McMurray gets track record, pole for Southern 500

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

DARLINGTON, S.C.

Jamie McMurray won the Coors Light Pole Award in style Friday — with a track-record lap at 180.370 mph at Darlington Raceway.

McMurray toured the 1.366-mile speedway in 27.264 seconds to edge seven-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon (180.323 mph) for the top starting spot in tonight’s Southern 500.

Brian Vickers qualified third at 179.987 mph, David Reutimann fourth at 179.252 mph and Mark Martin fifth at 179.148 mph. Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne claimed starting positions six through 10, respectively.

The pole was the fifth of McMurray’s career and his second of the season, the first coming at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.) five days after he won the season-opening Daytona 500. McMurray broke the track record of 179.514 mph set by Matt Kenseth last year.

Speeds have increased dramatically at Darlington since the track was repaved in early 2008. McMurray led Friday’s final practice session and had high expectations entering time trials.

“I think it almost puts more pressure on you when you’re the fastest guy in practice, to go out and back that up,” McMurray said. “This is one of those racetracks where you can’t be too aggressive, or you’ll get into the wall.

“I was pretty impressed with the amount of grip the car had through Turns 1 and 2, and Bono [crew chief Kevin Manion] had come on the radio right before I went out and said that everybody was getting through 1 and 2 pretty good but that they were losing it in 3 and 4. So I was maybe a little bit too conservative in Turns 3 and 4, but it was still enough.”

Not by much. McMurray’s time was just .007 seconds faster than that of Gordon.

“A couple of little things I felt like I could have done,” said Gordon. “I think the car was better than I was.”