LONG POND, Pa. — Juan Pablo Montoya’s contribution to the NASCAR highlight reel so far this season was his crash into a jet dryer in the season-opening Daytona 500.
Montoya finally had a bright spot that didn’t involve explosions and raging fuel fires.
He turned a lap of 176.043 mph Saturday to win the pole at Pocono Raceway. The winless Montoya won his first pole since April 2011 in Richmond, Va. He hasn’t won a race since Aug. 8, 2010 at Watkins Glen.
The pole was a needed lift for Montoya and his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team. He’s 21st in the standings and has yet to drive to a top-five finish. He only has two top 10s and has continued a string of mediocre seasons since qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in 2009.
Montoya admitted he was “shocked" he beat out Pocono qualifying stars such as Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne to lead the field in Sunday’s 400- mile race.
“We know we’re working in the right direction, we know we’re working hard, we feel the cars are getting a little better," Montoya said, “but to go out there and get a pole ... I just went through the hauler and all the engineers, they’re all happy and laughing. I’m used to long faces, a lot of long faces, a lot of stressful faces. We needed something like this as a company. This is big for us."
Hamlin turned a lap of 175.795 and qualified second. It’s his 12th top-10 start in 14 career Pocono races.
Paul Menard, Kahne and Marcos Ambrose round out the top five.
Points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts eighth.
Montoya joined NASCAR in 2007 after a successful career in open wheel that included an Indianapolis 500 victory and a Monaco Grand Prix win. His 2009 season where he finished eighth in the standings turned out to be a one-year blip instead of a breakthrough into regular championship contention.
His team has undergone massive turnover — including new crew chief Chris Heroy — yet it didn’t bring the No. 42 Chevrolet any better results. He hasn’t finished better than 21st in any of his last three races and has finished better than 14th only once in his last 11 races.
“I think we’re quite a ways away from as a company where we want to get to," he said. “We want to be able to come every weekend knowing you can beat a Hendrick, beat a Gibbs. That’s our goal."
Montoya knows he was as unlikely as any driver to win the pole.
“If you told me this morning I was going to be sitting on the pole, I’d say, ‘pfff,’" he said. “I thought we were going to be OK. I thought we’d be 12-15. And we’re sitting on the pole."
Also on Saturday:
Sadler redeems himself with Nationwide win at Iowa
NEWTON, Iowa — Elliott Sadler rebounded from the disappointment of his jumped-restart penalty last week in Indianapolis to win the NASCAR Nationwide Race at Iowa Speedway. Sadler denied Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a fourth straight victory at Iowa Speedway, and increased his lead in the series standings to 18 points over Austin Dillon. Sadler won the pole with a track-record qualifying speed of 135.141 mph and was near or at the front of the pack the entire race.
Johnson tops Pro Stock qualifying
KENT, Wash. — Pro Stock points leader Allen Johnson topped Pro Stock qualifying for the sixth straight event, taking the No. 1 position in the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Spencer Massey led the Top Fuel field, and teammate Ron Capps topped the Funny Car class.
Power powers way to pole at Mid-Ohio IndyCar
LEXINGTON, Ohio — Will Power captured his third pole of the season, holding off Dario Franchitti and rookie Simon Pagenaud to take the top qualifying spot for the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. Power, ranked as the best in the series on road courses, was timed in 1 minute, 5.6474 seconds around the 2.25-mile, 13-turn layout nestled in farmland between Cleveland and Columbus.
