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.”
On a beautiful afternoon in Wine Country, Jamie McMurray, who started from the 18th position drove his No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion into the top five just 30 laps into this afternoon’s Save Mart 350. After running the majority of the race in the top three, McMurray had his dominating run cut short just five laps from the checkered flag. As the checkered flag flew for race winner Kyle Busch, McMurray and the No. 26 Crown Royal were left with a disappointing 18th-place finish.
The No. 26 Ford Fusion was scored in the 12th spot, and by lap 28, when the team made their first of two pit stops. Just three laps after the No. 26 team completed their pit stop, the caution flag was displayed for debris on the race track.
Following the caution period, McMurray restarted the race in the fourth position, and was able to maintain his top-five running position until their next pit stop on lap 68. After all the teams had completed green flag stops, the No. 26 car was once again shown in the third position.
Again, just three laps later, the caution flag was displayed for a wreck in turn 11. This time on the restart, McMurray, who restarted third made a quick move on the car ahead of him, and was able to pass coming to the green flag. This moved McMurray into second place, and chasing the No. 18 car up the hill into turns one and two.
With only 10 laps remaining in the event, it appeared it was going to be a top-five finish for the No. 26 Crown Royal team. However, the caution flag was displayed on lap 101, as the No. 44 car went off the track in turn 9.
As the top five cars entered turn 7 after the restart, McMurray was hit from behind by the No. 29 which slid McMurray sideways into the side of the No. 20 car, taking out all three cars. With minimum damage, McMurray quickly jumped back into line, but lost more than 18 positions and was forced to restart the race in the 20th position.
“It’s so hard to believe what happen to us there at the end of the race,” said McMurray following the race. “I haven’t seen the replay, but from what I can tell, I was hit from behind by the No. 29, which sent us sideways collecting the No. 20 in the process."
"I'm really looking forward to the Shootout in Daytona for a lot of reasons. The last time we raced at Daytona; I won there, which gives the team a lot of confidence heading into the race. Also, I really think that all speedway races should be no more than 50 to 70 laps. The rest of the time the guys are just putting themselves into a position to really go for it at the end. We are showcasing a brand new paint scheme in Daytona. It's the No. 26 Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Ford Fusion. The No. 16 isn't the car number, but actually the beginning of the postal code from the famous cognac region of France. Cask No. 16 is a new blend from Crown Royal.
“Aside from having a cool name, it's a great looking car that I'm really excited to run at both the Shootout and the Daytona 500. We had a pretty good test in Daytona a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully we can build on what we learned and put ourselves in a good position at the end of the race."
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