Jamie McMurray

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Jamie McMurray notched his fifth career NASCAR Sprint Cup pole with a record setting lap to top the field in Friday’s qualifying session for Saturday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

McMurray posted a top speed of 180.370 mph to break the previous track record of 179.514 mph set by Matt Kenseth in this same event last year and knock Jeff Gordon off the top spot.

Friday’s pole was the second of the season for the Daytona 500 winner, coming just two weeks after his second-place showing at Talladega.

“We had a really good car in practice and I think that almost puts more pressure on you to go out and back that up (in qualifying).,” said McMurray. “This is one of those racetracks where you really can’t be too aggressive, so I was pretty impressed with the grip the car had thru turns one and two.

“(Crew Chief) Bono (Manion) had came on the radio and said everyone was getting through one and two pretty good , but they were losing it in three and four, so I was maybe a little bit too conservative in turns three and four but it was still enough.”

Jeff Gordon also eclipsed the track record with a top speed of 180.323 mph, but came up less than a tenth of a second short of beating out McMurray and settled for a runner-up effort. Brian Vickers followed with a lap of 179.987 mph to take third.

“I knew it was going to be close. The car was perfect,” said Gordon of his qualifying effort. “The car was better than the driver was right there. We've been getting a little bit loose over there off of two. The car stuck better than I thought it was going to. I committed to the entry and got it through the middle. I think I wimped out a little bit on the exit.

From that point on, I thought we still had a good lap going and just didn't want to mess it up in three and four. I got through there pretty good.”

David Reutimann grabbed fourth place with a lap just under the previous track record with a speed of 179.252. Martin held onto the fifth starting spot with a lap of 179.148 mph.

With temperatures soaring well into the 90’s, the track speeds started out fast and only got faster as qualifying progressed through the sweltering afternoon session.

“This place is pretty intense. Man, it gets your attention,” said Reutimann. “The speeds just kept going up and up as the shade goes down.”

The track known as the “Track Too Tough To Tame” had already reared it’s head earlier in the day, as no fewer than 10 cars  - including McMurray’s - made contact with the wall during the days first two practice sessions

Kyle Busch pancaked the wall during the first practice session and found the wall again on his qualifying run, relegating him to a 39th-place starting spot. Reed Sorenson looped his car in his qualifying attempt and will start 36th in his third start of 2010.

Joe Nemechek, Casey Mears and Mike Bliss failed to make the show for Saturday’s race.

Results

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	McDonald's	180.370	27.264	Leader
2	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	National Guard Facebook / DuPont	180.323	27.271	-0.007
3	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	179.987	27.322	-0.058
4	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	179.252	27.434	-0.170
5	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	179.148	27.450	-0.186
6	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	179.056	27.464	-0.200
7	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Kingsford / Scott Products	179.037	27.467	-0.203
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	178.919	27.485	-0.221
9	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Penske Racing	178.835	27.498	-0.234
10	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	Budweiser	178.802	27.503	-0.239
11	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	178.789	27.505	-0.241
12	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Insignia / Best Buy	178.569	27.539	-0.275
13	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	178.549	27.542	-0.278
14	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	178.432	27.560	-0.296
15	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	178.277	27.584	-0.320
16	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	178.238	27.590	-0.326
17	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	178.045	27.620	-0.356
18	55	Michael McDowell	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	177.942	27.636	-0.372
19	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Amp Energy / National Guard	177.890	27.644	-0.380
20	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Turtle Wax / Menards	177.858	27.649	-0.385
21	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	177.588	27.691	-0.427
22	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's	177.550	27.697	-0.433
23	71	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	TaxSlayer.com	177.467	27.710	-0.446
24	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Old Spice / Office Depot	177.403	27.720	-0.456
25	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	177.390	27.722	-0.458
26	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	BAMVIP.com / James Otto - Whitney Duncan	177.326	27.732	-0.468
27	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	The Hartford	177.313	27.734	-0.470
28	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	177.166	27.757	-0.493
29	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal Black	176.676	27.834	-0.570
30	46	J.J. Yeley	Dodge	Whitney Motorsports	176.562	27.852	-0.588
31	26	David Stremme	Ford	Air National Guard	176.245	27.902	-0.638
32	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	176.094	27.926	-0.662
33	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	176.075	27.929	-0.665
34	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	176.031	27.936	-0.672
35	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	175.999	27.941	-0.677
36	132	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Braun Racing	175.987	27.943	-0.679
37	164	Todd Bodine	Toyota	Gunselman Motorsports	175.980	27.944	-0.680
38	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Hunt Brothers Pizza	175.760	27.979	-0.715
39	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Doublemint	175.698	27.989	-0.725
40	34	Travis Kvapil	Ford	A&W All American Food	175.359	28.043	-0.779
41	99	Carl Edwards+	Ford	Aflac	174.124	28.242	-0.978
42	37	Kevin Conway+*	Ford	Extenze	172.372	28.529	-1.265
43	13	Max Papis	Toyota	GEICO	175.484	28.023	-0.759
		Did Not Qualify
44	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	FrontRowJoe.com	174.935	28.111	-0.847
45	36	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	173.920	28.275	-1.011
46	09	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction / GracewayPharmaceuticals	173.369	28.365	-1.101

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie