888s  + 0.343s
 9.  Kyle Busch         Toyota     131.829  28.892s  + 0.347s
10.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  131.788  28.901s  + 0.356s
11.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      131.760  28.907s  + 0.362s
12.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  131.724  28.915s  + 0.370s
13.  David Reutimann    Toyota     131.510  28.962s  + 0.417s
14.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  131.365  28.994s  + 0.449s
15.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     131.352  28.997s  + 0.452s
16.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  131.234  29.023s  + 0.478s
17.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  131.234  29.023s  + 0.478s
18.  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  131.229  29.024s  + 0.479s
19.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  131.089  29.055s  + 0.510s
20.  Joe Nemechek       Toyota     131.080  29.057s  + 0.512s
21.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     131.058  29.062s  + 0.517s
22.  Greg Biffle        Ford       131.031  29.068s  + 0.523s
23.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  131.017  29.071s  + 0.526s
24.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      131.008  29.073s  + 0.528s
25.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      130.914  29.094s  + 0.549s
26.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     130.649  29.153s  + 0.608s
27.  Scott Speed        Toyota     130.649  29.153s  + 0.608s
28.  Robby Gordon       Toyota     130.635  29.156s  + 0.611s
29.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       130.617  29.160s  + 0.615s
30.  Mike Wallace       Toyota     130.613  29.161s  + 0.616s
31.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     130.595  29.165s  + 0.620s
32.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  130.474  29.192s  + 0.647s
33.  Joey Logano        Toyota     130.452  29.197s  + 0.652s
34.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge      130.421  29.204s  + 0.659s
35.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      130.305  29.230s  + 0.685s
36.  Tony Raines        Dodge      129.900  29.321s  + 0.776s
37.  Erik Darnell       Ford       129.789  29.346s  + 0.801s
38.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       129.626  29.383s  + 0.838s
39.  Aric Almirola      Dodge      129.331  29.450s  + 0.905s
40.  Paul Menard        Ford       129.055  29.513s  + 0.968s
41.  John Andretti      Chevrolet  128.841  29.562s  + 1.017s
42.  David Ragan        Ford       127.278  29.925s  + 1.380s
43.  Michael McDowell   Toyota     129.283  29.461s  + 0.916s

Did not qualify:

     Derrike Cope       Dodge      127.053  29.978s  + 1.433s
     Dexter Bean        Dodge      126.846  30.027s  + 1.482s