Jamie McMurray wins Brickyard 400 to give team owner Chip Ganassi rare 'triple crown'
Jamie McMurray celebrates his win Sunday in the Brickyard 400 at Indy.
// Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Illustrated
INDIANAPOLIS – The focus might have been on his teammate, but at the end of the day, Jamie McMurray was the driver in the spotlight.
The 34-year-old McMurray became just the third driver to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same season, and in doing so, he elevated team co-owner Chip Ganassi to an even loftier status – Ganassi became the first owner to field winning entries in the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Indy 500 in the same year.
Ganassi also celebrated a win here in May when Dario Franchitti captured the Indy 500.
“We didn’t have the best car. When Kevin [Harvick] got by me a few laps from the end, I thought it was over,” McMurray said. “Our car was a little tight. Ten laps to go; just do what you’ve got to do.”
What he did was retake the lead from Harvick on a restart with 11 laps remaining and then drove steadily away from the Richard Childress Racing driver to score his second win of the season and fifth of his career.
Dale Jarrett (1996) and Jimmie Johnson (2006) are the only two drivers that had previously won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same season.
For the second straight year, Juan Pablo Montoya, McMurray’s teammate, had the dominant car, but once again left disappointed. This time, Montoya led a race-high 86 laps before a crash on lap 146 ended his day and resulted in a 32nd-place finish.
Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway Racing) led twice for 38 laps and finished third while Clint Bowyer (RCR) and Tony Stewart (Stewart-Haas Racing) rounded out the top five.
Montoya was in control when a caution flag flew on lap 139 of 160. When the leaders pitted, Montoya took four tires while McMurray, Harvick, Stewart and others took just two tires. Montoya wound up seventh and Biffle eighth while McMurray came out with the lead.
“He made a good decision to stick with two tires,” McMurray said of crew chief Kevin Manion’s call that put McMurray out front following a yellow flag for debris with 21 laps remaining. “When I got out in front, I honestly didn’t think anybody would catch me.
“The 29 [of Harvick] hadn’t been as good as us all day. I thought I’d be able to drive away from him. I got really tight, Kevin got up under underneath me. I kind of let him go because I was going to try to cross over going into [Turn] 1.”
As soon as Harvick made the pass, the day’s final caution flag appeared, this one for Montoya, who spun and crashed while trying to work his way back to the front.
Once back under green, both McMurray and Harvick spun their tires, “but when I got down to Turn 1, my car had a lot more grip than it did the run before. … Man, I just had way more grip that last run than I did the run before that.”
More importantly, he also had the lead.
McMurray pocketed $438,877 for the win in a race before an announced crowd of 140,000.
Harvick, the series points leader, extended his advantage to 184 over Jeff Gordon, who struggled and finished 23rd.
“We had a solid top‑five car,” Harvick said. “We took a gamble there at the end to take two tires.
“On the first restart, it took off great. We were able to run Jamie down and pass him. Second restart, it didn't take off so great. [It] just got tight [and] he drove around the outside of me.”
While McMurray had run sixth or better – mostly better – all day, Manion said the late caution provided the opportunity to gamble on the tire call.
“That was probably the right call with two today,” he said. “I actually said in a team meeting [this morning], ‘Four tires will win this race,’ even though we thought we were going to take two in our strategy to get out front.”
The win marked the first time that McMurray has won two races in a season. He returned to Ganassi’s team this year after a four-year stint at Roush Fenway Racing.
Ganassi called the victory a “win for the team.”
“I don’t want to take anything away from Jamie and [Kevin], but the team wins and the team loses,” he said. “Today was certainly a mixed-emotions day in that respect. Without the 42 team [of Montoya], the 1 car wouldn't have won, I don't think, and vice versa. That's what happens.
“Is it surreal? Yes. From where we were a while back, people had Jamie written off, people had us written off. But … he couldn't have come back a better person. We had grown as a team and he had grown as a driver. We picked up where we left off, I think. And I'm really happy about that.”
