Conversation: Jamie McMurray

CONCORD, N.C. – During last weekend's Nextel Open, Jamie McMurray was leading with two laps to go when Jeremy Mayfield sped to his bumper, further loosening up an already ill-handling car.

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McMurray stayed in the throttle, turning the No. 42 Dodge completely sideways in Turn 4. By all means, it should have been stuffed in the fence.

But he hung on, sawed the wheel like Husqvarna's finest and made a highlight-reel save for the ages.

"That was big, wasn't it?" McMurray said as he exited his car. "I got real loose right there. I was really lucky to catch it. I was logged all the way to the right, and am lucky no one hit me. It was so out of control. I don't know how I saved that thing."

Early Saturday morning, before the madness, McMurray sat down with NASCAR.COM's Marty Smith to discuss presenting at the CMT Flameworthy Awards, the return of an old-school paint scheme, losing his favorite track from the schedule and Sterling Marlin's famous one-liners.

We went to the Country Music Television Flameworthy Awards last month, where you presented. It was your first experience in that regard. Has anyone critiqued your performance since?

McMurray: Nope. The only thing anybody has said is they made fun of my shirt. But, judging off a bunch of racers, I really didn't worry too much about it, ya know?

It's so weird, because as a racer you just wear a Havoline shirt every day. Whatever they give you is what you wear - a sponsor shirt. So I don't know that racers have a lot of style. A couple of them, though, that dress well said they liked my shirt. So I thought I must have done alright.

True. You're in rare company. There aren't a ton of good dressers out here. What most impressed you about that experience, aside from being co-presenter with one of the hottest chicks in the world?

McMurray: (laughing) I'm with you there. I think it's just cool to see how those things are run. It's like going to the awards banquet. There's just so much more that goes into that, and how much rehearsal goes into it.

I don't know. Getting to see all those people backstage, and maybe getting to see their real personalities. Getting to meet everyone.

You won Rockingham four straight times in a Busch Series car. What are your feelings about not getting to try for five, and not getting another shot to win one in a Cup car?

McMurray: It's frustrating, because that's probably my favorite racetrack. Or at least it's the racetrack I run the best at. But I think our sport is definitely fan-driven, and if they can't sell tickets, it's too bad.

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We have to go wherever they can sell some tickets, and Texas is a great race, there's great fans there. Same for California and Phoenix. So you go where the fans are, and it's really hard to doubt NASCAR.

They've done so well, and made our sport as huge as it is. You have to kind of go with what they think is best.

You had a great car at Rockingham this past time, but then the whole scoring snafu deal went down. Do you feel like you got screwed on that situation?

McMurray: I don't know. I mean, I guess now because I really want to be in the All-Star race (laughing). It's just one of those deals. Honestly, the last two years I've not had very much luck with winning races.

Like, at Indy I got tied up with a lapped car with 10 or 15 laps to go.

Caution flags have killed me with winning races. We've had chances to win four or five races of the past couple years, and something always happens. It happened again at Rockingham. Hopefully that will turn around and we'll have some of those things play in our favor.

NASCAR made an announcement last weekend at Richmond, a ton of changes. Rockingham's gone. We'll race at Darlington under the lights. Overall, have you had time to digest all that? And if so, what're your thoughts about it?

McMurray: Like I said, they've done a really good job of making our sport what it is. The travel is going to be the toughest thing. Having to go back out to the West Coast.

For me it takes about a week to get over a west coast trip. Once you get back home, it takes forever to get your sleep schedule back and not be tired. So that's going to be tough. But that's part of it. If it were easy everybody would be doing it, right?

I have an ongoing discussion with Matt Kenseth about your role as drivers. In my opinion, at the very least you're 60 percent entertainer and 40 percent driver, if not more. So much of your job now is off-track duties. What do you feel about that?

McMurray: Yeah, the racing part is the easiest. If all we had to do was show up and race every weekend, that'd be easy. That's what everyone loves to do. But part of it is going and signing autographs and doing appearances. It's crazy, the stuff...like going and doing the CMT Awards.

There's just so much other stuff that goes with it. It's not that it's all bad, there's just a lot that goes with it. So, yeah, I'm kind of with you on that. It's seems like the racing's almost a smaller part of it now than all the other stuff that goes along with it.

Sterling is the king of the one-liner. What's the funniest thing he's ever said to you? That can be printed.

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McMurray: Oh, okay. A bird in the bush is worth two in the basket (laughing).

Okay. Do you have any idea what that means?

McMurray: No.

Me either. We'll forget all about that one.

McMurray: Oh, hold on. A bird in the basket is worth two in the bush (hysterically laughing).

Let's make sure we get Sterling's saying right. If you tweak it, you never know what that might entail. We were racing go karts yesterday as a prelim for Elliott (Sadler's) Race for Hope. You and I got to race a little bit together. Do I have some game?

McMurray: You definitely have more game than (Totally NASCAR's Sean) Pragano. That's a given. Looked like you showed some skills. Sean looked like he should've rode the short bus to school. That'd be my best guess.

Hysterical. Autism is very dear to you, too. So you help Elliott out a lot with that effort. You have a niece as well, that has autism?

	Sterling Marlin (left) with Jamie McMurray Credit: Autostock

McMurray: Yes, I have a six-year old niece who has autism, so that's why it works well for me to do stuff with Elliott. Not only are we friends, but it works out well that we're going through the same thing.

We both have nieces that have autism, and it's cool to do stuff to try to help create awareness and try to find a cure for it.

Last year he had the basketball game, and I saw you out there hoopin' it up, stole the ball from me, actually, as I recall. Speaking of basketball, it's pretty cool that NASCAR was able to get Magic Johnson as a spearhead in the drive for diversity.

McMurray: Yeah, I read about that. Didn't read the whole story, just saw his picture and read the caption under it. It's crazy how big our sport is now.

The people they can get to come be grand marshals - movie stars, rock n' roll singers. It's just wild, the people that are into NASCAR.

Back in 2002 when Chip Ganassi signed you up, it seemed like all the sudden you started winning Busch Series races, were running up front every week, won the Cup race in Sterling's car when he was injured. Was that a confidence thing? Did things just start clicking? What happened there?

McMurray: A little bit. But the other thing is, when you get to race the Busch race and the Cup race - track time's big for anybody that's new. That's part of Kasey Kahne's success, is that he's getting to race the Busch Series.

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If he's having a bad day in his Busch car he can go get in the Cup car, and if it runs well it brings you up. You just learn stuff. That's part of the reason I'm wanting to run the Busch car this year and next year, is just to try to get better.

Any time you get to be in a racecar more than other guys, you learn more, learn little things about the racetrack that maybe you didn't know.

Why does Larry McReynolds struggle so badly with your name?

McMurray: I believe it's his upbringing. I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with the part of the country he was raised in.

The No. 28 car is one of my two favorite paint schemes of all time, and you guys brought that old school look back this year. I love it.

McMurray: Yeah, you know what, they didn't get rid of it because they didn't like the paint scheme. It just had to do with the company. They...well, it's too much to talk about, but anyway, yeah, they brought it back. Me too.

I didn't even own many die-casts growing up, but I had a Davey Allison (No.) 28 Texaco car. So I thought that was really great. I liked the car we had last year. It was a little bit flashy.

But when they said we were bringing the star back on the hood and the solid black car with Havoline on the quarter panels, I was excited about that, too.

Conversation runs every Monday at 3 p.m. on NASCAR.COM.