LONG POND, Pa. – Juan Pablo Montoya’s contribution to the NASCAR highlight reel this season was his crash into a jet dryer in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Montoya finally has a bright spot that didn’t involve explosions and raging fuel fires.

He turned a lap of 176.043 mph Saturday to win the pole at Pocono Raceway. It’s Montoya’s first pole since April 2011 in Richmond, Va. He hasn’t won a race since Aug. 8, 2010 at Watkins Glen.

The strong qualifying run was a needed lift for Montoya and his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team. He’s 21st in the standings and has yet to drive to a top-five finish. He only has two top 10s and has continued a string of mediocre seasons since qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in 2009.

Montoya admitted he was “shocked” he beat out Pocono qualifying stars such as Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne to lead the field for Sunday’s 400-mile race.

“We know we’re working in the right direction, we know we’re working hard, we feel the cars are getting a little better,” Montoya said, “but to go out there and get a pole … I just went through the hauler and all the engineers, they’re all happy and laughing. I’m used to long faces, a lot of long faces, a lot of stressful faces. We needed something like this as a company. This is big for us.”

Hamlin turned a lap of 175.795 and qualified second. It’s his 12th top-10 start in 14 career Pocono races.

Paul Menard, Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five.

Points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts eighth.

NATIONWIDE: Elliott Sadler rebounded from the disappointment of his jumped-restart penalty last week in Indianapolis, earning a win at Newton, Iowa.

Sadler denied Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a fourth straight victory at Iowa Speedway and increased his lead in the series standings to 18 points over Austin Dillon.

Sadler won the pole with a track-record qualifying speed of 135.141 mph and was near or at the front of the pack the entire race. He overtook Justin Allgaier on the 192nd lap of 250 and went on to his fourth victory of the season.

Allgaier was second, followed by Sam Hornish Jr., Michael Annett and Stenhouse.

TRUCKS: Joey Coulter had seven laps left separating him from his first career NASCAR win or another close call.

He made the move that got him the checkered flag at Pocono Raceway.

Coulter sped from third to first off the final restart to win for the first time in the Trucks Series.

“They say once you win one, the others are easier,” Coulter said. “I hope they’re right.”

Team owner Richard Childress said the win was a long time coming.

“Joey’s had a really fast truck and it was misfortune that took him out of the winner’s circle,” he said.

“I’m really happy for his family. They’ve been there at every race pulling for him.”

James Buescher was second and pole winner Nelson Piquet Jr. was third in the 50-lap race. Matt Crafton and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Coulter is the ninth different winner this season and fourth first-time winner in 2012. He had never finished higher than third.

The last seven laps were the only ones he led.

The win was emotional for all involved. Crew chief Harold Holly hadn’t won a NASCAR race since 2004 with Bobby Hamilton Jr.

INDYCAR: Will Power captured his third pole of the season, holding off Dario Franchitti and rookie Simon Pagenaud to take the top qualifying spot at Lexington, Ohio.

Power, ranked as the best in the series on road courses, was timed in 1 minute, 5.6474 seconds around the 2.25-mile, 13-turn layout.

Scott Dixon, who has won three of the last five years at Mid-Ohio, qualified fifth. Series leader Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth.

BEECH RIDGE: Steve Berry Jr. of Gorham won the 45-lap Pro Series race, ahead of Alan Tardiff of Lyman and Steve Carrier of Saco.

In other divisions, Bobby Nadeau of Hollis won the 35-lap Sport Series race; David Vaughn of Naples took the 30-lap Wildcat main event; and Evan Armington of Lovell won the 20-lap Road Runner feature.