Juan Pablo Montoya had struggled to put together good qualifying results in the first few races of this season, finishing higher than where he started in every Sprint Cup Series event so far in 2011.
But Montoya solved that problem on Friday at Fontana, claiming the top spot for Sunday's Auto Club 400 starting lineup with a lap of 184.653 mph.
"I didn't think we were going to qualify that well," a smiling Montoya said. "Overall, I was really happy. Actually, I'm really surprised we qualified that well."
The pole was the sixth of Montoya's career, with the most recent coming last fall at Talladega. None of Montoya's previous poles had come at a 1.5- or 2-mile oval, however.
Denny Hamlin made a late charge to try and knock Montoya off, but he came up just short and recorded a lap of 184.270 mph. He'll be second on the starting grid.
Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Joey Logano, was third, followed by Regan Smith and Tony Stewart.
Smith continued his strong qualifying efforts this season. He had a series-leading 6.5 average starting position entering the Auto Club Speedway weekend.
David Ragan, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Mark Martin rounded out the top 10.
There were only 43 cars entered in the race, meaning none of the so-called "go-or-go-home" drivers were actually sent home. All of them made the race.
Other notable drivers included Southern California native Jimmie Johnson (16th), Carl Edwards (18th), points leader Kurt Busch (23th), Jeff Gordon (29th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (30th).
Here is the starting lineup for Sunday's Auto Club 400 in Fontana:
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Regan Smith
- Tony Stewart
- David Ragan
- Jeff Burton
- Kyle Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Mark Martin
- Matt Kenseth
- Jamie McMurray
- Marcos Ambrose
- David Reutimann
- Paul Menard
- Jimmie Johnson
- Clint Bowyer
- Carl Edwards
- Brian Vickers
- AJ Allmendinger
- Brad Keselowski
- Kasey Kahne
- Kurt Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Casey Mears
- Trevor Bayne
- Landon Cassill
- Jeff Gordon
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Dave Blaney
- Bobby Labonte
- Michael McDowell
- Robby Gordon
- Travis Kvapil
- David Gilliland
- Andy Lally
- Ken Schrader
- Joe Nemechek
- Todd Bodine
- Tony Raines
- JJ Yeley