INDIANAPOLIS -- Reed Sorenson won the pole and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya will start alongside him in today's Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sorenson won his first career pole with a lap of 184.207 mph. The pole continues a strong week for the 21-year-old, who won the Busch race in St. Louis last weekend.

Montoya, who becomes the first driver to race an Indy car, Formula One car and Cup car at this track, qualified with a lap of 183.494 mph. It will be Montoya's best starting spot in this, his first Cup season.

Indiana native Ryan Newman starts third (183.475 mph) with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (183.419) and Kasey Kahne (183.374) completing the top five.

"It's so important to start up front," Newman said, alluding to the difficulty of passing at this 2.5-mile track.

Defending race winner Jimmie Johnson will start 19th with four-time race winner Jeff Gordon starting 21st.

Among those who failed to qualify were two-time race winner Dale Jarrett, Joe Nemechek and Jeremy Mayfield.

No deal

Kyle Busch denied reports Saturday that he is near a deal or has reached a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Broadcaster Larry McReynolds reported at Foxsports.com that Busch was near a deal with Gibbs.

Busch said such reports were not true and that he has not signed a contract with any team for next season.

Early break

Some drivers hope NASCAR has a competition caution within the first 20 laps of today's race because of tire wear.

Kurt Busch called such a plan "a smart idea."

The speedway has an abrasive surface that can cause tires to wear quickly until enough rubber gets put on the track. With only the Cup cars on the track and Friday's action rained out, teams had only Saturday to run laps and get rubber on the track. Drivers expect track conditions to improve during the race with 43 cars running laps.

Clean sweep?

Kevin Harvick opened the season by winning the Daytona 500 and collecting a paycheck for $1.5 million. Then he won the all-star race and earned $1.03 million. Now comes Indy, where last season Johnson collected $452,861, one of the largest payoffs of the year.

Can Harvick continue collecting some of NASCAR's biggest purses?

"That would be nice, but you don't just turn the page and have it all work out," he said.

Harvick is more concerned about maintaining his place in the Chase. He is eighth in the standings.

"We just need to be more consistent," said Harvick, who has four top-10s in the past five races. "You can lose points a lot easier than you can gain them."

Honoring Prosser

Cars from Richard Childress Racing will feature Wake Forest decals in today's race in remembrance of Skip Prosser, the Demon Deacons men's basketball coach who died Thursday.

Pit stops

Childress officials hope to announce next month who their sponsor and driver will be for their new fourth car for next season. ... J.J. Yeley went to a backup car after spinning and hitting the turn 4 wall with the left side of his car during practice Saturday. ... Robby Gordon crashed in practice Saturday, slapping the wall several times. ... Bill Elliott's 11-year-old son, Chase, won his first career race earlier this week -- a Bandolero feature.