In an afternoon marred by tire problems, the No. 26 Crown Royal team rose above the obstacle to finish a season-best sixth place. The No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion piloted by Jamie McMurray, qualified in the top 10, and took the checkered flag in the top-10 position. This finish moved McMurray to 20th in the Sprint Cup point standings.
During practice on Saturday afternoon, Sprint Cup teams realized they could not go more than four or five laps on new tires before they began to show significant signs of wear.
On Sunday, before a crowd of more than 200,000 fans, the green flag flew for pole winner, and eventual race winner, Jimmie Johnson.
After two competion yellows for tires, Larry Carter came over the radio and told McMurray, “we need to finish today’s race. I think we are in a good position, and if we can maintain our track position, and save our car, I think we can come out of here with a good finish. There are a lot of unknowns this afternoon, but if we all work together, we can make the most of today, and show a good finish this afternoon.”
The problems continued for all the teams – the tires would not hold up after 12 laps of green-flag racing.
The No. 26 team continued to follow the instructions of NASCAR by coming in every 12 laps and taking on new tires. Occasionally, Carter would call for two tires, and others it would be four tires and fuel. Regardless of the call made in the pits, the No. 26 Crown Royal pit crew stuck together and knocked out some of their fastest stops of the season.
“It’s just frustrating this afternoon,” said McMurray following the race. “They said the track was getting better in happy hour, but we didn’t see that and it never really did take rubber. I got really mad in the middle because they were letting us run until the tires were blowing up and I’m like, ‘You can’t put us in that situation.’ You’ve got to throw the caution before we blow a tire because if someone gets hurt, we could have prevented that. Thankfully, they let us run about 12 laps and they’d throw the caution. Just about every time the caution would come out, the lap before I’d be like, ‘I’m done. Here it is.’ That’s an odd way to race. In the end, it was a great afternoon for this No. 26 team and for Crown Royal.”
Not much has gone right for Jamie McMurray since winning at Daytona International Speedway last July. He’s had only five top-10 finishes in the 35 races since 2007’s Pepsi 400, but there’s something about being a defending champion of a race that can raise your spirits. McMurray edged Kyle Busch by inches at Daytona last year in the final restrictor-plate race for NASCAR’s old Cup car. The win was the second of McMurray's career and snapped a six-year winless streak.
McMurray’s No. 26 Roush Fenway Racing Ford will sport a special Irwin Industrial Tools paint scheme in this weekend’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, a scheme similar to the one used last year.
McMurray hasn’t been close to victory lane this year, with a best finish of eighth at Martinsville earlier this season. He was 18th at Infineon Raceway and 41st last weekend at New Hampshire after being in a crash with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
O.K., I perused all of the Kyle Busch postings since Sunday's race and where's the outrage? I mean, if Kyle had clipped Dale Earnhart Jr. like that there would have been a 100 posts calling him out. But here this week there has been only some mention of his crashes overall last weekend. He hit Jamie McMurray man. For some of us this may be unforgivable!
Busch's globetrotting weekend skidded to a last-place ending. The Sprint Cup series points leader finished 43rd Sunday at the Pocono 500, set back by a wreck 47 laps into the race. Busch didn’t appear to see McMurray behind him on his right when Busch veered right and into McMurray. Busch then hit the wall, forcing him into the garage for major repairs.
"It’s really a shame our day had to end like that, we had a much better car,” said McMurray in the garage following the race. “I don’t know what happen with the 18 car, his spotter must have told him he was clear, when obviously he wasn’t. He tried to move into space that did not exist on the track and in the end, we were both victims. We had a much better Ford Fusion than 20th. It was a tough day and one of those deals that was completely out of our hands."
McMurray continued, "I’m really proud of all the guys on this No. 26 IRWIN Tools team; they really pushed hard today and we were able to salvage a somewhat good finish. We’ll take this and move on to Michigan next weekend.”
Busch said the mirror broke on the backup car while his crew tried to adjust it before the race, leaving him blind out of his right rear quarter panel. It appeared that Busch’s spotter tried to warn his driver over the radio about McMurray before Busch veered right, though Busch said in the garage that he didn’t get the message.
“So I couldn’t clear myself,” Busch said. “The spotter didn’t see say anything so I apologize to McMurray for wrecking their day.”
When a story will not go away they say it has legs. Stories continue to run about Jamie McMurray potentially leaving Roush Fenway Racing. And why shouldn't they? The picture is about as clear as mud. If Greg Biffle signs for another round with Roush Fenway this week then Jamie is in a position where he almost has to go to Roush and say O.K., what are your plans not only for 2009 but also for 2010?
In the interim, here is what Jamie had to say in an interview at Pocono.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: The same thing that I'm doing this year: the Crown Royal, No. 26, with Roush Fenway.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: I don't know. I'm not a speculator.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: No, I have not.
Q: Have your representatives?
A: Not that I am aware of.
But really folks, how else could Jamie have answered these questions? While I want to believe Jamie, is it not possible he might have really been thinking.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: Too bad I can't tell him my manager tells me, unofficially of course, that if Tony Stewart leaves Joe Gibbs that Joe would like to talk to me.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: He has pretty good sources and if I find out who leaked this I'll kill them.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: Of course I am you imbecile, don't you know I am on the short end of the stick at Roush given my performance this year and that NASCAR is forcing Roush to cut a team by 2010?
Q: Have your representatives?
A. Well of course they have, while the directions I have given them are unofficial directions, they already knew that Jack needs to sign Crown Royal up for another deal and it isn't unreasonable to believe that if Greg signs with Roush again next week that another announcement will follow that Crown Royal will be moved over to the 16 as his sponsor in a multi-year deal.
So there you have it, the politically correct answers on one hand and on the other what really might have been going on inside the brain of one Jamie McMurray.
Q: Carl, I wondered kind of a two-part question. Obviously with this news breaking about Jamie McMurray looking for a new ride for next year, what effect do you think that will have from your perspective on the team? And what might you speculate would happen to McMurray's seat?
CARL EDWARDS: What exactly is going on there? I'm not very familiar. Is it definite? What's the deal?
Q: Supposedly, he -- yesterday (Monday), the "Charlotte Observer" broke that he is looking for a new ride. Possibly his manager is kind of shopping his around to some different places and some different teams for next year.
CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly what's going on there. You know, I mean, I guess, that would be a big point of speculation.
All I can say is, you know, Jamie and I have had a really good relationship. Just this weekend he helped me out a lot on the racetrack, you know, trying to give me as much room as he could and it cost him a position. You know, that was at the end of the race when I was trying to catch Kyle (Busch).
So I like having him as a teammate, and I hope that we can get it worked out to keep him. I don't know what's -- I don't know all the details about that.
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