IndyCar: Montoya flies to Pocono pole

Juan Pablo Montoya, IndyCar series returnee and 1999 CART Indy car champion, delivered the best qualifying run of his comeback to claim pole for Pocono's IndyCar 500. It also meant that he became the first driver to start from P1 at Pocono for both a NASCAR Cup race and an Indy car race.

The Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet scorched around Pennsylvania's "Tricky Triangle" with a two-lap average of 223.871mph to snatch P1 from teammate Will Power with the final run of the day. It is Montoya's 15th pole in U.S. open-wheel racing, having racked up 14 in his two-year stint at Ganassi 1999-2000.

"I had no idea what to expect because this morning I felt like we had a really good car in race trim and really struggled," said a happy Montoya. "We started trimming the car down, and every time we trimmed it, balance-wise it was awful, had a lot of understeer in the car.  Made quite a bit of change for qualifying and it was really, really good. You had a little bit understeer and stuff on the front bar, took a little crossweight out and as soon as we did that, the car started hooking really nice, and it was good.

"It was a bit of a handful through 3, but it was good through 1. The big thing here is if you can hold it wide open in 1. As trimmed as you are, if you can hold it wide open, it pays off because it's just all momentum."

Said Power: "I probably lifted a little too much into Turn 1. I knew Juan was going to be tough to beat. They ran a little more downforce. Since I wasn’t flat, I think he probably went wide-open on that run.”

Montoya and Power will be joined at the front of the three-abreast grid by Montoya's Colombian compatriot Carlos Munoz, who emerged top of the four-strong Andretti Autosport squad – and top Honda-powered car. Local hero Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe were pushed down to fifth and sixth with a strong run by AJ Foyt Racing's Takuma Sato, while Ryan Hunter-Reay will be starting ninth.

Chip Ganassi Racing's Chevrolet-powered fleet will start eighth, 10th, 15th and 17th, with Tony Kanaan – quickest in this morning's session – as the leader, with reigning champion Scott Dixon on the outside of the fifth row.

“I think we went a bit conservative on the setup and the No. 10 car had more in it for sure," said Kanaan. "But we have a good racecar under us and today is a decent start to the job we’ll have to do tomorrow. It’s a 500-mile race and it doesn’t matter where you start.”

Ed Carpenter, renowned for his oval pace, having taken pole at Indy and won at Texas Motor Speedway, will start 13th, and he was left ruing his lack of ultimate pace. He remarked: "We left a lot on the table and missed on the balance. We’ve been off today and it’s been frustrating. We will have to get things together for tomorrow and come back strong. This place is important for track position so I didn’t want to qualify too far back. I feel like our racecar is pretty good, and it is a 500-mile race so you can make certain changes on pit stops and from the cockpit.”

Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Racing rookie Mikhail Aleshin produced another strong performance to nail 12th, just one place behind his teammate Simon Pagenaud. However, Aleshin's fellow rookie Jack Hawksworth was unable to set a qualifying time following his tub-busting shunt this morning in the Bryan Herta Autosport car, and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing's Josef Newgarden failed to set a time after spinning at hitting the wall at Turn 1.

"It was a very strange crash, probably the strangest crash I've ever had in an Indy car," Newgarden said. "The front end felt like it skipped. It felt like something caught under the front of the car. As soon as that happened, the front was completely gone, and I went straight into the wall. We don't know exactly what happened, but we are going to try and find an answer before tomorrow."

RACER's Robin Miller also reported Hawksworth's BHA team will skip Sunday's race, choosing to concentrate on building a new No. 98 Honda for next weekend's race at Iowa.