McMurray enjoys resurgence at 40
15-year Cup veteran has 3 top-10 finishes this season
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-year-old Kyle Larson, the early points leader and one of racing’s rising stars.
But McMurray is enjoying a resurgence with three top-10 finishes in the first five races, good for sixth in the standings heading into Sunday’s 500-lap race at Martinsville Speedway. It’s a track where McMurray has finished second twice but 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 0.526-mile 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. Both Hendrick Motorsports drivers have nine victories on the oldest and shortest track on NASCAR’s top series.
McMurray will start sixth, 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.”
The improvements in his team, McMurray said, have been three years in the making, or since he started working with crew chief Matt McCall. Some changes in the offseason also have made their midweek work more beneficial.
“We changed the structure of our weekly procedure at the shop on meetings. We changed a lot of things and tweaked on it and I feel that’s really helped our performance,” McMurray said. He even changed the day he comes into the race shop because he didn’t feel he was using his time “efficiently or effectively.”
The changes haven’t been sweeping, but “10 little things that I feel have made a difference.”
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.”
When the time comes to walk away, McMurray has what he thinks is a clear picture of how it will go. “I have every intention of being Ricky Rudd,” he said.
Rudd, a 23-race winner in a 33-year career, retired and apparently has no great need to linger around the garage and tracks. “When I tell you this is my last one,” McMurray said, “you guys will never see me again.” NASCAR Monster Energy-STP 500 Lineup After Friday qualifying; race Sunday At Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Va. Lap length: 0.526 mile (Car number in parentheses) 1. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 1st. 2. (24) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 2nd. 3. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 3rd. 4. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 4th. 5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 5th. 6. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 6th. 7. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 7th. 8. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 8th. 9. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 9th. 10. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 10th. 11. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 11th.
12. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 12th.
13. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 13th. 14. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 14th. 15. (77) Erik Jones, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 15th. 16. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 16th. 17. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 17th. 18. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 18th. 19. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 19th. 20. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 20th.
21. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 21st.
22. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 22nd.
23. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 23rd.
24. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 24th.
25. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 25th.
26. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 26th.
27. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 27th.
28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 28th.
29. (10) Danica Patrick, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 29th.
30. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 30th.
31. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 31st.
32. (15) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 32nd.
33. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 33rd. 34. (38) David Ragan, Ford, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 34th. 35. (83) Corey LaJoie, Toyota, Open Team - 2017 Owner Points 36th. 36. (33) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 37th.
37. (23) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, Charter Team - 2017 Owner Points 38th.
38. (51) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, Open Team - 2017 Owner Points 40th.