MONTOYA ON TALLADEGA POLE

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR  Service

TALLADEGA, Ala.—Benefiting from an early qualifying draw, Juan Pablo Montoya sped around 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway in 51.863 seconds (184.640 mph) Saturday to win the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Amp Energy Juice 500.
The pole was Montoya’s second at Talladega, his third of the season and the fifth of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career. Montoya was the sixth driver to make a qualifying attempt when track conditions were slightly cooler and before winds became more gusty.
Clint Bowyer (184.498 mph) qualified second for the seventh race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Kurt Busch (184.388 mph) will start third, followed by Joe Nemechek (184.253 mph) and Jeff Burton (184.161 mph).
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dave Blaney, Ryan Newman, Casey Mears and Sam Hornish Jr. will take the green flag from positions six through 10, respectively.
Chase leader Jimmie Johnson starts 19th, with second-place Denny Hamlin 17th and third-place Kevin Harvick 14th. Harvick won this season’s spring race at Talladega but hasn’t finished better than 20th in the previous three fall races“We always run really good here,” said Montoya, who has combined with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Jamie McMurray for seven poles this season. “We always have good racecars. Right now, get ourselves a good pit stall for the race and then see what happens.
“We'll be OK. Talladega is more about how the car is going to be in the draft and everything. We came with the same thing we had here in the spring, (when) we ran really well. Both cars ran really well.”
McMurray finished second to Harvick in April, and Montoya ran third.
Bowyer missed the top spot by .040 secon“Close, but no cigar,” Bowyer said. “But a good qualifying run helps with a lot of things—ego—just everything. The guys work hard to make sure they are fast on qualifying day and build the fastest thing possible. They came close to it.”
Talladega is the racetrack where starting position is perhaps least important, given that cars draft in large packs and race at speeds that exceed qualifying pace. That’s good news for the Ford contingent, whose top qualifier was Carl Edwards in 23rd.
Landon Cassill, Travis Kvapil and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify for the 43-car field.