For the first five races Jamie McMurray hasn’t been making a lot of noise on the track, but on Saturday, he won the pole at Martinsville.
“This is really big for our team,” said McMurray who won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 last year. “We have had some really good cars and for the most part it has been at the short tracks that we’ve run the best.
Driving an Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet McMurray won his eighth career pole followed by the Chevy of Ryan Newman who is currently second in Sprint Cup points. Newman was talking about a lot of tire debris on the outside line.
“I think there was just a tick more grip today than yesterday just in general the way the track felt. I think a big part of that was when we were doing our qualifying runs it was still race trim more for a lot of people and a lot of marbles on the race track. So just catching a couple of those marbles instead of getting up in the marbles could slow the car down a good bit,” said Newman.
NASCAR officials have not deemed this situation as serious as Bristol, two weeks ago, where Goodyear brought in over 1000 tires to replace a new compound that was not sticking to the track.
“The tire is really crappy but that’s just the way it is,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained. “There’s not much they can do about it. … Once you get in the marbles, you ruined that set. There’s no way to get them off.
The Toyotas of Kasey Kahhe, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin, respectively, will start third through fifth.
This race, last year, is where Hamlin started on his Cup assault of Jimmie Johnson who will start 17th on Sunday. Johnson tweeted he still thought he could win from 17th.
“This is really big for our team,” said McMurray who won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 last year. “We have had some really good cars and for the most part it has been at the short tracks that we’ve run the best.
Driving an Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet McMurray won his eighth career pole followed by the Chevy of Ryan Newman who is currently second in Sprint Cup points. Newman was talking about a lot of tire debris on the outside line.
“I think there was just a tick more grip today than yesterday just in general the way the track felt. I think a big part of that was when we were doing our qualifying runs it was still race trim more for a lot of people and a lot of marbles on the race track. So just catching a couple of those marbles instead of getting up in the marbles could slow the car down a good bit,” said Newman.
NASCAR officials have not deemed this situation as serious as Bristol, two weeks ago, where Goodyear brought in over 1000 tires to replace a new compound that was not sticking to the track.
“The tire is really crappy but that’s just the way it is,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained. “There’s not much they can do about it. … Once you get in the marbles, you ruined that set. There’s no way to get them off.
The Toyotas of Kasey Kahhe, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin, respectively, will start third through fifth.
This race, last year, is where Hamlin started on his Cup assault of Jimmie Johnson who will start 17th on Sunday. Johnson tweeted he still thought he could win from 17th.