McMurray must qualify for Martinsville Cup race
By Rea White - Associate Editor
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Jason Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR
BRISTOL, TN - MARCH 14: Jamie McMurray, driver of the #26 Crown Royal Ford, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway on March 14, 2008 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jamie McMurray faces a little extra pressure this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. The Roush Fenway Racing driver is outside the top 35 in owners points and must qualify for the race based on speed.
Luckily, this is the track where he has his second-best average starting position of 13.4. He also has an average finish of 15.7 there (with one top-five and six top-10 finishes in 10 starts), something that could boost him back into the locked-in group if he matches it this weekend.
Right now, though, McMurray’s team is 36th in the standings, four points outside of the top 35 in NASCAR Sprint Cup owners points. The top 35 in the standings are locked in for each race.
McMurray knows that a lot of people will be watching him and his team this weekend – and he feels he is up to the challenge.
“There are a lot of expectations for myself and the No. 26 team heading into Martinsville this weekend," he said. "We know we are outside the top 35 and right now, the only goal we have is to get ourselves back into the top 35. We’ve had a really rough start to the season, and honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint one exact reason – we’ve just had a lot of bad luck. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last week-and-a-half looking at what we need to do avoid the bad luck that has followed us around since the start of the season.”
No one on the team is taking this position lightly.
While McMurray has been running at the end of each of the opening five races, he has a top finish of 22nd this season, with finishes of 40th or worse in the last two Cup races.
He obviously expects to be able to both make the race this weekend and to climb back into the top 35 with his performance in it.
“I’m really glad the next race is Martinsville,” McMurray said. “Last year, I qualified second in the spring race, and I think ninth in the second race. Martinsville is one of my favorite tracks, so to know that I have to qualify my way in, I’m glad that it’s at Martinsville.”
Crew chief Larry Carter said that the team understands this position well and is taking the weekend step by step. The group is intensely focused on the Friday qualifying session, knowing what that outing will be like in terms of pressure.
“First and foremost, we need to make sure that Jamie does well in qualifying on Friday,” he said. “After that, we need to focus on running a clean race, and hopefully, move ourselves up in the points, so that next week we aren’t in the same position. After that, we’ll just continue working at it and with hard work and clean races, we’ll move ourselves back up in the point standings.
“It all starts with a good qualifying effort and a great race this weekend … Right now we’re just chopping one tree at a time, not the entire forest.”
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