SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing): "We had a lot of problems in the first session with front grip in the car, and we thought we had an idea how to get that fixed for session number two. The overall balance of the car is still off though, and we're going back to discuss how to get the car where it needs to be. We were better off in the second session, but there is still work that needs to be done."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske): "I think the track here in Edmonton is great, and it's proven to be very challenging as well. We used the practice sessions to familiarize ourselves with the course and just find the lines out there. Our main goal today was to find out what the Team Penske car can do on this circuit. Now that we know, we'll use tomorrow to see how much we can push that limit. Overall, I think we had a good day, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there. I think it's great to be racing here in Canada; it's only the first day of the weekend and the place was packed. The fans seem to be having a great time, and that is a lot of fun to see."
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven): "It was not a very good day today. We're still trying to improve the balance of the Team 7-Eleven/Frank's Energy Drink car. We were able to find some speed, but we have to improve the balance of the car."
DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing): "The Target car wasn't where we needed it to be from when we unloaded today. I had a lot of trouble getting the front tires to bite, and I think the rear end was soft in some places. That's not a good combination when you are trying to go fast around a place like Edmonton. I think we have more in the car, and we look forward to showing that tomorrow."
The news this past week that Jamie McMurray is job hunting probably does not come as a great surprise to many. Though McMurray has denied such speculation, critics have had him with one foot out the door of his Roush Fenway ride ever since the beginning of 2008. Currently 22nd in the Cup standings with just two Top 10 finishes, the 31-year-old Joplin, Missouri native simply has never lived up to the hype that surrounded him in 2005 as a player in perhaps the silliest of Silly Seasons in NASCAR history. His hiring was the culmination of a series of moves that led to power plays, contract squabbles, and some unrealistically high expectations — none of which may ever be fully realized.
The events of that 2005 Silly Season were really something to behold. First came the news that McMurray had reached agreement to drive for Roush — even though he was still under contract with Chip Ganassi Racing through 2006. It was looked at as a positive change for McMurray, who, after missing out on the Chase for two straight years, reached an agreement with a team that put all five of its cars in the title hunt — making them the premier organization in Cup at the time. But Ganassi, clearly not pleased with the prospects of losing McMurray, chose to initially refuse to allow his top driver to opt out of his contract, a decision that would delay a move to Roush until the beginning of 2007. The news created a firestorm of opinions surrounding the appropriateness of McMurray negotiating with another team owner when he had well over a year remaining on his agreement with Ganassi; and in return, Ganassi’s defiant refusal to simply allow McMurray to move over to the Roush camp to replace the then-retiring Mark Martin generated considerable debate, as well.
Shortly thereafter, in perhaps an even more surprising turn of events, NASCAR’s defending champion Kurt Busch announced that he was jumping the Roush ship to replace the legendary Rusty Wallace in the almost equally legendary No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. Like McMurray, Busch requested his release from Roush for the 2006 season; but just like Ganassi, Roush refused to allow his championship caliber driver to bolt the team early. It was a cruel twist of irony that threatened to shut down both deals; however, in the end both McMurray and Busch were granted their requests to move to new teams. The owners fully capitulated — albeit after some backroom deals were made — and McMurray was permitted to move to Roush at the conclusion of the 2005 season, with Jack Roush responding in kind and allowing Kurt Busch to defect a year early to Penske.
By the time the release was given, McMurray’s original plans of replacing a retiring Mark Martin had derailed; instead, he essentially replaced Busch, working with the same team but with a new car number — the No. 26 instead of Busch’s No. 97. Martin, who had originally agreed to stay another year when it was thought that McMurray would be held to his contract with Ganassi, later agreed to stick around to help old friend Jack Roush out of his dilemma as to how to fill the void left by the unexpected exodus of Busch.
As the year began, Jamie McMurray came to Roush amid a lot of hullabaloo; but with great expectations, as well. Rumored to have been lured away from Ganassi with one of the most lucrative contract offers in NASCAR history — reported at $20 million plus performance bonuses — it appeared that Jamie McMurray had arrived at just the right time to realize his full potential. And considering the successful team he had just landed at — a team that had just won the 2004 Cup championship — he seemed a sure bet to become a major player in NASCAR for years to come.
