Jamie McMurray on pole for Sprint Cup at Sonoma - MotorSportsTalk

As part of the final group of qualifiers Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, Jamie McMurray came through with a clutch lap of 75.422 seconds around the serpentine California circuit to win pole for tomorrow’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 ahead of one of NASCAR’s top road racers, Marcos Ambrose.

McMurray notched his fast lap with three minutes remaining in his group’s five-minute run around Sonoma, holding off Ambrose for his first Sprint Cup pole position since Martinsville in the spring of 2011. The Roush Fenway Racing duo of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle will make up Row 2, followed by defending race winner Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth in Row 3.

“You base your lap first off on how it feels and how much rev limiter you hit with your shifting, and I didn’t feel like I hit as much rev limiter as I did yesterday when we only ran a [75.9-second lap],” McMurray told SPEED Channel afterwards. “I wasn’t sure, but it’s a really good day.

“…This race, a lot of times, comes down to the last restart and not getting in trouble on that last restart, so we’ll just keep digging and fight all day. I think our car will have enough speed [in the race], and it’ll just be about not making mistakes.”

Ambrose, who collected his second front row start of the season, had to deal with a momentary loss of power on his car as he attempted to secure the pole for himself.

“We were just getting up to speed there, just rolled around a lap while trying to save tires – tires here are critical,” Ambrose explained on SPEED. “I hammered down coming off Turn 12 and the engine just cut off and I lost all momentum getting to the green. It came back, but I lost at least two or three tenths or so.”

Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon will round out the Top 10 on the grid. Other notables in qualifying include championship leader Jimmie Johnson in 19th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 26th and Danica Patrick in 31st for her first stock car start at Sonoma.

Today marked the Sprint Cup debut for the group qualifying format on road courses, in which cars go out in groups of five or six cars and get five minutes of green flag racing to set times; the fastest time is their lap of record on the grid.

The NBC Sports IndyCar power rankings naturally were as jumbled as the action on the streets of St. Petersburg after a chaotic opener to the 2023 season.

Pato O’Ward, who finished second because of an engine blip that cost him the lead with a few laps remaining, moves into the top spot ahead of St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi, who finished fourth in his Arrow McLaren debut. Scott Dixon and St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who led 31 laps) rounded out the top five.

St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who started first at St. Pete after capturing his second career pole position) Callum Ilott (a career-best fifth) and Graham Rahal entered the power rankings entering the season’s second race.

Three drivers fell out of the preseason top 10 after the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – including previously top-ranked Josef Newgarden, who finished 17^th after qualifying 14^th.

Heading into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, here’s NBC Sports’ assessment of the current top 10 drivers through the first of 17 races this year (with previous preseason rankings in parenthesis):

NBC Sports’ IndyCar Power Rankings

1. Pato O’Ward (5) – If not for the dreaded “plenum event” in the No. 5 Chevrolet, the Arrow McLaren driver is opening the season with a victory capping a strong race weekend.

2. Marcus Ericsson (7) – He might be the most opportunistic driver in IndyCar, but that’s because the 2022 Indy 500 winner has become one of the series’ fastest and most consistent stars.

3. Alexander Rossi (10) – He overcame a frustrating Friday and mediocre qualifying to open his Arrow McLaren career with the sort of hard-earned top five missing in his last years at Andretti.

4. Scott Dixon (3) – Put aside his opening-lap skirmish with former teammate Felix Rosenqvist, and it was a typically stealthily good result for the six-time champion.

5. Romain Grosjean (NR) – The St. Petersburg pole-sitter consistently was fastest on the streets of St. Petersburg over the course of the race weekend, which he couldn’t say once last year.

6. Scott McLaughlin (6) – Easily the best of the Team Penske drivers before his crash with Grosjean, McLaughlin drove like a legitimate 2023 championship contender.

7. Callum Ilott (NR) – A quietly impressive top five for the confident Brit in Juncos Hollinger Racing’s first race as a two-car team. Texas will be a big oval litmus test.

8. Graham Rahal (NR) – Sixth at St. Pete, Rahal still has the goods on street courses, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan remains headed in the right direction.

9. Alex Palou (4) – He seemed a step behind Ericsson and Dixon in the race after just missing the Fast Six in qualifying, but this was a solid start for Palou.

10. Will Power (2) – An uncharacteristic mistake that crashed Colton Herta put a blemish on the type of steady weekend that helped him win the 2022 title.

Falling out (last week): Josef Newgarden (1), Colton Herta (8), Christian Lundgaard (9)