Montoya (Target Toyota Lola), a 1999 CART All Star, secured his ninth careerpole position and second of the season with a lap of 212.540 miles per hour(26.237 seconds) on the 1.559-mile oval. He will lead 24 starters to thegreen flag at noon local time Saturday (11 p.m. ET Friday) for the fourthrace of the FedEx Championship Series.

Montoya, who earned a championship point for his pole-winning performance,was the 23rd driver to attempt a qualifying run and established his speedwith only Brack remaining in the order. Almost immediately after taking thegreen flag for his qualifying effort, Brack's Ford-powered Reynard lostpower. With barely eight minutes remaining in the scheduled qualifyingwindow, Brack's team brought out its secondary car, and with only onequalifying lap allowed, put it on the outside of the front row at 211.283mph (26.393 seconds).

The qualifying performance is a season-best for Brack, exceeding fourth atRio de Janeiro.

Jimmy Vasser (Target Toyota Lola), Montoya's Target/Chip Ganassi Racingteammate, qualified third at 210.788 mph (26.455 seconds).

Roberto Moreno (Visteon Ford Reynard) of Patrick Racing qualified fourth at210.541 mph (26.486 seconds) and was followed by Gil de Ferran (MarlboroHonda Reynard) at 210.335 mph (26.512 seconds).

Twenty-one of the 24 qualifiers were separated by less than a second.

FedEx Championship Series points leader Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard)qualified 20th at 206.671 mph (26.982 seconds). He holds a 48-42 lead overVasser heading into Saturday's event.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

JUAN MONTOYA, Target Toyota Lola: "I doubled my points! The car has beengood since yesterday, but on my last morning, I couldn't get a good lap. Thecar was fine in qualifying; it's just that the headwind was killingeveryone. I don't have any problems [with downshifting]. The car has beengood all weekend and I'm looking forward to getting to my first pit stop."

KENNY BRACK, Shell Ford Reynard: "We kind of suspected that the engine wasbad after this morning, but we crossed our fingers and hoped it would be allright. Obviously, it wasn't, but I cannot say enough for the team. To bringout the spare car and have it be close to the setup of the primary car wasjust fantastic. I think that all we were missing was a new set of tires."

JIMMY VASSER, Target Toyota Lola: "I was a little disappointed with thespeed. We tried to trim the car out this morning but we were not able to getthe downforce out and keep it balanced the way we wanted. So we had to putthe downforce back in. I'm happy to be starting third. It's a 300-mile race,our longest other than the 500 milers, and I'm looking forward to it. Ithink we're looking strong for the race."

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

* Juan Montoya (Target Toyota Lola) moved into sole possession of 12thplace on the CART career pole list with nine. Teo Fabi, Nigel Mansell andAlex Zanardi are tied for ninth place with 10 career poles each. Thequalifying effort was the sixth consecutive top-three performance forMontoya, extending to last year's third-place qualifying effort for theseason finale at Fontana.

* Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Reynard) has qualified among the top sevendrivers in all five of his qualifying performances this season.

* Della Penna Motorsports rookie Norberto Fontana (Della PennaVideoMatch Toyota Reynard), who was involved in a single-car accident inFriday's practice session, was held overnight at Dokkyo University Hospitalin Mibu-Town, Tochigi for observation as a precaution. The CAT Scan ofFontana's head and neck were negative, according to Dr. Chris Pinderski ofthe CART Medical Team, but he will not compete in Saturday's FirestoneFirehawk 500. CART does not permit any driver who has lost consciousness tocompete in that weekend's event. Pinderski said that Fontana briefly lostconsciousness, but was awake and alert prior to the transport to Dokkyo.

* Twin Ring Motegi officials announced a crowd of more than 15,000 forSaturday's qualifying.