Jamie McMurray is 16th in the Sprint Cup standings and will likely have trouble qualifying for the Chase for the Championship. But with victories in the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, he doesn't seem too concerned.
McMurray talked about winning the two biggest stock car races of the season and giving car owner Chip Ganassi the triple crown -- Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Indianapolis 500 with Dario Franchitti -- after the race. Here are excerpts of that interview:
Q: Kevin Harvick said one man owning the car for three of the world's biggest races probably won't happen again. Do you agree?
McMurray: Well, it most likely won't. I mean, Chip is just having such a year between the NASCAR side and the IndyCar side. I'll be honest. I thing I think of the most is they almost won the 24 Hours of Daytona. I think they finished second. It's so hard to get both organizations going at the same time. This race, the Daytona 500, and the Indy 500 are races of strategy. You see guys dominate those races and not win. So it's just remarkable what he's been able to put together and the people he's been able to hire. I feel very honored to get to be a part of that accomplishment.
Q: A year ago you weren't sure if you'd have a job this year. Is it surreal what a difference a year makes?
McMurray: For me, and I just said this on TV, I think it's a lesson for all the media, that instead of writing the story that this guy should be fired, the story should be this guy needs to find a new situation. I'm going to use Elliott Sadler. I go back and I watch all these races while I run or work out. I'll watch Pocono this week. Since we had two weeks off, I watched last year's race and I YouTubed a race, found the race from 2005. Elliott qualified on the pole, led like the first 40 laps. I think it's just a situation where you got to get the guys in the right position with the right crew chief and the right team and the right owner. I'll tell you something that Chip said to me right before I got in the car. He said, 'Let's go out and do this thing.' I said, 'I'll give you everything I got.' He said, 'I know, that's why I hired you. I believe in you. You go out and do your best, that will be enough.'
Q: What is it about the big races that bring out the best in you? You not only won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, but you finished second in the Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. Why do you step it up for the big races?
McMurray: I think it's coincidence a little bit that we've run well at all those big races. After sitting on the pole at Darlington and running second, then going to Chicago with the same car, sitting on the pole, finishing fifth, we had a car that they had given all the updates to, and we were going to bring here. I asked Bono (crew chief Kevin Manion), 'Any chance we could bring the same car we ran at Darlington and Chicago?' He's like, 'Absolutely.' We raced Chicago Saturday. I went to the shop on Monday, the car was stripped down; they were taking it in to repair it. A lot of it has to do we brought our best stuff and the guys worked hard to get the car ready to come here. Felix said it's because they pay more money. That might have something to do with it.
Q: What is your favorite track?
McMurray: I mean, I think being a NASCAR guy, Daytona is kind of always Ð for me growing up, that was the race I always watched. But when stock cars started coming here, this became a track that everyone wants to win at Daytona and Indy. I told Chip today, we were going to do an appearance together. I told him, 'When I walked in the garage this morning, there's just a different feeling in here than you get at almost any other racetrack.' There's just a lot of energy. And the teams put so much effort into this race, with building new cars. You always bring your best engine here, everything is just the best.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Chase?
McMurray: Well, I view the Chase differently I think. Every time I pay attention to points, we run 30th. I don't even really care where we're at in points. I think you show up every week, do your job. If you make the Chase, that's wonderful. Everyone wants to make the Chase. Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase. This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points, nobody cares. I would really like to be in the Chase, but I have no focus on that at all. I know Bono doesn't want to hear that, but I don't.
Q: Your teammate Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the race, but lost any chance with bad pit strategy at the end. Is there any sympathy for him?
McMurray: Absolutely. For anybody that can lead that many laps of a race, they certainly had the best car. It's been their year, though. I would guess that they're not shocked by what's happened today because it seems like they've had a lot of bad luck. I don't know what happened to him. Honestly, I didn't even know he was involved in a wreck until under that caution I saw him walking out of his car. I didn't want to ask what had happened because I was more concerned with what I was doing at the time. Yeah, I mean, that's hard on anybody to lead that many laps. This is a special place to Juan from winning the Indy 500, being the guy that can be the only guy that's won both those races. So, yeah, that's really tough.
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