McMurray Wins Pole Position at Martinsville

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MARTINSVILLE, VA – RIS – Jamie McMurray surprised most of the small crowd of fans watching by winning the pole position for Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Bomb 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.  McMurray circled  the .526-mile short track in 18.954 seconds (99.905 mph) in his No. 1 Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, far ahead of the championship contenders on Friday in winning the pole for the first race in the Eliminator Round of the Chase.

In claiming his second Coors Light pole award of the season, his second at Martinsville and the 11th of his career, McMurray beat title contenders Joey Logano (99.605 mph) and Matt Kenseth (99.318 mph) for the top spot.

Tony Stewart (99.297 mph) qualified fourth, followed by Chase driver Denny Hamlin (99.266 mph). Six of the eight eligible remaining Chase drivers qualified in the top 12. Brad Keselowski will start sixth, Ryan Newman ninth and Carl Edwards 11th.

"We tested here a couple of weeks ago, and I thought we had one of the best tests that I've been a part of, really since I started racing," McMurray said. "Really well organized… We made the car better throughout the test and hit on a couple things that really had a lot of speed in it.

“This is a great track for me, and we had a really good test. When things are going well, you get excited to come back to the track. It was really great that we were able to take that test and use that toward earning the pole today."

Jeff Gordon, one of the pre-race favorites, narrowly missed advancing to the second round of knockout qualifying and will start 13th. The real casualty of Friday's time trials, however, was Kevin Harvick, who scraped the wall in the 30-minute first round and will start 33rd.

"We just missed it today," said Harvick, whose career-average finish of 15.8 at Martinsville is worst among the eight remaining Chase drivers. "We were way too loose. We struggled in practice and just missed it in qualifying.”

Gordon, who missed advancing to the second round by .003 seconds, shrugged off his position on the grid.

"I don't mind starting 13th," he said. "It's not a bad place to start. You just want that really good pit stall, and so we'll definitely suffer with a pit stall a little bit. But we can definitely still win it from there. Our car is really good."

The race gets underway at 1:00 PM and will be broadcast by ESPN.

Starting Line Up: 66th Annual Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500

Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed
1) Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald's Chevrolet, 18.954 sec, 99.905 mph
2) Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 19.011, 99.605
3) Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, 19.066, 99.318
4) Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, 19.070, 99.297
5) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, 19.076, 99.266
6) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford, 19.081, 99.240
7) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, 19.083, 99.230
8) Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Halloween Toyota, 19.087, 99.209
9) Ryan Newman, No. 31 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, 19.159, 98.836
10) Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, 19.201, 98.620
11) Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford EcoBoost Ford, 19.214, 98.553
12) Clint Bowyer, No. 15 AAA Insurance Toyota, 19.258, 98.328
13) Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, 19.158, 98.841
14) Paul Menard, No. 27 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet, 19.163, 98.815
15) AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Clorox Chevrolet, 19.164, 98.810
16) Kyle Larson #, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, 19.196, 98.646
17) Brian Vickers, No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, 19.200, 98.625
18) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Pit for a Pair Ford, 19.207, 98.589
19) Austin Dillon #, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 19.231, 98.466
20) Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 19.231, 98.466
 21) Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford, 19.235, 98.446
22) Justin Allgaier #, No. 51 Auto-Owners Insurance Chevrolet, 19.256, 98.338
23) Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet, 19.257, 98.333
24) Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet, 19.267, 98.282
25) Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford, 19.280, 98.216
26) Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, 19.283, 98.200
27) Aric Almirola, No. 43 Smithfield Ford, 19.300, 98.114
28) Landon Cassill(i), No. 40 Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet, 19.305, 98.089
29) David Ragan, No. 34 Wendell Scott HOF Tribute Ford, 19.308, 98.073
30) Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet, 19.341, 97.906
31) Reed Sorenson, No. 36 Zing Zang Chevrolet, 19.345, 97.886
32) Alex Bowman #, No. 23 DipYourCar.com Toyota, 19.347, 97.876
33) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet, 19.355, 97.835
34) David Gilliland, No. 38 A&W All American Food Ford, 19.365, 97.785
35) Josh Wise, No. 98 Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet, 19.376, 97.729
36) Cole Whitt #, No. 26 Uponor Plumbing Systems Toyota, 19.383, 97.694
37) Michael Annett #, No. 7 Allstate Peterbuilt Group Chevrolet, Owner Points,
38) Clay Rogers, No. 93 Burger King Toyota, Owner Points,
39) Travis Kvapil, No. 33 Little Joe's Autos Chevrolet, Owner Points,
40) JJ Yeley(i), No. 83 DipYourCar.com Toyota, Owner Points,
41) Timmy Hill, No. 44 Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet, Owner Points,42) Kyle Fowler(i), No. 32 corvetteparts.net Ford, Owner Points,
43) Mike Wallace(i), No. 66 Testoril Toyota, Owner Points,

#: Rookie
(i): Ineligible for driver points in this series

Ron Fleshman and John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the midle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2014, Issue 10, Posted 8:46 PM, 10.24.2014