Juan Pablo Montoya's time disallowed; Jimmie Johnson inherits pole
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Juan Pablo Montoya’s pole-winning run for Sunday's Camping World RV 400 was too good to be true.
Montoya, who put the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Dodge on the pole during Friday’s qualifying with a lap of 172.150 mph, instead will start from the 42nd spot Sunday after officials found the car’s rear shocks exceeded the maximum gas pressure allowed during post-qualifying inspection.
As a result, Jimmie Johnson, second fastest in qualifying, will start on the pole in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.
Teams are required to run between a minimum of 25 pounds of nitrogen gas pressure and a maximum of 75 pounds in the rear shocks, according to John Darby, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director.
The gas, he said, helps control foaming of the shock oil and “keep the oil pressure steady on both sides of the shock piston.” There have been instances, he said, when “teams have used excessive gas pressures and made the shock function outside of what a normal shock absorber is supposed to do.
“If you remember Dover a couple of years ago, we had an issue with some shocks on the back of a car that were constructed to actually jack the car up and that’s when we added language to the shock-absorber rules, specifically the rear shocks, and put the gas pressures in place with some other rules on how they compress and rebound and some things," Darby said.
Darby would only say that the pressures, which were measured after qualifying was completed, exceeded the 75-pound maximum.
Brian Pattie, crew chief of the No. 42 team, said the shock pressures measured 85 pounds.
“If 10 [additional] pounds is making us win races, I’d hate to know what Jimmie’s running,” Pattie said of the No. 48 team. “We run the same shocks every week, we set [the pressures] every week. We were just above everybody else, I guess. They checked multiple cars [and] we were the car that was wrong. I checked them myself and the ambient temperature was within a couple of degrees and it was off by a little bit. A rule is a rule.”
Pattie said he had no alternative but to accept the penalty.
“It kind of sucks because we have worked really hard the last two or three months on our program to run well at the mile-and-a-half [tracks],” he said. “The shocks haven’t even been worked on since I started here.
“It’s just very, very frustrating that we bust our tails week in and week out, go to the test [Sept. 23-24 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway] and run really good, come here and apply the same stuff on the car, change some more stuff in the tech line, qualify on the pole, and get it taken away 10 minutes later. So yeah, it’s difficult.
“My ... guys were switching everything over from what we do from qualifying to race [setups] ... Darby came and got me, said ‘Hey, we need to talk.’ End of story.”
Darby said because the penalty had already been imposed, it was unlikely that further penalties would be forthcoming.
“If you violate the NASCAR rulebook in qualifying, you gained whatever your [qualifying position] is on the scoreboard at the end of the day,” he said.
“Typically what we do is remove what you’ve gained and call it good. And I don’t expect to do anything different in this scenario.”
In the revised lineup, Johnson starts on the pole with Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Mark Martin on the outside of Row 1.
Chase driver Matt Kenseth (Roush Fenway Racing) is third, with Elliott Sadler (Gillett Evernham Motorsports) fourth and Martin Truex Jr. (DEI) fifth. Sixth through 10th are all non-Chase drivers: Paul Menard (DEI), Bill Elliott (Wood Brothers Racing), Kasey Kahne (Gillett Evernham), Brian Vickers (Red Bull Racing) and Casey Mears (Hendrick).
Elliott was the fastest of the drivers needing to make the race via qualifying. Others to make the race through qualifying were Patrick Carpentier (Gillett Evernham), Marcos Ambrose (JTG Daugherty Racing), Kyle Petty (Petty Enterprises), Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske Racing), Tony Raines (Haas CNC Racing), Joey Logano (Hall of Fame Racing) and Joe Nemechek (Furniture Row Racing).
Failing to qualify were Michael McDowell (Michael Waltrip Racing) and Johnny Sauter (EM Motorsports).
