In one season, 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).
“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.” NASCAR.com
Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside pole after posting a lap of 183.281 m.p.h. Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, became a father earlier this week. His wife, Chandra, gave birth to their first child, a daughter. The couple has yet to choose a name, but are affectionately referring to her as “Baby J” for now.
“We didn’t expect her to come this early, so that was a bit of a surprise,” Johnson said. “With [crew chief] Chad [Knaus] leading this 48 team and all the support at Hendrick [Motorsports], we had everything in line. I feel bad for Aric [Almirola]. He didn’t get a chance to drive the car, and I think he is a great talent, and hopefully he will be picked up by someone. He’s doing a great job in the Truck Series, but I know he has aspirations to get into the Cup Series.”
Almirola was on standby to drive the No.48 car for Johnson if his wife gave birth during the race weekend. MiamiHerald.com
“It wasn’t a pretty lap but it was fast,” Stewart said. “It gave us a good starting spot for tomorrow night and hopefully get us another top five, maybe a win here.”
“I’m looking forward to this weekend,” Hornish said. “Chicago has been good to me in the past; I’ve won a few races here and celebrated a couple (IRL) championships here.” The Canadian Press
Completing the top 10 were David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Juan Pablo Montoya.
NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick and two-time series champion Stewart are the only drivers
with two victories each in the nine previous races at the 1.5-mile speedway.
Harvick qualified a disappointing 27th. “Our car is OK in race trim,” said Harvick. “It is slow in qualifying trim. It just doesn’t have speed in qualifying trim. I think we are OK in race trim. Just go from there and see what happens.”
Saturday night’s race will be the 19th of 26 in NASCAR’s regular season. Harvick leads Jeff Gordon by 212 points and Johnson by 225. FOXNews
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland - Race Line-Up
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