 | | Jimmie Johnson has seven consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville. Credit: Autostock |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
March 31, 2006
08:04 PM EST (01:04 GMT)
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson brought the same approach to Martinsville that he took last weekend to Bristol. The difference was he got to run two laps at Martinsville and just one last week. "We didn't change a thing coming in this week," Johnson said after taking the Bud Pole for Sunday's DirecTV 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX) with a lap of 96.736 mph (19.575 seconds) in his No. 48 Chevrolet. "In our opinion, we didn't have a chance to race at Bristol." Johnson lasted one lap at last week's short-track race before cutting a tire and smacking the wall, relegating his day to fixing the mess and coasting to a 30th-place finish. This weekend may be a different story, Johnson said, after his qualifying run. "It's nice to get back to the track and perform well after a bad weekend like we had at Bristol," he said. "A great effort. I am proud of our team." Jamie McMurray's lap of 96.696 mph in the No. 26 Ford was good enough for second on the grid, matching his career-best starting slot at the .526-mile paperclip.  |
| DIRECTV 500 |
| Qualifying Results |
| Pos. |
Driver |
Speed |
Time |
| 1. |
J. Johnson |
96.736 |
19.575 |
| 2. |
J. McMurray |
96.696 |
19.583 |
| 3. |
T. Stewart |
96.632 |
19.596 |
| 4. |
R. Newman |
96.563 |
19.610 |
| 5. |
K. Kahne |
96.509 |
19.621 |
| 6. |
S. Marlin |
96.484 |
19.626 |
| 7. |
E. Sadler |
96.445 |
19.634 |
| 8. |
J. Gordon |
96.288 |
19.666 |
| 9. |
Ku. Busch |
96.117 |
19.701 |
| 10. |
G. Biffle |
95.976 |
19.730 |
|
|
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"We worked mainly on race setup [Friday] and did a qualifying run at the end," McMurray said. "That's usually encouraging at Martinsville. If you can qualify well and get a good pit selection, that could mean your car will race well." Tony Stewart agreed. "There's probably four good spots on the pit lane -- that's the first one, the two in the middle and the last one," he said. "This is one of your unique tracks." Fortunately for Stewart, he'll have one of those preferred stalls by qualifying his Chevy third with a lap of 96.632 mph. Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five in Dodges. Jeff Gordon, a seven-time Martinsville winner who swept both races last year here, qualified eighth. Kurt Busch, last week's Bristol winner, qualified ninth. Greg Biffle was 10th. Tony Raines, in his first race behind the wheel of the No. 96 Chevy, qualified 12th. He said was still shaking minutes after the lap he turned. "It's just the first race out of the box," said Raines, who watched while former champion Terry Labonte raced the season's first five events and kept the team inside the top 35 in owners' points. "For my first race, I was more nervous getting into the car and qualifying than I've been in a long time." Among the qualify or go-homes, Sterling Marlin turned in a Raines-like performance, putting his No. 14 Chevy sixth on the grid. David Stremme was 38th. Those that did have to pack up, however, included Jimmy Spencer. Spencer took over the No. 49 BAM Racing ride this weekend for rookie driver Brent Sherman in hopes of getting the car back within sight of the top-35 owner positions that guarantee a starting position. Spencer turned in only the 47th-best time of the 49 cars that attempted to qualify. | 
