Montoya Secures First Pole Position in the Chase

Now that he secured his first Chase presence in career, Colombian driver Juan Montoya took on the qualifying session of the first race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with little pressure on his shoulders. Everything he'll get from now on will be a bonus, so why not enjoy it, right?

The attitude brought him the first pole position in the 2009 Sprint Cup Chase, as he topped the NASCAR field on Friday with the best time of 28.545 and an average speed of 133.431 mph. Quite impressive for the Chevy driver, who'll start the Sunday race ahead of long-time Sprint Cup leader in 2009 Tony Stewart, also premiering in the NASCAR Chase as team owner and race driver.

"This is a brand new racecar and it's fast so it's nice to see. Last time we raced here we ran pretty good and with the rain coming some guys stayed out and we didn't get as good a finish as we should have. Hopefully we have a great sunny day on Sunday and the forecasts look pretty good. We've got a car fast enough to win, so we just have to be there at the end," said Montoya after the qualifying session.

The second row on Sunday will see Kurt Busch ahead of Denny Hamlin, while the last year's championship contender Carl Edwards had to settle for the 5th spot at the start. The overall Top 10 was completed by David Stremme, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon.

The championship leader Mark Martin only managed the 14th best time on Friday, but still managed to get in front of triple Cup champion and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who'll start from the 16th spot.

Derrike Cope and Dexter Bean have both failed to qualify for the race, as the former missed the Top 43 by only 0.053 seconds.