McMurray takes first career Busch Series win

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Jamie McMurray used superior fuel mileage Saturday to win his first NASCAR Busch Series race, in his 66th start, in the Aaron's 312 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

McMurray -- who won his first Winston Cup race in only his second start two weeks ago -- led only the final lap after taking the lead when defending race winner Joe Nemechek's No. 87 Cellular One Chevrolet ran out of fuel coming to the white flag.

McMurray's No. 27 Williams Travel Centers Chevrolet was 10.796 seconds ahead of Michael Waltrip's dominant No. 99 Aaron's Chevrolet at the finish. McMurray's car ran out of fuel while he did a victory burnout on the frontstretch.

"You don't ever want to win that way, but we had a pretty good car," McMurray said. "Our car just got better (because) they adjusted on it the whole time. I wasn't really worried about fuel because they told me I could make it.

"We didn't have the best car today, for sure, but today just proves the driver doesn't always win the race. Sometimes it takes a lot of luck to win a car race and you have to have everything on your side. We had about a seventh place car, I felt like, and we got way behind on some pit stops.

"We fought back and had a good one (pit stop) the last time and had a lot of luck on our side today. Michael's car was awful fast today and we had nothing for him."

"We thought the only way we could lose was if there was a restart with five laps to go or on gas mileage," Waltrip said before joking about his sponsor's call to extend the race from a more typical 300-mile distance to 312.5 miles. "The drama of 12 extra miles in the Aaron's 312, hmmm?

"I added it all up and that's hard for me to do with my shoes on when we're racing. I knew we were in trouble because we were going to have to stop by lap 190, basically, and lap 196 was the old distance -- so I was in trouble either way."

McMurray's best previous finish was second at Richmond International Raceway in September, on the weekend when Winston Cup owner Chip Ganassi announced that McMurray would drive for him in 2003.

He was the third Busch Series driver to win his first career race at Atlanta, joining Jeff Gordon (1992) and Mike Skinner (1999).

Mike McLaughlin, Scott Riggs and point leader Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five.

"We had a car that was good on the long runs," McLaughlin said. "(Crew chief) Tim Shutt and these guys are a good bunch and it showed today."

"We keep getting beat on these green-flag pit stops somehow," Riggs said. "We lost a couple spots there but got beat on fuel mileage anyway -- that was a great job by Jamie and those guys."

Nemechek coasted around the track to finish sixth, the last car on the lead lap. Jason Keller, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Ashton Lewis and Johnny Sauter finished seventh-10th.

Team owner/driver Waltrip turned an also-ran into a dominant car and his crew, led by crew chief Bobby Kennedy, turned a quick green-flag pit stop with 15 laps to go that appeared to put him in position to win.

Before the necessary pit stops, Waltrip had taken the lead at lap 145 from Raybestos Rookie of the Year point leader Riggs and led 44 laps until he pitted at lap 189. He was more than 10 seconds ahead when he came to pit road, and said he was not overly frustrated despite leading 114 of 203 laps.

"It's a real tribute to Bobby Kennedy and all the boys that build my Aaron's Dream Machines," Waltrip said. "They've done a super job for me. Before the Kansas City wreck, I think we've been in first or second, we've qualified on the pole and been second twice."

Biffle's steady run enabled him to expand his Busch Series lead unofficially to 119 points over Keller. Scott Wimmer remained third in the standings while McLaughlin jumped over luckless Jack Sprague, whose car blew up again, into fourth.

"Overall, it was a pretty good day for us," Biffle said after bouncing back from his accident last weekend at Memphis that cost him a 168-point lead over Keller. "The guys did a good job on pit stops and pit strategy. I don't know if we could have made it at the end but I definitely thought we were going to be in trouble when that fuel mileage deal came out."

Biffle remained optimistic about winning his second NASCAR championship to follow up his Craftsman Truck Series crown in 2000.

"I wish I could have gotten some points last week, or at least come out of there even (but) I can't cry over spilled milk. We've got three races to go and some good tracks for us. I'm excited to go to Phoenix and Rockingham and Homestead."

"It was a pretty good day for us," Keller said. "We came down here and tested a couple weeks ago and it really paid off. My car got way too tight, but all in all, for me here at Atlanta the car was probably better than the driver but we came out of it with a solid top-10."

With the victory, McMurray moved up another spot in the standings, to sixth. He will start Sunday's Winston Cup NAPA 500 in fourth thanks to Ganassi's position in the owner standings.

"It's incredible -- my life has changed so much in the last few weeks," McMurray said. "I won a Cup race a couple weeks ago and then, to win here -- I am so glad for these guys because they were disappointed they didn't give me my first win, so this is all about them."