Juan Montoya’s misfortune was serendipity for Jimmie Johnson, who will start from the pole in Sunday’s Camping World RV 400 at Kansas Speedway after Montoya’s qualifying speed was disallowed.
Montoya turned a lap in 31.368 seconds (172.150 mph) Friday to knock Jimmie Johnson (172.007 mph) out of the top starting spot for Sunday’s race—only to see his time disallowed because the nitrogen gas pressure in the rear shock absorbers of his No. 42 Dodge exceeded the 75 pounds per square inch allowed under NASCAR rules.
Mark Martin (171.761 mph) will take the green flag in second position, followed by Matt Kenseth (171.668 mph), Elliott Sadler (171.527 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. (171.331 mph). Paul Menard, Bill Elliott, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Casey Mears will start from positions six through 10.
Montoya’s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge moved to 42nd in the 43-car field for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.
Before NASCAR’s announcement, a delighted Montoya said, “It’s huge. There’s times where it’s getting darker and cooling down and you run at the end and all of a sudden you pick up a half a second and you’re up there. But we were in the middle of the pack and the track didn’t really change that much. We were genuinely fast.”
“It was a very, very good effort for us,” Johnson said before finding out he was on the pole.
“Everybody knows how important track position is. I thought that the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 99 (Carl Edwards) and the 31 (Jeff Burton), I thought some of those guys were much stronger than they posted today in qualifying. I thought they were better than that in practice. I was shocked to see some of those guys on the right side of the (timing) screen and at the bottom of it.
“But this is just one day of three and the important day is Sunday. It doesn’t mean it’s a layup weekend where we pick up points on the other Chase competitors, but every little bit helps.”
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