NASCAR: Jamie McMurray Wins Infineon Pole

Two contenders were taken out of the play before a lap was ever run Friday.

Photo courtesy: doverspeedway.com

SONOMA, Calif. - Jamie McMurray, a bridesmaid for the pole at Infineon Raceway a year ago, came from nowhere to set the pace and grab the pole position for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race.

McMurray edged out Robby Gordon by .012 of a second for the top spot and Dale Earnhardt Jr., got his best-ever starting position at Infineon behind them as NASCAR's regulars generally held back the road-racing "gunfighters" who always seem to make their presence felt at one of only two road courses on the circuit.

But even at that, McMurray was quick to praise road-racing specialist Boris Said (who qualified fourth) for helping his team improve for the first race of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow on a road course layout.

"Boris did all of our testing," McMurray said. "He tested four or five times getting ready for just this race and the package that we have with the springs and swaybars and shocks, it's all based on our engineering program and Boris' feedback. When we unloaded here, I ran my first four or five laps and I'm like, ‘The car feels great' and it had a lot of speed built into it.

Two contenders were taken out of the play before a lap was ever run Friday.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point leader Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Racing teammate Jimmie Johnson were sidelined for the day by NASCAR for a technical violation involving a front fender.

Their cars will go through inspection Saturday and if they pass, they will start 41st and 42nd in the 43-car field.

McMurray said qualifying was tough at Infineon.

"(It's) because when you make your mock-up run, you get to run the whole race track and get your brakes warmed up and your car warmed up," he said. "It's a challenge when you pull out on the backstretch and have all that stuff ready to go. I was a little bit nervous. The first few times you qualify here, it's a struggle because the car just loses a lot of grip but I got through (Turn) one and all the slow corners really good."

Tony Stewart was fifth and Said was the only driver of the dedicated "one-off" road racers to crack the top 10.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the former F-1 star in his first NASCAR season, qualified 32nd as the last qualifier of the day.

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