Even though Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole for the fall NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last year he didn’t think he had it again this year.
A mistake in turn three could have been costly, but, it wasn’t. “I got sideways and got on the gas and thought they (his crew) were going to kill me. I was about to press the button (on the radio) and they said “good job,” even with the mistake in three,” he explained. It wasn’t a little bobble it was “just over a (one) groove. It was just enough to say ‘you moron,’ just to yourself,” the native Colombian added. Driving the Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet Montoya turned a lap of 132.337mph around the flat one-mile flat in Loudon, New Hampshire. It was his third series pole. Kasey Kahne, last week’s pole winner, was second in the RPM Ford, with the new FR9 engine, at 132.158 mph. “Montoya was super-fast this morning, so I wasn’t surprised that he was on the pole so far,” said Kahne. “It’s been a good day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and just trying to get our Budweiser Ford where it needs to be for Sunday.” Kurt Busch, who has finished in the top six in three of the last four races, was third fastest in the Penske Racing Dodge. “Qualifying has been good for us this season,” said Busch adding “the track conditions were warmer and I knew I couldn’t overdrive the corners anymore than we did in practice.” There might be a problem in that there’s rain in the forecast which may wash out final practice on Saturday. Busch commented “last year I think that it rained out in qualifying in the first race here. We knew that it was going to rain out, but, evening knowing that we still did a mock up qualifying run so that we had notes for when we came back out in September.” That September race is a Chase race thus taking on added importance. Mark Martin, winner of the 2009 fall race here, was fourth, Ryan Newman was fifth and David Reutimann was the fast Toyota driver in sixth. Series points leader, Kevin Harvick struggled to a 24th place starting spot, while last week’s winner, Jimmie Johnson was 10th. Travis Kvapil and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for Sunday’s 301-lap race.
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