AUTO RACING
Montoya retains Talladega pole
TALLADEGA, Ala. — It didn’t take Juan Pablo Montoya long to adapt to restrictor-plate racing. Now that he’s got enough horsepower, he could be in position to master the art at Talladega Superspeedway.
Montoya won the first pole of his NASCAR career on Saturday, taking the top starting spot at Talladega Superspeedway for today’s Aaron’s 499 (1:30 p. m., Ch. 29, Radio 550, 1330, 1340 AM) to put himself in position for his first win on an oval. Since leaving Formula One in late 2006, the Colombian’s only wins have been on road courses.
“Is it going to make you the favorite to win the race? No,” Montoya said. “But we always run good here. The goal is to win the race.”
Montoya posted a lap at 188.171 mph, then had to wait almost two hours to see if his time would hold. He returned to his motor home for a snack and surfed the Internet as car after car failed to knock him from the top.
“It takes forever here. It’s one of those places that I sat outside for a little bit and then inside,” he said.
Greg Biffle almost knocked him off the pole, posting a speed of 188.141 to qualify second.
“That’s all she had,” Biffle said. “You think about what you can do different. I feel like I did everything I could do to get everything I could out of the car.”
In Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race at Talladega, David Ragan earned his first NASCAR victory by passing Ryan Newman right before the finish line. Ragan won for the first time in 196 starts — 85 in Nationwide — spanning all three of NASCAR’s top series.
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