Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray says confidence cannot be tied to results
Jamie McMurray, winner of the Daytona 500, says he's learned "not base my confidence on performance or results." // Jason Smith, Getty Images for NASCAR
FONTANA, Calif. – It would seem only natural that Jamie McMurray has more confidence going into the Auto Club 500 this year than he did a year ago, or even a week ago for that matter.
But McMurray, winner of the Daytona 500 and on the pole for today’s race at Auto Club Speedway in California, says he tries not to equate confidence with his results.
While that might seem a little unusual, it’s probably why McMurray has been able to handle his seven-plus years in Cup.
After winning in just his second Cup start, McMurray captured the series’ rookie honors in 2003 while at Chip Ganassi Racing and seemed destined to challenge for wins and championships. But he never finished higher than 11th in the standings, and even after four years at Roush Fenway Racing, he couldn’t crack the sport’s elite.
So he returned to the team operated by Ganassi – now known as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing – and in his first race back won the Daytona 500.
“Racing is so strange because you can win one week and you can have two or three bad weeks and you just don’t ever seem to remember all the good stuff,” says the 33-year-old McMurray, who has four career Cup victories in 259 starts. “But what I had tried really hard over the last couple of years to do is not base my confidence on performance or results.
“When the day is over, … there are certain factors that determine the outcome of a race – you can have a flat tire, you can get stuck in the wrong line on a restart, you can have problems in racing that sometimes are out of the driver’s control – [and] as long as I feel like I did everything at the end of the day, my confidence is fine.”
But what about public perception? Will people view McMurray as a more talented driver now that he’s won the 500?
“I don’t care how they view me or what they view me as,” McMurray says. “You get in a race car as a driver, and you drive your butt off every time you get in it. If you win the race, you win the race. If you don’t, you gave it everything you had.
“I mean, not to be negative, I just don’t care what they think.”
While McMurray’s confidence might not have changed, people do think a little more of him. He’s enjoyed the attention that has come along with the Daytona 500 trophy. And he must have a greater sense of pride in his accomplishments as a race-car driver.
“Something else that has been kind of an eye-opener is that I knew what it meant to win this race, but from the fans and from my peers in the garage, whether it’s like Tony Stewart coming up [Thursday] night to dinner to congratulate me, it’s just unbelievable,” McMurray says about the response to his win. “I mean I’ve won a few races. And you see a few guys in the garage and they say, ‘Good job.’
“Everybody wants to come up and shake your hand and congratulate you. And that, honestly, is what is the most enjoyable part of it to me. As I walk through the garage, from both sides, I see people like staring at me waiting on me to get to them to shake my hand. And it’s just been wonderful.”
A victory in the Daytona 500 is what every driver dreams of, and to know that a Daytona 500 victory is still a possibility gives them all hope that they can rebound from the sport’s obstacles.
“[McMurray] made it to the Daytona 500 trying to prove to the racing world that he should be in Cup racing and trying to prove to his team that he could get the job done, and won the Daytona 500,” says former teammate Jeff Burton.
Now that he’s won the 500, McMurray is looking at the next step in his career – making the Chase For The Sprint Cup. He likely would have made it in the first two years of the format if the field had included 12 drivers – as it currently does –instead of 10.
“I set a personal goal of being able to win two races this year and make the Chase,” McMurray says. “I didn’t really expect the Daytona 500 to be one of those, but honestly from here on out, it’s about getting as many points as we can and getting in the Chase and I think once you get in the Chase, [you] reset your goals to however your performance is at that time.”
Regardless of whether he makes the Chase or not, the race today begins McMurray’s post-Daytona 500 victory racing era. It’s a week McMurray hoped would come but didn’t want to end.
“It’s just been honestly, the best week of my life,” McMurray says. “Well, my wedding day would be the best day of my life. But this has been a real close second. I can tell you that. And gosh, it’s great that everyone is being so nice and is treating me with so much respect.
“You can’t buy that. You can’t make people say all those things about you; that’s just the way they feel. And it’s really incredible. It really is. I walked in here today and it’s just a different feeling than I’ve ever had in the garage area.”
