Tony Stewart bumped Juan Pablo Montoya off the pole for the Pocono 500.
Even though Stewart is a two-time Sprint Cup champ, he was likely the most surprised driver in the house, but, not by much.
In Stewart’s 12-year NASCAR Sprint Cup career he’d won 37 races, but, this was only his 12th Cup pole. His speed was 171.393 mph
“Tell me about it, I’m afraid the sky is going to be falling when I go outside so I’m a little surprised by it myself. I’m not a qualifier, I admit, that has always been my weak suit. Man, if you’re going to pick a place where you want to have good track position, this is it because it’s really important here at Pocono,” Stewart said after his fast lap of
The Indiana native has two victories at the 2.5 mile tri-oval with the last one coming in 2009 in June. He also won the pole for this race in 2009.
Juan Pablo Montoya was apparently finished licking his wounds after the disappointment of dominating, but, losing race at Indianapolis last week for the second-year-in-a-row. He said he gotten over the defeat “in a couple of minutes.”
As for Friday’s 171.096 mph qualification run the Colombian-born driver said “it was, surprising I’d say. I think we were about eighth in practice or something. I thought not the last run, the run before the car felt really good. I didn’t get all of it out of the car.”
Following the two Chevrolets on the front row was Denny Hamlin in a Toyota.
Hamlin has four wins at Pocono including the preceding two events thus his history makes him optimistic for Sunday’s race. He explained “We've had really good races here and we've had to come back from adversity the last 20 laps of the last two races to win, so I don’t want to be in that position again. Hopefully we have a smooth day on Sunday, but we need 10 more points and that's our goal.
Jeff Gordon, who snagged Kyle Busch’s former spotter, Jeff Dickerson, fills out the second row in fourth.
Speaking of surprises AJ Allmendinger had the fastest Ford, seventh. He admits he’s struggled in qualifying this year.
“We had the one pole and I don’t think we’ve been inside the top 10 other than that. We knew we had a decent draw and were pretty good in practice, so I just wanted to get a solid lap in. I probably gave up a little bit in turn three. I’ve been really struggling today with the car, line, everything in turn three, which is pretty funny because that’s always been my best corner, so it’s kind of flip-flopped. That will get us in the top 10 and it’s a long race, so track position is key but starting up front makes it a good start to the weekend.”
Brad Keselowski was the highest qualified Dodge driver, 11th, and point’s leader Kevin Harvick was 14th. Max Papis and David Stremme failed to qualify.
Even though Stewart is a two-time Sprint Cup champ, he was likely the most surprised driver in the house, but, not by much.
In Stewart’s 12-year NASCAR Sprint Cup career he’d won 37 races, but, this was only his 12th Cup pole. His speed was 171.393 mph
“Tell me about it, I’m afraid the sky is going to be falling when I go outside so I’m a little surprised by it myself. I’m not a qualifier, I admit, that has always been my weak suit. Man, if you’re going to pick a place where you want to have good track position, this is it because it’s really important here at Pocono,” Stewart said after his fast lap of
The Indiana native has two victories at the 2.5 mile tri-oval with the last one coming in 2009 in June. He also won the pole for this race in 2009.
Juan Pablo Montoya was apparently finished licking his wounds after the disappointment of dominating, but, losing race at Indianapolis last week for the second-year-in-a-row. He said he gotten over the defeat “in a couple of minutes.”
As for Friday’s 171.096 mph qualification run the Colombian-born driver said “it was, surprising I’d say. I think we were about eighth in practice or something. I thought not the last run, the run before the car felt really good. I didn’t get all of it out of the car.”
Following the two Chevrolets on the front row was Denny Hamlin in a Toyota.
Hamlin has four wins at Pocono including the preceding two events thus his history makes him optimistic for Sunday’s race. He explained “We've had really good races here and we've had to come back from adversity the last 20 laps of the last two races to win, so I don’t want to be in that position again. Hopefully we have a smooth day on Sunday, but we need 10 more points and that's our goal.
Jeff Gordon, who snagged Kyle Busch’s former spotter, Jeff Dickerson, fills out the second row in fourth.
Speaking of surprises AJ Allmendinger had the fastest Ford, seventh. He admits he’s struggled in qualifying this year.
“We had the one pole and I don’t think we’ve been inside the top 10 other than that. We knew we had a decent draw and were pretty good in practice, so I just wanted to get a solid lap in. I probably gave up a little bit in turn three. I’ve been really struggling today with the car, line, everything in turn three, which is pretty funny because that’s always been my best corner, so it’s kind of flip-flopped. That will get us in the top 10 and it’s a long race, so track position is key but starting up front makes it a good start to the weekend.”
Brad Keselowski was the highest qualified Dodge driver, 11th, and point’s leader Kevin Harvick was 14th. Max Papis and David Stremme failed to qualify.