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Montoya claims Talladega pole

Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his third pole position of the season in qualifying for Sunday's NASCAR Chase race at Talladega Superspeedway

The Colombian, who was sixth in the qualifying order, ran a first lap close to the wall to gain speed and a second at the bottom of the highly-banked track to cover a shorter distance, setting a time of 51.863 seconds on the latter one at an average speed of 184.640mph, a benchmark that stood unbeaten throughout the session.

Montoya's pole was the fifth of his career and his second at Talladega, where he made his stock car debut for Chip Ganassi four years ago in the ARCA RE/MAX series.

"Last time we ran here [Earnhardt Ganassi cars] finished second and third, so we're looking forward to a good day tomorrow," said Montoya, who dedicated his pole position to the memory of NASCAR executive Jim Hunter, who passed away on Friday after battling cancer for almost a year.

"We've got to be there at the end, there are always big wrecks and many big things happening here, so hopefully we're not in any of those. But you know, it's Talladega!"

Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer will start second as the best placed of the drivers in the Chase, completing a front row sweep for Earnhardt Childress Racing engines, which have won every restrictor plate race this season, except the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona in January.

Penske's Kurt Busch will start third beside Joe Nemechek, who was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers and the best of the Toyotas, while Jeff Burton rounded out the top five ahead of crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.

RCR driver Kevin Harvick, who has two restrictor-plate wins to his name this year including the spring event at Talladega, was the fastest qualifier among the top title contenders in 14th, despite qualifying usually being his weak spot.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, who ran a 201mph average lap in the draft during Friday practice, will start from 17th on the grid, right ahead of reigning champion and points leader Jimmie Johnson as both are expected to drop back in the field in order to avoid the carnage often seen at Talladega.

The Fords did not fare well in qualifying with Matt Kenseth being the best of the Fusions down in 27th place.

Landon Cassill, Travis Kvapil, Johnny Sauter failed to make the field for Sunday's race.

Pos  Driver                Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Juan Pablo Montoya    Chevrolet  184.640  51.863s
 2.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet  184.498  51.903s  + 0.040s
 3.  Kurt Busch            Dodge      184.388  51.934s  + 0.071s
 4.  Joe Nemechek          Toyota     184.253  51.972s  + 0.109s
 5.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet  184.161  51.998s  + 0.135s
 6.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet  183.906  52.070s  + 0.207s
 7.  Dave Blaney           Chevrolet  183.885  52.076s  + 0.213s
 8.  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet  183.762  52.111s  + 0.248s
 9.  Casey Mears           Toyota     183.621  52.151s  + 0.288s
10.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge      183.614  52.153s  + 0.290s
11.  Brad Keselowski       Dodge      183.561  52.168s  + 0.305s
12.  Jamie McMurray        Chevrolet  183.543  52.173s  + 0.310s
13.  Jeff Fuller           Toyota     183.406  52.212s  + 0.349s
14.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet  183.374  52.221s  + 0.358s
15.  Michael McDowell      Chevrolet  183.273  52.250s  + 0.387s
16.  Kasey Kahne           Toyota     183.245  52.258s  + 0.395s
17.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota     183.052  52.313s  + 0.450s
18.  Martin Truex Jr       Toyota     183.010  52.325s  + 0.462s
19.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet  182.999  52.328s  + 0.465s
20.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota     182.919  52.351s  + 0.488s
21.  David Reutimann       Toyota     182.863  52.367s  + 0.504s
22.  Chad McCumbee         Chevrolet  182.839  52.374s  + 0.511s
23.  Carl Edwards          Ford       182.821  52.379s  + 0.516s
24.  Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet  182.800  52.385s  + 0.522s
25.  Joey Logano           Toyota     182.790  52.388s  + 0.525s
26.  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet  182.786  52.389s  + 0.526s
27.  Matt Kenseth          Ford       182.786  52.389s  + 0.526s
28.  David Ragan           Ford       182.650  52.428s  + 0.565s
29.  Scott Speed           Toyota     182.598  52.443s  + 0.580s
30.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet  182.522  52.465s  + 0.602s
31.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet  182.400  52.500s  + 0.637s
32.  Kyle Busch            Toyota     182.365  52.510s  + 0.647s
33.  Elliott Sadler        Ford       182.306  52.527s  + 0.664s
34.  Greg Biffle           Ford       182.258  52.541s  + 0.678s
35.  Marcos Ambrose        Toyota     181.998  52.616s  + 0.753s
36.  AJ Allmendinger       Ford       181.880  52.650s  + 0.787s
37.  Aric Almirola         Ford       181.673  52.710s  + 0.847s
38.  Paul Menard           Ford       181.653  52.716s  + 0.853s
39.  Landon Cassill        Toyota     181.615  52.727s  + 0.864s
40.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet  181.367  52.799s  + 0.936s
41.  Bill Elliott          Ford       180.601  53.023s  + 1.160s
42.  Travis Kvapil         Ford       180.461  53.064s  + 1.201s
43.  David Gilliland       Ford       179.568  53.328s  + 1.465s
44.  Robert Richardson Jr  Ford       179.024  53.490s  + 1.627s
45.  Robby Gordon          Toyota     178.517  53.642s  + 1.779s
46.  Johnny Sauter         Toyota     177.117  54.066s  + 2.203s

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