McMurray leads all-EGR front row

The Daytona 500 winner carried his momentum from last week through to qualifying and claimed his fourth career pole position in only his second race back with the Chip Ganassi squad.

McMurray set a time of 39.185 seconds at an average speed of 183.744 mph, beating the previous benchmark set by Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer early in the session. Montoya got close to beating his new team-mate, but in the end had to settle for second-best.

"I think this says a lot about Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and the cars that they build back there," said McMurray. "Certainly thanks to everybody back at the shop. With me first and Juan second, I am really excited. I am a little bit shocked!"

Montoya was happy despite losing out to McMurray after getting loose at the exit of Turn 4 on his only qualifying lap. His second place gives his team its first front row sweep since Indianapolis in 2007 and also its first since Ganassi and DEI merged their operations.

"I got loose out of Turn 4," said Montoya. "I had a really good lap going and when it stepped out, I had to lift a little bit, not much. Just lifted, but it dragged all the speed out of the car. I was a little bit disappointed.

"It should have been a really good lap. Still P2, so I can't complain. It is exciting. Jamie won last week. He is going to be on pole this week, and that is the kind of momentum this team needs. It is huge."

Bowyer ended up third fastest, making it three Earnhardt Childress Racing Chevrolet-powered cars in the top three starting spots.

"The motor programme at ECR is definitely on its game," said Bowyer. "This weekend here in California, I was looking at the practice rundown and every ECR engine is in the top seven in practice.

"My hat is off to all of those guys who have worked hard in the off-season and they deserve some credit."

Kasey Kahne (Richard Petty Motorsports) was fourth and best among the Ford runners, running the old 452 spec engine as is every other driver racing for the Blue Oval brand this weekend. Dave Blaney followed in fifth as the best of the Toyotas and also the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers for Prism Motorsports.

Bowyer's RCR team-mate Kevin Harvick was sixth, ahead of four-time Fontana winner and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. His Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Mark Martin had led the timesheets in practice earlier in the day, but only managed the tenth fastest time in qualifying.

Former open-wheel racers Sam Hornish (Penske Dodge) and Scott Speed (Red Bull Toyota) enjoyed good qualifying runs, ranking eighth and 13th fastest respectively. Ahead of Speed, Hornish's team-mate Kurt Busch recovered from brushing the wall in practice to qualify 12th.

Casey Mears failed to qualify for his home race and missed his second event in as many weeks, Johnny Sauter and Terry Cook failing to make the field as well.

Pos  Driver              Make        Time
 1.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet   39.185
 2.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet   39.242  + 0.057
 3.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   39.317  + 0.132
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Ford        39.363  + 0.178
 5.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      39.364  + 0.179
 6.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   39.366  + 0.181
 7.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   39.368  + 0.183
 8.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       39.385  + 0.200
 9.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      39.390  + 0.205
10.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   39.400  + 0.215
11.  David Reutimann     Toyota      39.431  + 0.246
12.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       39.497  + 0.312
13.  Scott Speed         Toyota      39.518  + 0.333
14.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   39.542  + 0.357
15.  David Ragan         Ford        39.566  + 0.381
16.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   39.586  + 0.401
17.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet   39.615  + 0.430
18.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet   39.620  + 0.435
19.  Joey Logano         Toyota      39.632  + 0.447
20.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        39.669  + 0.484
21.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge       39.706  + 0.521
22.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet   39.708  + 0.523
23.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      39.710  + 0.525
24.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet   39.710  + 0.525
25.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      39.713  + 0.528
26.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota      39.729  + 0.544
27.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   39.755  + 0.570
28.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   39.767  + 0.582
29.  A.J. Allmendinger   Ford        39.770  + 0.585
30.  Michael McDowell    Toyota      39.802  + 0.617
31.  Carl Edwards        Ford        39.830  + 0.645
32.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota      39.833  + 0.648
33.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   39.870  + 0.685
34.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota      39.884  + 0.699
35.  Greg Biffle         Ford        39.928  + 0.743
36.  Paul Menard         Ford        39.982  + 0.797
37.  Elliott Sadler      Ford        40.018  + 0.833
38.  Kevin Conway        Ford        40.158  + 0.973
39.  Travis Kvapil       Ford        40.229  + 1.044
40.  Robby Gordon        Toyota      40.839  + 1.654
41.  David Gilliland     Ford        40.861  + 1.676
42.  Boris Said          Ford          -        -
43.  Max Papis           Toyota      39.889  + 0.704