Pruett on Mexico Busch pole
American Scott Pruett won pole position for the Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 on Saturday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, beating Mexican Carlos Contreras and Ganassi teammate Juan Pablo Montoya
Pruett set a time of 1:27.458 in his first qualifying lap driving the No. 41 Wrigley's Dodge, two tenths of a second faster than local Carlos Contreras, also driving a Dodge.
"Both the Ganassi cars are running good since we put them on the track," Pruett said. "We did some changes, just minor ones for qualifying and it worked real good - We'll just make a couple of changes within the rules to go racing."
Pruett's pole position is not his first in the Busch Series as he had been on pole in 2001 at Watkins Glen, also a road course event.
"We spent some time on road courses and that gives us a little advantage, so all in all as we do the things smart and we do the right calls on stops, we can have a chance to win."
Montoya was disappointed with his third-place grid spot, complaining of understeer after his team did some changes to the set-up of his car.
He did a 1:27.675 lap in his first attempt and failed to improve on his second and third qualifying laps.
While most drivers improved over their Friday times, Montoya was six tenths slower relative to his best time from practice.
"My car was really good yesterday. We had a really good balance and today my crew-chief decided to make some changes and the car just became really tight," Montoya said.
"I'm a little disappointed with that as we had a really good car yesterday, but you know, Ganassi is 1-3 so hopefully we have a decent chance of winning tomorrow."
The drivers from the last group dominated qualifying, as the field was split into seven groups, taking to the track for six minutes each.
Mexican Jorge Goeters will line up fifth for Sunday's race in his No. 27 Ford, while the third row of the grid will be shared by defending event winner Denny Hamlin and Canadian Ron Fellows, both men driving Chevrolets.
Last year's pole-sitter Boris Said qualified seventh in his No. 9 Ray Evernham Dodge, while former Australian V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose will line up 12th, sharing the sixth row of the grid with Roush driver Michel Jourdain Jr.
The fastest Toyota qualifier was again Jason Leffler in the No. 38 Camry, although he didn't enjoy a good run finishing down in 23rd.
Sunday's race will be the most international event NASCAR has ever staged. Thirteen foreign drivers will take the start of the race, representing five different countries in the Series third visit to Mexico.
The Telcel Motorola Mexico 200, round number three of the NASCAR Busch Series, will run for 80 laps at the 2.5 mile track, starting at 1:00 pm (7:00 pm GMT time).
Pos Driver Make Speed Time 1. Scott Pruett Dodge 103.647 1:27.458 2. Carlos Contreras Dodge 103.407 1:27.661 + 0.203 3. Juan Montoya Dodge 103.391 1:27.675 + 0.217 4. Jorge Goeters Ford 103.203 1:27.835 + 0.377 5. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 103.086 1:27.934 + 0.476 6. Ron Fellows Chevrolet 103.014 1:27.996 + 0.538 7. Boris Said Dodge 102.668 1:28.292 + 0.834 8. Regan Smith Chevrolet 102.594 1:28.356 + 0.898 9. Carl Edwards Ford 102.536 1:28.406 + 0.948 10. PJ Jones Chevrolet 102.498 1:28.439 + 0.981 11. Michel Jourdain Jr Ford 102.440 1:28.489 + 1.031 12. Marcos Ambrose Ford 102.357 1:28.561 + 1.103 13. Stephen Leicht Ford 102.323 1:28.590 + 1.132 14. Brad Coleman Chevrolet 102.129 1:28.758 + 1.300 15. JJ Yeley Chevrolet 102.126 1:28.761 + 1.303 16. Greg Biffle Ford 102.017 1:28.856 + 1.398 17. Adrian Fernandez Chevrolet 101.916 1:28.944 + 1.486 18. Bobby Hamilton Jr Ford 101.832 1:29.017 + 1.559 19. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 101.797 1:29.048 + 1.590 20. German Quiroga Jr Chevrolet 101.749 1:29.090 + 1.632 21. David Gilliland Chevrolet 101.331 1:29.457 + 1.999 22. Steve Wallace Dodge 101.179 1:29.592 + 2.134 23. Jason Leffler Toyota 100.992 1:29.758 + 2.300 24. Ruben Pardo Dodge 100.944 1:29.800 + 2.342 25. David Reutimann Toyota 100.935 1:29.808 + 2.350 26. Brent Sherman Chevrolet 100.862 1:29.873 + 2.415 27. Shane Huffman Chevrolet 100.858 1:29.877 + 2.419 28. Mike Wallace Chevrolet 100.743 1:29.979 + 2.521 29. Rogelio Lopez Dodge 100.732 1:29.989 + 2.531 30. Jon Wood Ford 100.692 1:30.025 + 2.567 31. Dave Blaney Toyota 100.626 1:30.084 + 2.626 32. Todd Kluever Ford 100.593 1:30.114 + 2.656 33. JR Fitzpatrick Jr Chevrolet 100.085 1:30.571 + 3.113 34. Kyle Krisiloff Ford 100.000 1:30.648 + 3.190 35. David Ragan Ford 99.980 1:30.666 + 3.208 36. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 99.637 1:30.978 + 3.520 37. Kertus Davis Chevrolet 99.627 1:30.987 + 3.529 38. Todd Souza Chevrolet 99.610 1:31.003 + 3.545 39. Brian Simo Chevrolet 99.328 1:31.261 + 3.803 40. Antonio Perez Dodge 94.723 1:35.698 + 8.240 41. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet No timed lap 42. John Young Ford No timed lap 43. Alex Garcia Chevrolet No timed lap
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