Montoya nips Johnson for Brickyard pole

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(July 24, 2010)

INDIANAPOLIS —Juan Pablo Montoya took advantage of an early qualifying draw and a slightly conservative approach from Jimmie Johnson to win the pole for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as Chevrolets claimed nine of the first 10 starting spots.

With a lap at 182.278 mph (49.375 seconds) Saturday morning, Montoya earned his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season and the fourth of his career. He’ll start Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race beside Johnson (182.142 mph), whose desire to avoid mistakes during time trials may have cost the three-time Brickyard winner a shot at the pole.

“It was a good lap,” said Montoya, who lost an excellent chance to win last year’s race when NASCAR busted him for speeding on pit road. “I think in (Turn) 2, I got a little bit tight and had to brake a little bit coming off, but I don’t think it was a major deal. … Everywhere else was pretty good.

“We came here and (tire) tested, and when we got off the truck, it was good; put it in the truck, it was good—brought it here, it was good. So I’ve just got to make sure to do everything right (Sunday) and see what happens.”

Despite a late draw and a racing surface that grew hotter as the session progressed, Mark Martin qualified third at 181.803 mph. Jamie McMurray, Montoya’s teammate, claimed the fourth starting spot with a lap at 181.748 mph.

A pair of later qualifiers took the third row: Ryan Newman (fifth at 181.741 mph) and Clint Bowyer (sixth at 181.517 mph). Greg Biffle, the only non-Chevy driver in the top 10, put his No. 16 Ford in the seventh starting position with a lap at 181.353 mph. Jeff Gordon, Cup points leader Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton completed the top 10.

Johnson was intent on avoiding the sorts of mistakes he had made during Friday’s practice.

“I was really proud of what I did, because yesterday I continued to make mistakes,” Johnson said. “I was getting three of the four corners right and couldn’t get all four right. So I made sure today that I did my job—and maybe left a little bit on the table, because I wanted to be very line-specific and not make a mistake.”

Notes: Jacques Villeneuve earned the final starting spot among those required to qualify on speed. He, Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. (who starts 25th) are former winners of the Indianapolis 500. … David Gilliland, Casey Mears, David Stremme and JJ Yeley failed to qualify for the 43-car field. Yeley failed to complete his lap after spinning and smacking the outside wall.

Below is the starting grid for the 2010 Brickyard 400:

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	182.279	49.375	Leader
2	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	182.142	49.412	-0.037
3	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	181.803	49.504	-0.129
4	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	181.748	49.519	-0.144
5	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	181.741	49.521	-0.146
6	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Wheaties Fuel	181.518	49.582	-0.207
7	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	181.353	49.627	-0.252
8	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	181.251	49.655	-0.280
9	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	181.210	49.666	-0.291
10	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Prilosec OTC	181.156	49.681	-0.306
11	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Penske Racing	180.883	49.756	-0.381
12	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	180.730	49.798	-0.423
13	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal	180.571	49.842	-0.467
14	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite / Vortex	180.426	49.882	-0.507
15	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Old Spice / Office Depot	180.382	49.894	-0.519
16	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Valvoline	180.357	49.901	-0.526
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Amp Energy / National Guard	180.260	49.928	-0.553
18	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	180.249	49.931	-0.556
19	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	180.220	49.939	-0.564
20	71	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	TaxSlayer.com	180.213	49.941	-0.566
21	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	SpeedFactory.tv	180.155	49.957	-0.582
22	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	FarmAmerican.com	180.047	49.987	-0.612
23	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M’s	179.845	50.043	-0.668
24	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	Budweiser	179.791	50.058	-0.683
25	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	179.590	50.114	-0.739
26	98	Paul Menard	Ford	MasterCraft Doors / Menards	179.497	50.140	-0.765
27	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Stanley	178.962	50.290	-0.915
28	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	178.916	50.303	-0.928
29	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	178.891	50.310	-0.935
30	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	178.884	50.312	-0.937
31	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	178.845	50.323	-0.948
32	83	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Red Bull	178.838	50.325	-0.950
33	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	NEMCO Motorsports	178.834	50.326	-0.951
34	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	178.781	50.341	-0.966
35	13	Max Papis	Toyota	GEICO	178.621	50.386	-1.011
36	09	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction	178.377	50.455	-1.080
37	55	Michael McDowell	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	178.341	50.465	-1.090
38	37	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Long John Silver’s	178.013	50.558	-1.183
39	164	Todd Bodine	Toyota	Fred’s Hometown Discount Store	177.890	50.593	-1.218
40	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	177.578	50.682	-1.307
41	47	Marcos Ambrose+	Toyota	Kroger / Clorox	175.562	51.264	-1.889
42	34	Kevin Conway+*	Ford	Extenze	175.179	51.376	-2.001
43	132	Jacques Villeneuve	Toyota	Dollar General	177.466	50.714	-1.339

Did Not Qualify
44	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	176.783	50.910	-1.535
45	36	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	176.626	50.955	-1.580
46	26	David Stremme	Ford	Air National Guard	176.236	51.068	-1.693
47	46	J.J. Yeley	Dodge	Cash America	-	-	-