FONTANA, CA. – Last week Jamie McMurray dodged a big pothole, sat through several hours of delays and won the
Daytona 500. This week he strapped back into his seat and finds himself sitting in the pole position in California for the Auto Club 500 race.
Barely coming down after a week full of interviews after the Daytona win, McMurray cruised his Chevrolet to a week-best lap of 183.744 mph at the two-mile superspeedway.
“I am so amazed at the week I’ve had, and then to come here to be able to be on the pole,” McMurray said. “I really can’t believe it. It’s just pretty awesome.”
This weekend’s race will mark the first time McMurray has captured a pole in California. After arriving at the track on Friday, he spoke with reporters saying he felt it was “just a different feeling that I’ve ever had in the garage area.”
Danica Patrick is also scheduled to compete this weekend in a Nationwide race on Saturday after crashing at her first NASCAR race last week in Daytona.
With the buzz from his Daytona 500 victory settling down, the driver is anxious and ready to get back into the cockpit and compete and was ecstatic about winning the pole.
“Getting in the car … it was going to be easier than what I had to do Monday through Thursday. I was like, honestly, whew, I can’t want to get back to the race track to I can rest,” McMurray said. “It’s just been so busy. I’ve been on such a high the last four days. And I don’t think that’ll go away if you happen to have a bad run because fortunately you always get to be the Daytona 500 champion.”
McMurray also said he woke up Friday morning finally feeling rested but with a sore throat and took a few antibiotics.
That might just be the symptoms of the overabundance of interviews related to being in victory row at the Daytona 500.
NOTE: The Auto 500 starting time is 3 pm Sunday February 21.
More NASCAR: McMurray Dodges Pot Hole And Wins Daytona 500
Woman Drivers! Chrissy Wallace and Danica Both Crash in Nationwide 300
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