Stewart claims Pocono pole position

The Stewart-Haas driver and owner beat the previous benchmark set by Earnhardt Ganassi's Montoya, putting in a lap of 52.511 seconds at an average speed of 171.393 mph, less than a tenth of a second faster than the Colombian.

Stewart will start from pole for the second time this year, and also the second at Pocono, a track where he has won twice in the past.

"I'm a little surprised by myself," said Stewart. "I'm not a qualifier and this has always been my weak suit but if you're going to pick a place where you want to have track position, this is it.

"If I don't go out like I did last year and crash the thing in Happy Hour [practice] we'll have a good starting spot."

Montoya will start from the front row for the second week in a row, following his pole position at Indianapolis, where he looked to be closing in on his maiden oval win before a strategy decision dropped him back in the final stages of the race. Like Stewart, he was surprised by his qualifying lap.

"When I crossed the line I was waiting for the guys to say I was like P15 or something and he says P1! I was like 'Are you serious or are you joking with me?'" said Montoya. "I'm kind of happy I guess... we're trying a bit of a different approach with the car and it seems to be working."

Four-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin was third fastest despite admitting his car was not at its optimum for a flying lap, suffering a spin earlier in practice. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was the fastest Toyota and will share the second row of the grid with fellow four-time winner at the tri-oval Jeff Gordon, who was the best among the Hendrick Motorsports camp.

His team-mate Jimmie Johnson had paced practice earlier in the day and ended up sixth in qualifying, right behind Stewart's team-mate Ryan Newman. Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger was the fastest Ford in seventh, while the Chevrolets of Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton, Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray and Hendrick's Mark Martin rounded out the top 10.

Brad Keselowski was the fastest Dodge in 11th, while also in a Charger, JJ Yeley was best among those having to qualify on speed taking 30th on the grid for Sunday's 500-miler. David Stremme and Max Papis both failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  171.393  52.511s
 2.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet  171.096  52.602s  + 0.091s
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     170.371  52.826s  + 0.315s
 4.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  170.222  52.872s  + 0.361s
 5.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  169.936  52.961s  + 0.450s
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  169.901  52.972s  + 0.461s
 7.  AJ Allmendinger     Ford       169.879  52.979s  + 0.468s
 8.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  169.770  53.013s  + 0.502s
 9.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  169.696  53.036s  + 0.525s
10.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  169.613  53.062s  + 0.551s
11.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      169.543  53.084s  + 0.573s
12.  Greg Biffle         Ford       169.447  53.114s  + 0.603s
13.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      169.441  53.116s  + 0.605s
14.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  169.163  53.203s  + 0.692s
15.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      169.122  53.216s  + 0.705s
16.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       169.100  53.223s  + 0.712s
17.  Joey Logano         Toyota     169.024  53.247s  + 0.736s
18.  David Ragan         Ford       168.995  53.256s  + 0.745s
19.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     168.700  53.349s  + 0.838s
20.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  168.672  53.358s  + 0.847s
21.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     168.669  53.359s  + 0.848s
22.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  168.602  53.380s  + 0.869s
23.  Paul Menard         Ford       168.413  53.440s  + 0.929s
24.  David Reutimann     Toyota     168.366  53.455s  + 0.944s
25.  Carl Edwards        Ford       168.347  53.461s  + 0.950s
26.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       168.294  53.478s  + 0.967s
27.  Scott Speed         Toyota     168.083  53.545s  + 1.034s
28.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     167.951  53.587s  + 1.076s
29.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       167.813  53.631s  + 1.120s
30.  JJ Yeley            Dodge      167.629  53.690s  + 1.179s
31.  Reed Sorenson       Toyota     167.370  53.773s  + 1.262s
32.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       167.330  53.786s  + 1.275s
33.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     167.156  53.842s  + 1.331s
34.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  166.988  53.896s  + 1.385s
35.  Landon Cassill      Chevrolet  166.988  53.896s  + 1.385s
36.  Michael McDowell    Toyota     166.979  53.899s  + 1.388s
37.  David Gilliland     Ford       166.457  54.068s  + 1.557s
38.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     166.392  54.089s  + 1.578s
39.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  166.322  54.112s  + 1.601s
40.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  165.511  54.377s  + 1.866s
41.  Kevin Conway        Ford       164.165  54.823s  + 2.312s
42.  PJ Jones            Toyota        -       -         -
43.  Todd Bodine         Toyota     166.276  54.127s  + 1.616s