updated 5:53 p.m. ET March 31, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Three things were evident when the dust settled at Martinsville Speedway: Jamie McMurray is capable of rising to the occasion; there’s been a shift in power among NASCAR’s elite teams; and owner Jack Roush really, really dislikes Toyota.

First up was McMurray, who went into Martinsville under more scrutiny than any other driver.

Knocked out of the top 35 and not ensured a spot in Sunday’s field, McMurray had to qualify on speed to make the race.

Typically, that might not have been an issue for McMurray, who is pretty decent at Martinsville. However, the pressure was intense — an errant move, blown tire or broken part would have sent a Roush Fenway Racing car home for the first time since Greg Biffle missed Las Vegas in 2003.

Sitting out on Sunday would have been disastrous for McMurray, and forced him to climb from a deep hole to salvage his season. Instead, he left nothing to chance with a flawless qualifying run that earned him the fifth starting spot.

“It was really a hard two weeks, and I told my girlfriend ... ‘I wish we could just go right now and qualify, and get it out of the way,’ ” he said after qualifying. “I went out and played with my go-kart and did everything I could not to think about it.”

Admitting he was as excited about Sunday’s race as he had been in a very long time, he backed it up by running with the leaders from start to finish and driving one of his smartest races in recent memory. The effort was rewarded with his best finish since Dover of last September, a span of 14 races.

McMurray’s season-best eighth place finish rocketed him six spots in the standings, to 30th, and locks him into this weekend’s race at Texas. The hard part, for now, is over. If McMurray can string together a batch of strong runs like Sunday’s, he’ll quickly lift himself off the hot seat.

Buoyed by the decent weekend and his ardently loyal fans, McMurray is not ruling out making a run at the Chase.

“I learned a lot about myself and fans. Having the weeks that I had ... to support a guy that doesn’t win very often, that’s a really loyal fan and that kind of makes you feel good,” he said after the race. “I don’t think that the Chase is out of the question.”

Making the Chase will be difficult for McMurray, and even if he gets there, it’s looking like he and his Roush teammates will be chasing a new set of leaders.

Through six races this season, Hendrick Motorsports has, at least temporarily, given up its spot as the industry leader.

That title now belongs to either Joe Gibbs Racing or Richard Childress Racing, as both teams have shown early dominance. With three wins between them — and a handful of missed opportunities in the other three races — the teams rank all six of their drivers inside the top 12.

Currently, the edge goes to RCR, which has Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick holding down the top two spots in the standings. Kyle Busch is the highest-ranked Gibbs driver at fifth, but a broken gear in Martinsville dropped him there after three weeks as the Cup Series points leader.

The two teams have a combined 21 top-10 finishes, and have shown early that Hendrick is now chasing them.

At this point last season, Hendrick had four victories. This year, the team is winless.

And Martinsville is where many expected them to have their first Victory Lane celebration. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson had owned the track of late, and again, ran up front most of the race. But with the win on the line, Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin broke through with his first victory of the year and the second for Toyota.

Watching a Camry drive into Victory Lane had to infuriate Roush, who continued to voice his displeasure with the automaker and its teams during the three-day Martinsville weekend.

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This time the issue surrounds a stolen swaybar, which Michael Waltrip has admitted his team inadvertently grabbed following the Dover race last fall. But Roush leveled charges of “intellectual espionage” and said he had considered taking legal action against the team.

Most of the garage found this latest drama wildly entertaining, with Gordon mockingly suggesting the FBI should be brought in to investigate. But it again pulled Toyota Racing Development back into the ring with an opponent it has been sparring since before it entered NASCAR.

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