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5th
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Juan Pablo Montoya was a little surprised, but, very pleased at winning the pole for the Pennsylvania 400 on Saturday.
After a disastrous 2011 season team owner, Chip Ganassi, replaced the upper management and Montoya's crew chief in an attempt to turn the team around. It hasn't exactly showed that turnaround until this weekend.
“To be honest with you, I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that we're on the pole right now,” the Colombian driver explained, “how the last few races have been for us and how hard our season has been, or that I'm on the pole in Pocono. This is a place where I struggle in qualifying. It's big.
“This is a big boost for everybody on the Target team. We've been working so hard and we really need a little bit of light.”
Part of that pole-winning lap of 51.124 seconds, 176.043 mph, was due to gaming the qualifying system. By concentrating on his race setup, while not looking for outright speed, Montoya earned an early qualifying draw in his Chevrolet. NASCAR bases qualifying by inverting the first practice speeds with the fastest driver attempting to qualify last.
That strategy paid off with Montoya's 8th career pole and first at the 2.5 mile track called the Tricky Triangle due to its tri-cornered shape.
Denny Hamlin, who usually performs well in Pocono was second fastest in a Toyota at 175.795 mph. Paul Menard claimed third spot in a backup car, at 175.627 mph, after wrecking in Friday's opening practice.
Amplifying what this weekend means to Montoya and his team he said “this is a big day for us. We played the strategy right.
“Everyone has been working so hard understanding what the car needs. It shows we're going in the right direction. We've seen the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Still Montoya admits the real story will be told after Sunday's race.
“I know tomorrow is going to be a reality check that we've still got to work on it a lot,” he said. “I told people...'let's enjoy today.' I think we've done our homework yesterday in race trim and we know where we need to go with the car, so we'll see.”
After a disastrous 2011 season team owner, Chip Ganassi, replaced the upper management and Montoya's crew chief in an attempt to turn the team around. It hasn't exactly showed that turnaround until this weekend.
“To be honest with you, I'm not sure if I'm more shocked that we're on the pole right now,” the Colombian driver explained, “how the last few races have been for us and how hard our season has been, or that I'm on the pole in Pocono. This is a place where I struggle in qualifying. It's big.
“This is a big boost for everybody on the Target team. We've been working so hard and we really need a little bit of light.”
Part of that pole-winning lap of 51.124 seconds, 176.043 mph, was due to gaming the qualifying system. By concentrating on his race setup, while not looking for outright speed, Montoya earned an early qualifying draw in his Chevrolet. NASCAR bases qualifying by inverting the first practice speeds with the fastest driver attempting to qualify last.
That strategy paid off with Montoya's 8th career pole and first at the 2.5 mile track called the Tricky Triangle due to its tri-cornered shape.
Denny Hamlin, who usually performs well in Pocono was second fastest in a Toyota at 175.795 mph. Paul Menard claimed third spot in a backup car, at 175.627 mph, after wrecking in Friday's opening practice.
Amplifying what this weekend means to Montoya and his team he said “this is a big day for us. We played the strategy right.
“Everyone has been working so hard understanding what the car needs. It shows we're going in the right direction. We've seen the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Still Montoya admits the real story will be told after Sunday's race.
“I know tomorrow is going to be a reality check that we've still got to work on it a lot,” he said. “I told people...'let's enjoy today.' I think we've done our homework yesterday in race trim and we know where we need to go with the car, so we'll see.”