» IndyCars: Montoya wins pole at Pocono

Juan Pablo Montoya is on pole position for Sunday’s IndyCar Series race Pocono Raceway, delivering two record-breaking laps around the tri-oval to pip Penske teammate Will Power for top qualifying honours. it was the Colombian’s fifth American open-wheel racing pole, although the first in his comeback.

Montoya’s two-lap average of 223.871mph was the fastest ever recorded around the three-turn speedway; his first flying lap – averaging 223.920mph (360.511km/h) – broke the fastest single-lap record around the circuit.

Teammate Power bounced back from a disastrous weekend last time out in Houston to start alongside Montoya on the front row; the pair line up ahead of series rookie Carlos Muñoz and the mercurial Takuma Sato.

Marco Andretti qualified fifth-fastest on his home track; he and teammate James Hinchcliffe ensured three Andretti Autosport entries qualified inside the top-six. Hélio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan made it an all-Brazilian fourth row, with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ryan Briscoe completing the top ten.

While Kanaan and Briscoe delivered one half of the Chip Ganassi stable a solid qualifying result, the same could not be said for reigning champion Scott Dixon (15th) and Charlie Kimball (17th), who qualified well down the order. Neither Josef Newgarden nor Jack Hawksworth managed a time; the latter’s BHA entry suffered damage in an earlier practice accident.

2014 IndyCar Series Pocono 500 – Final Qualifying:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Avg. Speed
1.	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske Chevrolet	223.871mph
2.	Will Power	Team Penske Chevrolet	223.725mph
3.	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti Autosport Honda	223.083mph
4.	Takuma Sato	A.J. Foyt Enterprises Honda	222.798mph
5.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport Honda	222.715mph
6.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport Honda	222.544mph
7.	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske Chevrolet	222.517mph
8.	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	221.970mph
9.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport Honda	221.950mph
10.	Ryan Briscoe	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	221.565mph
11.	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	221.547mph
12.	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda	221.221mph
13.	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet	221.019mph
14.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda	220.747mph
15.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	220.604mph
16.	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	220.439mph
17.	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet	220.377mph
18.	Sébastien Bourdais	KV Racing Technology Honda	219.741mph
19.	Sebastián Saavedra	KV Racing Technology / AFS Racing Honda	218.502mph
20.	Carlos Huertas	Dale Coyne Racing Honda	216.261mph
21.	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda	no time
22.	Jack Hawksworth	Bryan Herta Autosport Honda	no time