NASCAR Cup

McMurray on Pennsylvania 500 pole

Jamie McMurray grabbed the pole for the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono International Raceway. It is McMurray's second career pole and first this season. "It is a good car and had a lot of grip," said McMurray. "I was a little bit shocked about how ...

Published: Jul 25, 2005, 2:31 PM

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Jamie McMurray grabbed the pole for the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono International Raceway. It is McMurray's second career pole and first this season.

"It is a good car and had a lot of grip," said McMurray. "I was a little bit shocked about how much grip it had. We were really good in race trim and when I went to bed last night I was excited about today. We've had a lot of drama the last couple of weeks with all the announcements we've made.

"I am just glad we are running well."

Reigning Cup champ Kurt Busch will roll off the grid second. It is Busch's third top-two start this year.

"I was really surprised," Busch said. "We picked up over a second-and-a- half from yesterday's practice. We tightened the car up a bunch just because our race set-up was so loose I didn't think we had a shot at the pole.

"I am kicking myself that I should have got after it a little harder."

Busch's teammate, Mark Martin, was also stunned at how good his Roush Ford navigated around the track. He starts third.

"I was kind of surprised because I thought he was gonna call out a slow lap time," commented Martin. "That's a product of fast race cars I guess. It didn't feel good at all. It certainly didn't seem to be a very good lap.

"But it is a very good race car."

Ryan Newman and Ricky Rudd complete the top five.

"I like Pocono," Rudd stated. "It's been a real good track over the years. I've run there a lot and won some and had two or three races that slipped away, and there's a whole lot of top-fives and top10s at that track. I've always enjoyed racing there. A lot of guys don't. A lot of guys just don't like the track, and I've always enjoyed it.

"I think any time you go somewhere that you enjoy racing usually your performance is pretty decent."

Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Elliott Sadler who all hit the wall during Friday practices and had to resort to back-up cars; they qualified 9th, 28th and 39th respectively.

Derrike Cope, Casey Mears and Michael Waltrip all had issues during their time trial laps. Cope and Mears both wadded up their rides. Waltrip brushed the wall causing minor quarter-panel damage to the No. 15 Chevy.

Mears starts 42nd; Waltrip 24th and Cope did not make the show.

Also failing to make the forty-three car field were Morgan Shepard, Hermie Sadler, and Carl Long

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