Following in Martin’s footsteps was going to be a tall order, and it’s one you can bet that Jack Roush and his management team fully considered when deciding on a driver best suited to fill that role. Roush certainly knows race car drivers, having his share of success in picking them, and Jamie McMurray seemed to possess all the necessary qualities he desired. Not only did Roush believe the man was talented enough to strap into the seat of his No. 6 Ford, but McMurray also appeared a success in the boardrooms, a trait that’s equally as important in today’s NASCAR. And like Martin, Jamie McMurray is a nice guy, too; he is seemingly always in control of his emotions, both on and off the track. Young and handsome, Jack Roush believed that he would have a driver that he could not possibly go wrong on.
It certainly is both puzzling and hard to figure how even the best drivers have found the right combination to rise to the top of their profession sometimes. It all seems so easy, as if everything just aligns properly. A driver at the top of his game pairs with a crew chief that seems almost to be able to read his mind; holes open when wrecks seem unavoidable; a consistently winning driver’s car performs as if it is bulletproof.
But these are not a set of circumstances that have graced Jamie McMurray with any regularity during his tenure at Roush-Fenway. In fact, it is quite the opposite. And even when McMurray was given the ultimate authority to shape his program — bringing on Larry Carter as crew chief and revamping the No. 26 team from top to bottom — it did nothing to change what were ultimately disappointing and inconsistent results.
In the end, barring a miracle, Jack Roush will release McMurray before the end of his contract. Even if it’s not until 2009, he surely cannot resign him with the performance — or lack thereof — that the two have experienced for more than two years. And when it happens, the move won’t be personal … just business.
To listen to the hype surrounding the beginning of this NASCAR season, the Hendrick Motorsports behemoth is poised to roll over everyone in its path. This amuses Jack Roush, who not so long ago was the other behemoth in the garages.
By JIM ALEXANDER The Press-Enterprise
Two years ago, when Matt Kenseth won the winter Cup Series race at Fontana, it finished a Roush sweep of the weekend after Mark Martin had won the truck race and Greg Biffle the Saturday Busch Series race. Roush had just come off two championships in the previous three years (Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in '04), and had placed all five of its drivers in the Chase for the Cup in '05. They were, some daffy columnist suggested at the time, the Yankees of NASCAR because of their financial resources and research and development assets.
The point is that Hendrick ascended to what appeared to be super-team status when Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed on, creating a colossal marketing/competitive triumvirate of Earnhardt, two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Yet through the first two weeks of the 2008 season, Penske's Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards have won races, and Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch -- the guy Hendrick tossed overboard to make room for Earnhardt -- leads the points standings.
Edwards, Kenseth, Biffle, David Ragan and Jamie McMurray acquitted themselves fairly well at Fontana in Roush Fenway's Ford Fusions. Besides Edwards' triumph, which he celebrated with his traditional back flip, Kenseth finished fifth, Ragan 14th, Biffle 15th and McMurray 22nd.
Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race, is the Penske 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. Bobby Hamilton, Jr., driver of the No. 35 McDonald's Ford for Team Rensi Motorsports is back in the NASCAR Busch series this season after a two-year absence, and he comes in ranked tenth in points this week. He's a Nashville native and has seven NASCAR Busch Series starts in what he calls his hometown track, has three Top 5 finishes and never started lower than 11th at Nashville Superspeedway. Keep an eye on this Jr. this weekend.
Bobby ran into Ed Rensi at Red Lobster and they got to talking, in Daytona, in 2006. "Ed just come bebopping by and we just happened to catch up. We started talking and he asked me, if I was still interested in driving his car. I told him, any time you've got a seat, I'm there. It kind of went from there."
"Then him and my wife ran into each other at Bristol, and she was over begging him to see if we can come back over there because they were talking about having a third car if they could find a sponsor. It just all happened to work out. He says, do you really want to come back? I told him, yeah, if there's a seat, I'm there, there's no question."
"As I said, we had a couple of different opportunities with another Cup car and a couple other Trucks, and when that seat became available, it was like there was no question. It's one of those where I just felt real comfortable, I knew everybody that was there, I knew management, I knew owners. Everything that makes you feel at ease when you walk in the shop, I already knew. Ed really helped a lot."
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