Today was the qualifying for this Saturday’s race at Darlington Motor Speedway.  Jamie McMurray was the lucky winner of the pole position for Saturday’s race.  Not only did McMurray win the pole position, but he also set a record lap at the Darlington track.  This is McMurray’s second pole this 2010 NASCAR season and his fifth pole in his career.

The racetrack at Darlington is 1.366 miles long and McMurray was able to set a new track record at 27.264 seconds at 180.370 mph.  Jeff Gordon, seven-time Darlington winner, respectively starts second in Saturday’s race with a qualifying mph 180.323 and a qualifying time of 27.271.

Qualifying third for Saturday’s race was Brian Vickers, Red Bull No. 83 car, with a time of 27.322.  David Reutimann has a qualifying lap time of 27.434 with Mark Martin, in the GoDaddy.com No. 5 car, qualified at 27.450 in fourth and fifth starting positions respectively.

Ryan Newman qualified sixth at 179.056 mph with a lap time of 27.464.  Marcos Ambrose qualified seventh with a lap time of 27.467 with Denny Hamlin, the pole starter and winner of tonight’s Nationwide race at Darlington, qualifying in eight starting position with a qualifying lap time of 27.485.  Brad Keslowski had a qualifying lap time of 27.498 and Kasey Kahne in the Budweiser No. 9 car had a qualifying lap time of 27.503 in ninth and tenth positions respectively to finish off the top ten starters of the Southern 500 at Darlington Motor Speedway.

Carl Edwards will find himself starting from 41st position.  He was unable to actually make it in the field with his lap time and had to rely on his owner points to get him in.

Both Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have the greatest qualifying and practice period.  Busch got into the wall and will start in the 39th position while Jr. had a wreck during practice and was required to move to a backup car.  He will start from 19th position on Saturday night.

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