McMurray holds off Earnhardt at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jamie McMurray took the lead with 15 laps remaining and withstood a charge by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
McMurray ended a 108-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup Series with the seventh victory of his career and his second at Talladega.
The race essentially ended a half-lap early when the caution flew for a crash involving Austin Dillon and Casey Mears, freezing the field and handing the checkered flag to McMurray.
McMurray led only one lap before taking the lead on Lap 174 of 188 after the final green-flag pit cycle.
“I knew our Chevy was good, I couldn’t get in the
right line. To get in right line requires a lot of risk. I felt patient all day. Seemed top was better place to get hung out than the bottom. I don’t know how last lap would have played out. Could see (Earnhardt) trying to set me up and where to get a run on me,” the Earnhardt Ganassi driver said.
He gave team owner Chip Ganassi another reason to celebrate this weekend. Ganassi driver Scott Dixon wrapped up his third IndyCar championship Saturday night in Fontana, Calif.
Earnhardt, who was trying to end a nine-year winless drought on restrictor-plate tracks, settled for second place. It’s been 53 races since his last win in NASCAR’s premier series and 36 since his last victory at Daytona International Speedway or Talladega.
NASCAR’s most popular driver was leading before his final pit stop but emerged in 15th and couldn’t get back to the front, though he had a strategy for the final lap.
“I had a plan,” Earnhardt said. “We were going to get a run on the back straightaway for (Dillon) and whoever else wanted to go. We never got a chance to do what we wanted to do. We had our run formed in the middle of (turns) 1 and 2. We didn’t lose to no slouch. Jamie’s a really good restrictorplate racer with a lot of power. (It’s) definitely an improvement on where we’ve been in the past.”
Jimmie Johnson finished 13th and took the lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings by four points over Matt Kenseth, who was 20th.
“We had a really good car, but fell back when we tried to make a move to the inside,” Johnson said. “We rallied back, got a few more spots and most importantly finished a few places in front on the 20.
“It feels like the races going forward, it’s up to the competitors, there are no more wildcard races. I’m happy to have the points lead, now we just go one race at a time.”
Kenseth, who complained of an ill-handling car through much of the race, gives up the points lead for the first time in 1. Jimmie Johnson, 2,254 2. Matt Kenseth, 2,250
3. Kyle Busch, 2,228 4. Kevin Harvick, 2,228 5. Jeff Gordon, 2,220 6. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2,202 7. Greg Biffle, 2,201 8. Clint Bowyer, 2,197 9. Kurt Busch, 2,193 10. Carl Edwards, 2,186 11. Ryan Newman, 2,182
12. Joey Logano, 2,179 the Chase.
“I really needed to be up there like I was early so I could control the runs, and I just never could do that at the end,” he said. “It was just an incredibly disappointing day. Nobody wanted to go, everybody just wanted to stay in their spots. I wanted to up there and mix it up, but nobody wanted to go.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Paul Menard and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
Dillon, who was driving the No. 14 Chevrolet in place of injured Tony Stewart, lost control of his car and briefly flipped over after making contact with Stenhouse.