Jamie McMurray Proves Daytona 500 Win Wasn't a Fluke with Pole

After Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500, a lot of people were questioning if the success would continue throughout the season. McMurray went to the Auto Club Speedway and set the record straight as he won the pole with a lap of 183.744 mph.

"I ran my first two laps of practice, and the car has really good speed in it," McMurray said. "The car feels really solid, so that was refreshing to go through everything this week and get here and have a fast car again.

"I think this weekend is what really sets the standard for the rest of these races. It should be a really good weekend."

Fellow Earnhardt-Ganassi teammate Juan Pablo Montoya took second with a lap of 183.477mph, proving he wasn’t letting up from his performance the year before. McMurray said, though, for his team that credit goes to Juan and crew chief Brian Pattie as they unloaded originally with their set-up.

"The good thing is that, everywhere we've been, I've really liked the 42 car setup, what Juan and Brian have developed," said McMurray. "So we just unloaded here very similar to what they had, and a couple of small things different, and we just adjusted our car from there.

"Honestly, when I went out, I hoped to get in the top seven. I felt like, if we ran a good lap, we would be in the top seven, so being on the pole was really unexpected."

Following the lap, they both called it “insane” in their words as it has been a solid start to the season for them so far, one that many fans weren’t expecting.

Overall in qualifying, the Earnhardt-Childress Racing motor package fared well as Clint Bowyer qualified third (183.127mph), and Kevin Harvick qualified fifth (182.899mph). Filling in the gap was Richard Petty Racing driver Kasey Kahne (182.913mph) in third and Prism Motorsports driver Dave Blaney (182.908mph) in forth.