Jamie McMurray took the Bud Pole today at Pocono Raceway for tomorrow’s Pennsylvania 500 with a time of 53.330 (168.761 mph) in what can only be considered an upset. With Rocket Ryan Newman being the quickest in both practices yesterday, for him to fall to fourth was a bit of a shocker. Getting loose in turn three’ll do that, tho. This is McMurray’s second career pole (he won his first at Homestead in November of 2003), and he becomes the 13th different pole winner of the season.
All kindsa action today. Casey Mears spun it off three (but kept it off the wall) so they’ll change an engine. Carl Long put it in the wall in turn one and Derrike Cope hit hard in turn three. No racing for those two this weekend as they were on the “go or go home” list.
Kurt Busch will start on the outside of the front row….the same place he started when we were here last month.
Ricky Rudd (5th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 4th at Texas last April.
Ken Schrader (12th) has his best starting spot since he started 11th at Martinsville in April.
Mike Wallace (31st) has his best starting spot since he timed in 30th at Richmond in May.
Mike Garvey (32nd) has his career-best starting position this week….he started 33rd last week at Loudon.
Kirk Shelmerdine (43rd) makes his first start of the season this week after 9 dnq’s). His last Cup race was at Darlington last November.
STREAKIN….Kevin Harvick has 4 Top-10 starts in a row.
Jimmie Johnson has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races..(Stock Car Fans)(7-23-2005)
