Team News

McMurray Claims Pole at Chicagoland, Third in 2010

By Sporting News Wire Service

July 10, 2010

McMurray Claims Pole at Chicagoland, Third in 2010
Jamie McMurray Captured his Third Coors Light Pole Award of the 2010 Season yesterday at Chicagoland Speedway.

 

JOLIET, Ill. (July 8, 2010) -- In one season, Eanrhardt Ganassi Racing's Jamie McMurray has doubled the number of his pole awards in the Cup Series.

He picked up his third of the season and the sixth of his career Friday at Chicagoland Speedway, where he sped around the 1.5-mile track in 29.421 seconds (183.542 mph) to edge four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (183.281) for the pole by .042 seconds.

McMurray will start from the top spot in Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400, the 19th Cup race of the season. Tony Stewart (182.877) qualified third, followed by Greg Biffle (182.673) and Sam Hornish Jr. (182.605).

Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Juan Montoya will start the race from positions six through 10, respectively.

McMurray, the Daytona 500 winner, is 19th in the Cup standings and a long shot to qualify for the Chase, but it's not for lack of speed this season.

"The speed is the hardest thing to find, and I think that we'll be fine [Saturday] night," McMurray said. "We have the same car that we sat on the pole with at Darlington and ran second with. Just having that No. 1 pit stall is a big deal. Pit stops are so critical in keeping your track position that I think that will benefit us a little [Saturday] night."

The Pole Award, marked McMurray's second in the No. 1 McDonald's Chevrolet, which included a track-record qualifying lap and subsequent second-place finish at the track labled "Too Tough to Tame," Darlington Speedway. 

"It's really special for us because this is the home of McDonald's and to get to be on the pole at your sponsor's hometown track is a big deal. It's really amazing that our qualifying this year; we've been really strong and Bono just does a great job at putting a little extra effort into that and doing all the small things right. So I'm really happy with our lap today."