McMurray grabs third pole of the season at Chicagoland

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/09/2010 - Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamie McMurray picked up his Sprint Cup Series leading third pole of the season after topping the charts in Friday's qualifying for the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

McMurray turned in a lap of 183.542 m.p.h. around the one-and-a-half-mile oval for his sixth career Cup pole.

"It's really amazing with our qualifying this year, and we've been really strong," McMurray said. "I'm really happy with our lap today."

McMurray began the season in February by winning the Daytona 500, but has dropped to 19th in the standings since then. He trails 12th-place Carl Edwards by 225 points with eight races remaining before the start of the championship Chase.

Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside pole after posting a lap of 183.281 m.p.h. Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, became a father earlier this week. His wife, Chandra, gave birth to their first child, a daughter. The couple has yet to choose a name, but are affectionately referring to her as "Baby J" for now.

"We didn't expect her to come this early, so that was a bit of a surprise," Johnson said. "With [crew chief] Chad [Knaus] leading this 48 team and all the support at Hendrick [Motorsports], we had everything in line. I feel bad for Aric [Almirola]. He didn't get a chance to drive the car, and I think he is a great talent, and hopefully he will be picked up by someone. He's doing a great job in the Truck Series, but I know he has aspirations to get into the Cup Series."

Almirola was on standby to drive the No.48 car for Johnson if his wife gave birth during the race weekend.

Johnson said he planned to fly back home to North Carolina this evening to be with his wife and daughter, and then return to Chicagoland in time for Saturday night's race here. Chicagoland is one of four tracks on the series schedule where Johnson has yet to win.

Tony Stewart, a two-time Chicagoland race winner, qualified third, while Greg Biffle and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top-five.

"We had two hours and 45 minutes of practice and made only one qualifying run, so I'm pretty happy with our race car," Stewart said.

Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Juan Pablo Montoya qualified sixth through 10th, respectively.

Kevin Harvick, the current points leader and winner of last weekend's race at Daytona, will start 27th, while NASCAR fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. will roll off two spots ahead of Harvick in 25th.

Harvick holds a 212-point advantage over Gordon heading into the 19th race of the season.

Michael McDowell, Dave Blaney, J.J. Yeley and Todd Bodine failed to qualify.

Saturday's 400-mile race at Chicagoland is scheduled to start just after 7:30 p.m. (et).

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