Jamie McMurrary Survives the Madness That is Talladega

Jamie McMurrary is out of a ride next year, as the 26 car will cease to exist at Roush Fenway racing. McMurray, during a team meeting at the beginning of the Chase turned to his crew chief and said “we need to win a race, and Talladega is our best bet”. Ask, and you shall receive, Jamie. McMurrary survived the wreck-happy chaos that is the AMP 500 at Talladega to come up with his first win of the 2009 season. The issue with McMurrary isn’t driving ability, it’s the cash flow they are willing to put into another ride with these tough economic times.

“There aren’t a lot of rides available right now,” McMurray said on NASCAR Victory Lane. “Everybody knows what rides there are out there and, certainly, if a sponsor were to call me, that would make it a lot easier. “With the amount of teams that are shutting down there’s not a lot of options out there, so I think everyone knows the cars that are available right now. For me, I just hope that we can get it signed and then announce it whenever they want to so that will make it a little bit easier to sleep at night.”

Thanks to a special mandate from NASCAR, restricting the number of cars (four) team can have, Jamie looks like he will have to take a back seat in the Sprint Cup series next year. However, thanks to this win, he has turned some heads in the garage for something in the future.

Thanks to the help from the 17 car, McMurrary was able to shoot past Dale Earnhardt Jr on Lap 181, and held onto that lead for the next two restarts. He thanked Matt Kenseth for his help during the AMP 500: “Matt is my teammate, but he’s also a really good friend of mine,” McMurray said. “I had a lot of faith that he would not hang me out until at least one or two [laps] to go, and he helped out a lot when they were two or three wide, to get behind me. He had numerous times that he could have shot me, whether on the inside or the outside, and he elected to stay with me and it made it a lot easier.”

After the celebration, McMurrary reflected on his time at Roush Fenway: ”Certainly, I’ll miss being a part of this organization, but you never know,” McMurray said. “You might end up driving for Jack one day again, so I’m not gonna make him mad in this little meeting we’re having here.”

Jimmie Johnson found some luck on his side and managed to have a solid 6th place finish to extend his lead in the points standings. During the final caution, the 48 team was worried the final three laps would not allow his driver to have another top 10 finish. However, thanks to last minute pit stops, a spectacular final lap wreck, and some cars running out of gas, the Champ found himself closer to history. “From where we were with the red flag to where we finished — I’m still in shock,” said Johnson. “I can’t believe that it worked out. I can’t believe that that many guys ran out of fuel and put themselves in that position. We almost stayed out.”

After a horrific crash, Ryan Newman voiced his displeasure with the restraints NASCAR puts on these drivers on the super speedways: “”It’s just a product of this racing and what NASCAR’s put us in, in this box with these types of cars, with the yellow line, with no bump-drafting, no passing,” Newman said. “Drivers used to be able to respect each other and race around each other,  all those guys have always done that”. He went on to say that “”It’s not even a good race for the fans — that’s the bottom line — that’s who we’re trying to service is the fans. They can stand up and cheer when there’s three [laps] to go with a green-white-checkered [finish], but that’s not racing. You’re supposed to be racing all day long. And I think we’ve lost a little bit of that luster.”

Other drivers echoed the statement made by Newman, ”It was just kind of a terrible race [Sunday] in general,” said David Ragan“There was a lot of single-file racing. I know it’s exciting there at the end, but what happens is NASCAR slows these cars down. “They’re too easy to drive and everyone just gets kind of crazy. It’s a shame to tear up a lot of good race cars like that for kind of being stupid, but that’s restrictor-plate racing. I’m glad we only have to do it three or four times a year.”

Here is how everyone finished for the AMP 500 at Talladega:

Other notable finishes:Dale Earnhardt Jr (11), Brian Vickers (13), Carl Edwards (14), Kyle Busch (15), Juan Pablo Montoya (19), Jeff Gordon (20), Matt Kenseth (24), Mark Martin (28), Tony Stewart (35), Denny Hamlin (38)

Only three races to go in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup. If Johnson can finish 10th or better in the final three races, he will win his fourth Sprint Cup Championship in a row. We will find out next week at Texas Motor Speedway. We leave you, as always, with the Chase for the Sprint Cup Standings with just three exciting races to go: