Not much has gone right for Juan Pablo Montoya this year but he enjoyed a bit of good fortune Saturday as he took advantage of an early spot in the qualifying order and a cooler Pocono Raceway surface to earn the pole for the Pennsylvania 400.
Montoya, who was 29th-fastest in the first practice session Friday and 13th in the final practice later that day, turned a lap of 176.043 mph on the triangular oval to earn his first pole in 48 races since April 2011 at Richmond.
The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver has struggled this season with an average starting spot of 23.8 and finish of 20.45, which has positioned him 21st in the Cup standings.
“I’m not sure if I’m more shocked that we’re on the pole right now (based) on how the last few races have been for us and how hard our season’s been, or that I’m on the pole in Pocono,” said Montoya, who has started no better than 16th in his last three Pocono starts.
“This is a place I always struggle in qualifying. It’s big. This is a big boost for everybody on (our) team.”
Just how much has Montoya struggled this year? He has had only one top-10 starting spot, a fifth at Phoenix in the second race of the year. He has only two top-10 finishes, with a season best of eighth at Bristol and Michigan.
Montoya, in fact, barely ran a better time than he did late Friday afternoon - his fastest in practice was 51.180 seconds and his qualifying lap was 51.124 seconds.
“I know tomorrow is going to be a reality check—we’ve still got to work on it a lot,” Montoya said. “We haven’t seen how the car works in clean air. We know there is a lot of really strong cars.
“But if you make the right strategy and if you get the track position, we’ve shown we’ve got the speed. We’ll see.”
Montoya said his organization still is going into races as an unknown and is “quite a ways away from where we want to get to” as far as week-in, week-out performance.
“We’ve been working so hard and we really need a little bit of light—we know we’re working in the right direction,” Montoya said. “We feel the cars are getting a little better. To actually go out there and win the pole—I just went to the hauler and (everyone) is happy and laughing.
“I’ve seen a lot of long faces and a lot of stressful faces. We really needed something like this as a company.”
Denny Hamlin (175.795) will start alongside Montoya on the front row Sunday.
Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five, while Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson will start sixth through 10th.
Stephen Leicht failed to make the race.
Montoya, who was 29th-fastest in the first practice session Friday and 13th in the final practice later that day, turned a lap of 176.043 mph on the triangular oval to earn his first pole in 48 races since April 2011 at Richmond.
The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver has struggled this season with an average starting spot of 23.8 and finish of 20.45, which has positioned him 21st in the Cup standings.
“I’m not sure if I’m more shocked that we’re on the pole right now (based) on how the last few races have been for us and how hard our season’s been, or that I’m on the pole in Pocono,” said Montoya, who has started no better than 16th in his last three Pocono starts.
“This is a place I always struggle in qualifying. It’s big. This is a big boost for everybody on (our) team.”
Just how much has Montoya struggled this year? He has had only one top-10 starting spot, a fifth at Phoenix in the second race of the year. He has only two top-10 finishes, with a season best of eighth at Bristol and Michigan.
Montoya, in fact, barely ran a better time than he did late Friday afternoon - his fastest in practice was 51.180 seconds and his qualifying lap was 51.124 seconds.
“I know tomorrow is going to be a reality check—we’ve still got to work on it a lot,” Montoya said. “We haven’t seen how the car works in clean air. We know there is a lot of really strong cars.
“But if you make the right strategy and if you get the track position, we’ve shown we’ve got the speed. We’ll see.”
Montoya said his organization still is going into races as an unknown and is “quite a ways away from where we want to get to” as far as week-in, week-out performance.
“We’ve been working so hard and we really need a little bit of light—we know we’re working in the right direction,” Montoya said. “We feel the cars are getting a little better. To actually go out there and win the pole—I just went to the hauler and (everyone) is happy and laughing.
“I’ve seen a lot of long faces and a lot of stressful faces. We really needed something like this as a company.”
Denny Hamlin (175.795) will start alongside Montoya on the front row Sunday.
Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five, while Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson will start sixth through 10th.
Stephen Leicht failed to make the race.