Kenny Bruce: Fast finish bodes well for Jamie McMurray
COMMENTARY
Where did he come from? Jamie McMurray, I mean.
While all of NASCAR was caught up in the hoopla surrounding Jimmie Johnson trying to win a third consecutive championship and Carl Edwards doing everything he possibly could to get in Johnson’s way, Jamie McMurray arrived.
Seems as if he sort of snuck in when nobody was looking. Some folks still might not realize just how well he was running once the dust settled and the season finally came to an end.
The 2008 season won’t go down as McMurray’s finest hour – his 16th-place finish in the points was a far cry from 2003, ’04 and ’05 when he was knocking on a top-10 finish in points. But the 32-year-old from Joplin, Mo., had one of the finest runs down the stretch of any competitor.
In fact, only two drivers competing in the Chase For The Sprint Cup – Johnson and Edwards – managed to earn more points in the final six races than the Roush Fenway Racing driver. Thanks to five finishes of seventh or better in his last six starts – including finishes of third, third and third in the final three races – McMurray earned 865 points. That’s more than the other 10 guys who were battling Johnson and Edwards, however briefly, for the title.
Sure it’s true that anyone could take a six-race stretch by just about any team and perhaps make a driver look good. And if one were to take a look at the final 10 Chase races, teammate David Ragan actually earned 110 more points than McMurray.
While it’s no secret that McMurray didn’t exactly set the racing world on fire in the 30 races prior to his strong finish, that doesn’t change the fact that he and crew chief Larry Carter and the rest of the No. 26 team obviously discovered something that worked and it began to pay off during the latter part of the season.
McMurray said the progress actually started much earlier during the year. The team was fielding fast cars, he said, but the results weren’t coming.
“There’s really not anything different,” he said following the season’s final race. “If you really looked back and paid attention to our team, for the last three months we’ve had just really fast cars and just didn’t really have much to show for it. For the last two months we’ve had things just kind of go our way and then, obviously, the last month has just been incredible.”
McMurray, who won in just his second career Cup start back in 2002, called it “by far the best I’ve run in my career.
“Even when I was with [team owner Chip] Ganassi and could contend to make the Chase, I didn’t run as well as I am right now. It just seems like every week you have a chance to win, so it’s a lot of fun to get to run that well, but the same thing when the season started – everybody was asking me what was wrong and I’m not doing anything different now. I think I’m able to communicate with the crew chief and the engineer better to make better adjustments and when the race starts, the cars are just faster.”
The McMurray-Carter combination won’t return for 2009 – Carter’s already been named crew chief for Paul Menard at Yates Racing. Still, things are looking up for McMurray. While the official announcement has yet to be made, Donnie Wingo is expected to be named the team’s crew chief, making it a reunion of sorts from the pair’s Ganassi days.
A veteran of 222 career Cup starts, McMurray is one of a handful of drivers that have won at least one race in all three of NASCAR’s top series. But he hasn’t enjoyed the success on the Cup level that many expected after bursting on the scene six years ago when he won at Lowe’s Motor Speedway driving in relief for Sterling Marlin.
Judging by his recent performances, however, McMurray's fortunes may finally be about to change.
