1.    (4) Tony Stewart  No. 14 Chevrolet 

Martinsville, Va. (October 30, 2011) – The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series came into Martinsville Speedway with just four races remaining in the 2011 season.  The half-mile short-track has a reputation for being action packed and could be pivotal in the outcome for drivers remaining in contention in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.  The race lived up to its billing and provided plenty of action with 23 lead changes among 12 different drivers, including 18 cautions for 108 laps.  Jamie McMurray was a victim of one of the cautions and eventually finished in 35th-position.

Friday’s track schedule was altered due to weather in southern Virginia and the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams were never able to get on the track for practice.  The rains continued into Saturday morning forcing cancelation of qualifying.  The starting line-up for the Tums Fast Relief 500 was set by current point standings, per the NASCAR rulebook.  Teams would be limited to one practice session on Saturday and the McDonald’s Chevrolet was fourth fastest in that session.  

Starting from the 27th-position, the McDonald’s team knew that they would  have to be patient throughout the day and have good pit stops to get the car up front.  With the benefit of early cautions the No. 1 team was able to employ strategy, pitting on lap 47 to make some aggressive changes.  The team elected to stay out under the next caution on lap 65, thus gaining track position in the top-10.  The run near the front was short lived when McMurray was involved in an accident on lap 84 that ended the day for the McDonald’s team.

McMurray commented following his on-track incident, “I pulled down to block and saw he was going to get in there so I moved back up the track, I felt he just left off the brake and took me for a ride.  I hate it for our McDonald’s team.  I felt we had a good car with some of the changes we made, but it is an early end to the day for us.”

- McMurray has one pole, two top-five and four top-10 finishes this season

- McMurray is currently 27th in the point standings

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will move on to Texas Motor Speedway for next weekend’s running of the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday November 6 at 2:00 p.m.  ET.  ESPN and PRN radio affiliated stations will have live coverage.