Juan-Pablo Montoya Claims Richmond Pole

Photo Credit: John Harrelson/ Getty Images for NASCAR

Into the late stage of Friday afternoon qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway, Juan Pablo Montoya captured his 2nd pole position of 2011. Wheeling his Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing's #42 Chevrolet around the 0.75-mile short oval in 20.989 seconds, Montoya outpaced the Furniture Row #78 Chevy of Regan Smith by roughly 14/100ths of a second. On the second row is the Richard Childress Racing #33 of Clint Bowyer accompanied with the #4 Toyota of Kasey Kahne. Mark Martin in the #5 Chevrolet rounds out the top-5 for the 400-mile event.

The time trials for the CROWN ROYAL Presents The Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400 at Richmond was highly beneficial to Chevrolet teams. Five of the top-six qualifers for Saturday night's event were Chevrolet Impalas with the Red Bull Toyota of Kasey Kahne becoming the only non-General Motors team to break into the grouping. Chevrolet vehicles had dominated the Richmond short track from 2006 to 2008 until the recent success of Joe Gibbs Racing-fielded Toyota Camrys. For the past two spring races at Richmond International Raceway, Kyle Busch celebrated in victory lane. Busch will start 20th on Saturday night with his teammate Denny Hamlin starting 11th. Winning late summer events at the track in 2009 and 2010, Hamlin was also won the Friday night NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Richmond.

The CROWN ROYAL Presents The Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400 starts at 7:30 pm Eastern time on Saturday night.



NASCAR Sprint Cup
Richmond International Raceway
CROWN ROYAL Presents The Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400

Qualifying Results
 

1. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
2. 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Chevrolet
3. 33 Clint Bowyer BB&T Chevrolet
4. 4 Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota
5. 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
6. 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet
7. 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Dodge
8. 99 Carl Edwards Scotts eZ Seed Ford
9. 20 Joey Logano The Home Depot Toyota
10. 27 Paul Menard Libman / Menards Chevrolet
11. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota
12. 29 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet
13. 39 Ryan Newman U.S. Army Medicine Chevrolet
14. 47 Bobby Labonte Kingsford / Bush's Toyota
15. 13 Casey Mears GEICO Toyota
16. 30 David Stremme EchoStor Technologies Chevrolet
17. 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald's Chevrolet
18. 43 A J Allmendinger Nautica Ford
19. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota
20. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Pretzel Toyota
21. 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Auto Parts Toyota
22. 66 Michael McDowell K Love Toyota
23. 23 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford
24. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet
25. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
26. 87 Joe Nemechek AM FM Energy.com Pellet & Wood Stoves
27. 27 6 David Ragan UPS Ford
28. 38 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver's Ford
29. 36 Dave Blaney Golden Corral Chevrolet
30. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet
31. 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1 / Office Depot Chevrolet
32. 60 Mike Skinner Big Red Toyota
33. 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Ford
34. 09 Landon Cassill Security Benefit / Thank a Teacher Today 
35. 9 Marcos Ambrose DeWalt Ford
36. 22 Kurt Busch Shell / Pennzoil Dodge 
37. 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota
38. 32 Ken Schrader H&B Railroad / FAS Lane Racing Ford
39. 34 David Gilliland Gander Mountain Ford
40. 46 J J Yeley Red Line Oil Chevrolet
41. 71 Andy Lally # Interstate Moving Services Ford
42. 7 Robby Gordon Fast Five / Speed Energy Dodge
43. 37 Tony Raines Front Row Motorsports Ford

  

Did Not Qualify: # 92 Brian Keselowski #.