Montoya tops in qualifying at Talladega
By Reid Spencer
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.
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.
Landon Cassill, Travis Kvapil and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
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