Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Montoya takes first NASCAR pole

Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his maiden NASCAR Sprint Cup series pole position in qualifying for the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway

The Colombian set a time of 50.890 seconds on his second qualifying lap with an average speed of 188.171 mph, beating the previous benchmark set by Sam Hornish Jr to become only the third foreign-born driver ever to claim a pole position in the series.

Montoya had only run 14 laps during practice on Friday, electing to save his car for the race while working mainly on race-trim, but despite that he was able to make it two-for-two in qualifying this year for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing at restrictor plate tracks.

His team-mate Martin Truex Jr, who had won pole position for the Daytona 500, will start the race from third place.

"Getting this pole is pretty cool," said Montoya, who had not taken pole position for a major race since the 2005 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.

"Last year we had one and it got taken away (at Kansas) so it's exciting to be here. You look at this year for us and we're definitely heading in the right direction. I think there's a lot of potential for us to make the Chase and it's encouraging.

"This is one of those places were it's not only driver but it's the team and the car performance. There's been two restrictor-plate races and on both Earnhardt Gansassi cars have been on pole so hopefully we can translate that into a win here."

Greg Biffle came closest to beating Montoya's time late in the session but he couldn't just match the Colombian's speed, although he was able to prevent an EGR front row sweep for Sunday's race.

"I'm really excited about the lap," Biffle said. "The last time we had a restrictor plate car this good was 2004 at the Daytona 500. The thing about it is we're basically qualifying in race trim, so I feel good about the race tomorrow."

Truex Jr will share the second row of the grid with Hornish Jr, who had the best qualifying result of his Sprint Cup career, while Clint Bowyer made it three Chevy Earnhardt Childress Racing engines in the top five.

"It was a good lap for us," said Hornish. "What we're doing here as drivers doesn't compare at all to what the team has done to prepare our Penske race cars. We felt that we were a little bit off at Daytona and all the guys dug in and worked hard to bring us a fast race car here in Talladega."

Regan Smith, who crossed the finish-line first at Talladega last autumn but was stripped of victory for passing under the yellow line, qualified sixth as the best of the non-guaranteed drivers, while Mark Martin, fresh from his Phoenix win, will start seventh behind him, sharing the fourth row with the best ranked Toyota driver, rookie Scott Speed.

Brad Keselowski and David Ragan rounded out the top ten, while Dale Earnhardt Jr, the only Hendrick driver without a win this year, will start the race from 11th place on the grid.

Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth will share the seventh row of the grid with points leader Jeff Gordon, who held on to pole position provisionally in the early stages of the session.

Robby Gordon and Reed Sorenson will lose their qualifying position after their cars failed minimum height requirements in the post-session technical inspection. Meanwhile AJ Allmendinger and Kasey Kahne will drop to the back of the grid after being forced to make engine changes on their Richard Petty Motorsports Dodges.

Michael McDowell and Eric McLure both failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Chevrolet  188.171  50.890s
 2.  Greg Biffle         Ford       188.141  50.898s  + 0.008s
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet  187.971  50.944s  + 0.054s
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      187.953  50.949s  + 0.059s
 5.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  187.919  50.958s  + 0.068s
 6.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  187.897  50.964s  + 0.074s
 7.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  187.861  50.974s  + 0.084s
 8.  Scott Speed         Toyota     187.824  50.984s  + 0.094s
 9.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  187.687  51.021s  + 0.131s
10.  David Ragan         Ford       187.640  51.034s  + 0.144s
11.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  187.610  51.042s  + 0.152s
12.  Bobby Labonte       Ford       187.607  51.043s  + 0.153s
13.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       187.574  51.052s  + 0.162s
14.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  187.423  51.093s  + 0.203s
15.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  187.412  51.096s  + 0.206s
16.  Carl Edwards        Ford       187.383  51.104s  + 0.214s
17.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     187.379  51.105s  + 0.215s
18.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     187.163  51.164s  + 0.274s
19.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  187.071  51.189s  + 0.299s
20.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  187.061  51.192s  + 0.302s
21.  Scott Riggs         Toyota     186.900  51.236s  + 0.346s
22.  Joey Logano         Toyota     186.889  51.239s  + 0.349s
23.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     186.831  51.255s  + 0.365s
24.  Paul Menard         Ford       186.823  51.257s  + 0.367s
25.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  186.663  51.301s  + 0.411s
26.  David Gilliland     Chevrolet  186.638  51.308s  + 0.418s
27.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota     186.627  51.311s  + 0.421s
28.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      186.518  51.341s  + 0.451s
29.  Max Papis           Toyota     186.460  51.357s  + 0.467s
30.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  186.423  51.367s  + 0.477s
31.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     186.401  51.373s  + 0.483s
32.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota     186.260  51.412s  + 0.522s
33.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       186.245  51.416s  + 0.526s
34.  David Reutimann     Toyota     186.108  51.454s  + 0.564s
35.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      185.902  51.511s  + 0.621s
36.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     185.596  51.596s  + 0.706s
37.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      185.459  51.634s  + 0.744s
38.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  185.384  51.655s  + 0.765s
39.  Michael McDowell    Toyota     185.362  51.661s  + 0.771s
40.  Robby Gordon        Toyota     185.323  51.672s  + 0.782s
41.  David Stremme       Dodge      184.765  51.828s  + 0.938s
42.  AJ Allmendinger     Dodge      184.608  51.872s  + 0.982s
43.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      184.161  51.998s  + 1.108s
44.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet  184.048  52.030s  + 1.140s
45.  John Andretti       Chevrolet  182.738  52.403s  + 1.513s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Burton: Age no problem for Martin
Next article Ragan takes first Nationwide win

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe