Long Pond, PA (Sports Network) - Tony Stewart claimed the pole for Sunday's
Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 after posting the quickest lap in qualifying
at Pocono Raceway.
Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, turned a lap of 171.393 m.p.h.
around the 2.5-mile triangular track for his second pole of the season and the
14th of his Cup career. His first pole at Pocono came in July 2000.
Last night, Stewart competed in the All-Star Circuit of Champions sprint car
event in Fargo, ND. He arrived at Pocono in the early hours of Friday morning.
"I was really, really upset because I crashed by myself into a marker tire in
the inside while running second," Stewart said of last night's race in Fargo.
"The last thing [World of Outlaws sprint car champion] Donny Schatz told me
before I left was to take it out on those guys tomorrow, so I guess we took it
out on the stopwatch today, so I'm really proud of that."
Schatz, who drives for Stewart, won the sprint car race.
Stewart won the Pocono 500 (June race) in 2003 and '09. The driver and owner
of the No.14 Chevrolet has yet to win a Cup race so far this season.
Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed the outside pole with his qualifying lap of 171.096
m.p.h. Montoya won the pole for last weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. He led the most laps at Indy before crashing with less than 15
laps to go and ending up 32nd.
"Last week was a rough week for the team, but to rebound at a place where we
don't run that well, it's nice," Montoya said.
Denny Hamlin, who has won the last two races at Pocono, took the third
starting spot, followed by Jeff Gordon, a four-time race winner here, and Ryan
Newman.
"We knew the cloud cover was going to help us out," Hamlin said. "We had good
speed all day, but we just haven't had a great handling race car and it
showed. We were all over the race track there. I'm very happy with the time,
and we will start near the front, and that is a good starting spot for
Sunday."
Jimmie Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, A.J. Allmendinger,
Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, the Brickyard 400 winner, and Mark Martin
completed the top-10.
Points leader Kevin Harvick will start 14th. Harvick currently holds a 184-
point advantage over Gordon.
David Stremme and Max Papis failed to qualify.
The 500-mile race at Pocono is scheduled to start shortly after 1:00 p.m.
(et).
