McMurray glad to be at Martinsville
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Jamie McMurray has become the “other” driver on Chip Ganassi Racing’s two-car team.
The 40-year-old veteran, in his 15th season on NASCAR’s top circuit, hasn’t won in more than four years. His teammate is 24-yearold Kyle Larson — the early points leader, one of racing’s rising stars and the pole-sitter for today’s 500lap Monster Energy Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
But with three top-10 finishes in the first five races that have helped him to sixth place in the points standings, McMurray is experiencing a resurgence of sorts. And now he’s at a track where he has enjoyed at least a measure of success by finishing second twice, though he has never won.
“Here and Sonoma are kind of the two tracks to me that every year that I look the most forward to going to, because I feel like I’ve always qualified really well at them and I’ve raced really well,” McMurray said Saturday. “Honestly, I really don’t feel like I’ve gotten the finishes I deserved at those two tracks.”
His second-place finishes on the 0.526mile oval came 11 years apart, and he came up short against two of the best at Martinsville. Jimmie Johnson beat him in 2004 and Jeff Gordon in 2015. Johnson has nine victories on the oldest and shortest track on NASCAR’s top circuit, and Gordon had that many when he retired.
Because rain canceled Friday’s qualifying, today’s lineup is based on points, meaning McMurray will make his sixth top-10 start in as many races this year. He always watches the previous year’s race in preparation, but he’s philosophical about how much he can control.
Gordon had probably a fifth-place car when he won in 2015, McMurray said, but variables come into play late in every race.
“I think we’ll have a chance to win tomorrow,” he said. “Are the circumstances going to play out? I don’t know, but in three weeks, we might go somewhere and have the fifth-best car and we might win there.”
A 117-race winless streak can cause whispers about whether a driver’s best days are behind him. McMurray doesn’t necessarily think that running well prolongs a driver’s career, but his current success makes him feel all the work is paying off.
“It just seems like every week we get a little quicker in relation to the other cars on the track,” he said. “It’s so much fun to come every week when you can compete and run as well as we have.”
Elliott wins trucks race
Chase Elliott had spent lap after lap pursuing Christopher Bell, trying to find or create a way around him.
Turned out, he didn’t have to do a thing.
Elliott grabbed the lead when Bell wiggled with 17 laps to go and held off teammate Johnny Sauter to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Saturday at Martinsville.
“I was trying,” Elliott said. “There were a couple times I really tried to pass him and got into him pretty hard and was trying to kind of root him up out of the way. He was doing a really good job of controlling his momentum and my momentum coming to his bumper.
“His bumper was getting awfully blue as the day went on. I was going to try to be a little more aggressive if I got back to him, but had a little help from his misfortune, which happens. I’ve been on both ends of it, so we’ll take it.”
Elliott, who lost to Sauter on the 0.526mile oval last October, held off one challenge from the defending series champion and pulled away for his second victory in 12 career starts in the series. Sauter — seeking a record fourth victory at Martinsville — finished second, followed by Bell, rookie Noah Gragson and Ty Dillon.
The exciting finish was set up by a mistake Bell made with 17 laps remaining that handed the top two spots to Elliott and Sauter.
Bell had led for 90 laps, but Elliott’s break came when Bell, frustrated that rookie Austin Cindric was slowing him down while trying to stay on the lead lap, finally nudged Cindric heading into a turn, causing Cindric to lose traction and then Bell to get loose as well. It created an inside lane for Elliott and Sauter to slide into the top two positions.
The race was just the third of the season in the series and came after a threeweek layoff. Another one beckons now as the series doesn’t return to action until May.