TALLADEGA, Ala. — TALLADEGA, Ala. - Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed a sliver of the spotlight focused on the three championship contending drivers by winning the pole for today’s AMP Energy Juice 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Montoya, who is not in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, turned a lap at 184.640 mph to better Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and all the contenders in Saturday’s qualifying session.
While the focus should be on Montoya’s bid to win his first race on an oval track, he said he knows it will instead be on the middle of the pack, where championship contenders Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick will start.
“If you are in the Chase and you are not in the top three[in standings], nobody even cares,” Montoya said.
It’s the downside of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, which pits the top-12 drivers against each other in a 10-race push to the title. Today’s race is the beginning of the final four-race stretch, and the field has separated itself so that only three drivershave a realistic shot at winning the title.
And none of them was as good as Montoya in qualifying.
Harvick qualified 14th, Hamlin 17th and Johnson 19th for a race that could be pivotal in shaking up the standings. Because of the unpredictability at Talladega, the rankings could look dramatically different by the time the checkered flag falls today.
Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, has a six-point lead over Hamlin. Harvick, the winner of the April race at Talladega and the July race at Daytona, is 61 points back.
“I think it’s very possible for [Harvick] to leapfrog both of us this weekend,” Hamlin said. “I think it’s a complete wild card. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
For starters, the Chase contenders will have to work their way to the front of the field, where Montoya will lead Bowyer and Busch at the green flag.
Bowyer, who is 12th in the Chase standings, is still searching for a victory that will give him some redemption from the championship-crippling penalty he received when his winning car at New Hampshire failed inspection following the first race of the Chase.
And Busch, who is ninth in the standings, wants a long overdue victory in a restrictorplate race.
They’ll have to jockey their way through the field to achieve those goals, as alliances will be formed and drivers will do what they can to help their preferred contender leave today’s race with his title hopes intact.
For Hamlin, that likely means some solid help from the entire Toyota organization.
The manufacturer is looking for its first Cup championship and is encouraging Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing to work together to help Hamlin.
“I think it was important that we get everyone together, especially to realize that Toyota has been a big part of NASCAR racing for the last 10 years,” Hamlin said. “Everyone has spent a lot of time, money and effort over the last 10 years trying to get to this point to where Toyota has an opportunity towin a championship.
“It was important that everyone get on the same page as far as that’s concerned. I think not just us, but everyone in the Toyota camp to ensure that we don’t do anything stupid and take each other out.”
Same goes for Harvick, who had his squabbles last week with Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton. A meeting this week calmed the issue, and now RCR’s Burton and Bowyer will probably try to help Harvick today.
“When you have two really competitive drivers with cars capable of winning the race, racing as hard as they can, it’s just one of those things,” Childress said. “We’ve talked about it. They were racing to win and they know what they would probably do different next time. I talked to them, but wanted to make sure that, coming here, we are all on the same page.
“And we are.”
CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS
Late pass propels Busch
TALLADEGA, Ala. - Kyle Busch made a last-ditch move to take the lead from AricAlmirola and win the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series race at Talladega Superspeedway by 0.002 of a second Saturday.
It was the closest finish in series history when using electronic scoring, NASCAR officials said.
It was Busch’s sixth victory in 13 truck series starts this season - and his second consecutive truck series victory at Talladega after winning there last year.
Busch was in third place on a restart with two laps to go, made his way to second and then ducked under Almirola and beat him by a nose at the checkered flag.
With Johnny Sauter charging behind him, Busch said he didn’t have any other choice than to duck under Almirola.
“I had to bring it back down, and I got underneath Aric,” Busch said. “At that point, you’ve just got to stay in the throttle and keep digging. I don’t even know where the yellow line was but for as loose as my stuff was there, I was trying to save it and get away from those guys and not spin out.”
Almirola finished second, followed by Sauter, Matt Crafton and Ricky Carmichael.
Amp Energy Juice 500 lineupAt Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway Talladega, Ala.
Lap length: 2.66 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevy, 184.640 2. (33) Clint Bowyer, Chevy, 184.498 3. (2) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 184.388 4. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 184.253 5. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevy, 184.161 6. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 183.906 7. (36) Dave Blaney, Chevy, 183.885 8. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 183.762 9. (13) Casey Mears, Toyota, 183.621 10. (77) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 183.614 11. (12) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 183.561 12. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, 183.543 13. (97) Jeff Fuller, Toyota, 183.406 14. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 183.375 15. (46) Michael McDowell, Chevy, 183.273 16. (83) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 183.245 17. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 183.052 18. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 183.010 19. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 182.999 20. (55) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 182.91921. (00) David Reutimann, Toyota, 182.863 22. (71) Chad McCumbee, Chevy, 182.839 23. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 182.82124. (09) Bobby Labonte, Chevy, 182.800 25. (20) Joey Logano, Toyota, 182.790 26. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevy, 182.786 27. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 182.786 28. (6) David Ragan, Ford, 182.650 29. (82) Scott Speed, Toyota, 182.598 30. (5) Mark Martin, Chevy, 182.522 31. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 182.400 32. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 182.365 33. (19) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 182.306 34. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 182.258 35. (47) Marcos Ambrose, Toyota, 181.998 36. (43) AJ Allmendinger, Ford, 181.880 37. (9) Aric Almirola, Ford, 181.673 38. (98) Paul Menard, Ford, 181.653 39. (78) Regan Smith, Chevy, 181.367 40. (37) David Gilliland, Ford, owner points 41. (34) Robert Richardson Jr., Ford, owner points 42. (7) Robby Gordon, Toyota, owner points 43. (26) Bill Elliott, Ford, past champion Failed to Qualify 44. (64) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 181.615 45. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 180.461 46. (66) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 177.117
Sports, Pages 25 on 10/31/2010