A season of struggle took a positive turn for Jamie McMurray Saturday afternoon when he won the pole for Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
McMurray turned a lap of 96.509 mph in his Chevrolet to earn the top starting spot for Sunday’s race. He enters Sunday’s race ranked 28th in the Sprint Cup Series standings and with a season-best finish of 18th in the opener at Daytona.
”This is really big for our team,” said McMurray. ”We’ve had some really good cars, and for the most part, the short tracks is where we’ve run the best. But we got caught up in that wreck at Phoenix and at Bristol … got caught up in a wreck. It just seems like we’ve had really bad luck. But I hope this turns around for us.”
Ryan Newman qualified second with a lap of 96.342 in a Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne qualified third in a Toyota and was followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Joey Logano and three-time defending race winner Denny Hamlin.
“I just couldn’t get off the corner as good as I wanted to,” said Newman
AJ Allmendinger was sixth in a Ford, and was followed by Bobby Labonte, David Reutimann and Kevin Harvick. Regan Smith rounded out the top 10.
Five-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson qualified 17th.
Martinsville Speedway PR
