Montoya takes fifth season pole

Paul Tracy was the man with the best opportunity to grab the pole away from Montoya in
the last lap, but it wasn't to be.

Tracy will start in second followed by Gil de Ferran, Dario Franchitti and Roberto Moreno.

The final round of qualifying on the streets of Belle Isle was split up into two groups, the slow drivers and fast drivers from the first day of qualifying.

Moreno jumped to pole position on his first lap out and stayed there for nearly the entire session.

But, Franchitti had a little extra speed up his sleeve and with less than 30 seconds in the session he grabbed the pole away from Moreno.

Then the fast drivers came out for a drive. Franchitti remained on the pole for the first seven minutes of the second session but Gil de Ferran turned in a fast lap and took the pole away.

Montoya had been lurking near the front of the second group and he turned in a flying lap of 114.773 mph.

He managed to touch the wall on the same lap that won him the pole. The car was undamaged and he stayed on the track for the remainder of the session.

Montoya is on the way to breaking another record in the CART series with today's pole.

He now has five to his credit in this, his rookie year. The only driver to do better was Nigel Mansell who scored seven pole positions in his rookie year.

Montoya also has four wins so far this season, two of them in events in which he started on the pole.

For the formerly troubled Tracy, it is one more step toward what could be the best season of his career.

It is his second number two start this year and he's finished on the podium four times, including a win a Milwaukee in June.

He is currently sixth in the points but has amassed most of those points in the last few races.

The weekend has been tough on the cars and even tougher on a couple of the drivers so far. Jan Magnussen and Greg Moore had a violent crash in practice this morning, but neither driver was seriously injured.

Adrian Fernandez was not so lucky. He was injured in a crash in yesterday's practice session.

He fractured the radius of his right arm and underwent surgery last night to insert a plate and screws in an effort to repair the fracture.

There is no expected date for his return yet, but it is estimated he will be out for several weeks.

Qualifying times for Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit.