Chase rookie Montoya has bull's-eye on his No. 42

LOUDON, N.H. -- On a weekend in which he hopes to prove he's a legitimate contender for the Cup Series championship, for Juan Montoya all that's left is winning a Cup oval race.

He's making a good case that it'll come on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Record setter

Juan Montoya set a new track record at New Hampshire with a qualifying lap of 133.431 mph giving him the pole in the first Chase race.

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• Video: Blistering lap

After leading all three practices and setting a qualifying record for Sunday's Sylvania 300, the kickoff event for the sixth annual Chase, Montoya feels like he, crew chief Brian Pattie and their No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet team are ready, despite their lowly 11th-place seed in the 12-man championship field.

Montoya stopped short of predicting he'd lead all 300 laps on Sunday, as Jeff Burton did in this event in 2000, but he's plenty focused.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind [leading every lap], you know?" Montoya said. "As long as I lead the last one, I don't care. Every pit stop needs to be good and you've got to have a good car, because even if I'm leading, the chances of coming out of the pits every time leading are pretty slim.

"So you've got to have a good car for traffic. And you've got to be smart and see where your car is good and where it's not, the way you do every week." (Continued)