McMurray earns his first pole of ’11 at Martinsville

Jamie McMurray

Jamie McMurray picked up his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season, topping the grid on Saturdays qualifying session for Sunday’s Goody's Fast Relief 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.

McMurray’s top speed of 96.509 mph was enough to knock Denny Hamlin off the top spot, McMurray then had to sit and wait as Joey Logano, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne all took their shots, but all of them coming up short to give McMurray his eighth career pole.

Newman took the second spot with a lap of 96.342 mph in the no. 39 Chevy, followed by Kahne in the Red Bull Toyota at 96.293 mph. The Toyota’s of Logano and Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Saturday’s pole-winning effort marks McMurray’s first pole at NASCAR’s shortest track, where is previous best start has been second. He’ll be looking for his first Martinsville win when he leads the field to the green flag on Sunday.

“We had a really good car today", said McMurray. “This is one of my favorite tracks. I’ve always loved coming to Martinsville. It’s a unique race track and I think the guys the guys that enjoy coming here typically run well. You come here and you are kind of at the mercy of your car. It is really slick, it is cold today, you need four or five laps to get going."

Hamlin, looking to shake off a run of bad luck that has seen him post only one top-10 finish this season, was the 13th driver to take to take a qualifying lap on what he considers his home track.

Hamlin bumped Kurt Busch off the top spot with a lap of 95.995 mph and held the top spot until McMurray came out as the 23rd qualifier and shot to the top of the grid.

Hamlin will roll off fifth for Sunday’s race, looking for his fifth Martinsville win.

“We left a lot out on the table," said Hamlin of his qualifying effort. “The track is a little different, but I’m happy with where we qualified. I wish our time was a little bit better. Qualifying has never been my strong suit. But, here at this track we’re hot and cold. We’ve won starting 30th, we won starting on the pole."

A.J. Allmendinger, Bobby Labonte, David Reutimann, Kevin Harvick and Regan Smith made up the rest of the top-10 qualifiers.

Mark Martin, who will be making his 800th career Sprint Cup start on Sunday, qualified 12th.

Results

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie