McMurray takes Infineon pole

McMurray lapped the 1.99-mile road course in a time of 1:17.521, beating the benchmark time of Robby Gordon who sat on provisional pole for most of the afternoon by just twelve thousandths of a second.

"I though with Ryan [Newman] and Juan [Pablo Montoya] going out as late as they did I didn't think it would hold up," McMurray said after earning his third Nextel Cup career pole. "I was really happy with my car. We've struggled a bit through the high-speed corners. We adjusted on it for qualifying and still didn't hit on it."

Gordon was the twelfth driver on the track to complete his one-lap qualifying effort and believes his early draw probably prevented him from getting pole.

"All racecars have excuses right?," Gordon said. "And we got beat by the luck of the draw today, period. When Jamie went out it was 25 degrees cooler. When Dale went out it was 35 degrees cooler than when we went as far as track temperature. It just makes a big difference."

Dale Earnhardt Jr was a surprise third, matching his best ever qualifying effort on a road course. He was the fastest Chevrolet Impala SS qualifier and will share the second row of the grid with road course specialist Boris Said, who made it three Ford Fusions in the top four spots of the grid.

"We didn't know what the car was capable of and I was really surprised the car was as quick as it was and the lap was as good as it was," a stunned Earnhardt said. "I didn't make any mistakes but I think there was a whole lot more in the race car and a whole lot more in the speed. That was pretty good for our team."

Tony Stewart was fifth quickest and lost a clear shot at pole position in turn 11, a very tight hairpin that leads into the start-finish line. Despite that, he was happy with his effort, which was in fact better than he though he would manage.

"Turn 11 is hard for me because I've historically always screwed up there," Stewart said. "I'll have to get with Ron Fellows or Boris (Said) or somebody and find out why I'm losing time, but the qualifying lap turned out much better than I though it was going to be."

Juan Pablo Montoya ended up a disappointing 32nd and more than 1.2 seconds off the pace. The Colombian had looked promising during the morning practice but was baffled by how slow his lap turned out to be, despite being the last car to complete his run and the cooler conditions he had on the track.

"The lap was pretty good," Montoya said. "We're actually looking at everything. We lost a little bit of grip. We were sliding around a little bit more and I do not know what really to tell you.

"I braked the same place that I braked in practice. We thought we were going to be maybe three or four tenths from the pole. I don't know. I made a mistake coming into Turn 10 and lost maybe a couple tenths there but that's about it."

Instead Kasey Kahne emerged as the fastest Dodge Avenger qualifier in 8th, ahead of Ryan Newman who was the second last car to complete his run. Clint Bowyer rounded up the top ten in his Richard Childress Chevrolet.

Among the Toyotas, Dave Blaney was the fastest qualifier in 19th while the day ended in a big disappointment for the Red Bull Camrys, which failed to qualify, ending a streak of five consecutive starts for both the team's cars.

In contrast, Michael Waltrip had reason for joy as all three of his cars made the grid for the first time this season, with Dale Jarrett being the best placed in 16th, Terry Labonte 25th and PJ Jones taking the last spot on the grid.

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will line up 41st and 42nd on the starting grid despite not being able to qualify after failing morning inspection. They will be on track for Saturday practice having already corrected the issues with the front fenders on their cars.

With 52 cars entered, nine ended up packing early after failing to qualify. Ward Burton, Scott Riggs, Brandon Ash, Paul Menard, Brian Vickers, AJ Allmendinger, Brian Simo, Kenny Wallace and Klaus Graf will not make the start on Sunday.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        92.414    77.521
 2.  Robby Gordon        Ford        92.399    77.533  +0.012
 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   92.384    77.546  +0.025
 4.  Boris Said          Ford        92.312    77.606  +0.085
 5.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   92.262    77.648  +0.127
 6.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   92.258    77.652  +0.131
 7.  Bill Elliott        Ford        92.203    77.698  +0.177
 8.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       92.126    77.763  +0.242
 9.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       92.051    77.826  +0.305
10.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   91.907    77.948  +0.427
11.  Ron Fellows         Chevrolet   91.887    77.965  +0.444
12.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       91.827    78.016  +0.495
13.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       91.753    78.079  +0.558
14.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       91.744    78.087  +0.566
15.  Carl Edwards        Ford        91.698    78.126  +0.605
16.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      91.644    78.172  +0.651
17.  Greg Biffle         Ford        91.462    78.328  +0.807
18.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   91.388    78.391  +0.870
19.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      91.375    78.402  +0.881
20.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   91.357    78.418  +0.897
21.  Marc Goossens       Toyota      91.313    78.455  +0.934
22.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   91.309    78.459  +0.938
23.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       91.265    78.497  +0.976
24.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   91.223    78.533  +1.012
25.  Terry Labonte       Toyota      91.222    78.534  +1.013
26.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet   91.148    78.597  +1.076
27.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        91.089    78.648  +1.127
28.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        91.079    78.657  +1.136
29.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       91.065    78.669  +1.148
30.  Butch Leitzinger    Toyota      91.051    78.681  +1.160
31.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   90.996    78.729  +1.208
32.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       90.976    78.746  +1.225
33.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   90.900    78.812  +1.291
34.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   90.842    78.862  +1.341
35.  David Gilliland     Ford        90.758    78.935  +1.414
36.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   90.592    79.080  +1.559
37.  David Ragan         Ford        89.872    79.713  +2.192
38.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   89.619    79.938  +2.417
39.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   86.661    82.667  +5.146
40.  David Stremme       Dodge       84.147    85.137  +7.616
41.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet     -         -     -
42.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet     -         -     -
43.  P.J. Jones          Toyota      90.899    78.813  +1.292