Jamie McMurray isn't concerned about NASCAR's new team limits rule. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Conversation: McMurray

Roush's newest driver on his future, the decision to leave Ganassi

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- In a lot of ways, Jamie McMurray had been a man without a home for the past couple of months since he originally announced his intentions to move to Roush Racing at the beginning of the 2007 season.

	Inside the Numbers Jamie McMurray's Cup career Starts 113 Wins 1 Top-5s 19 Top-10s 48 Poles 2 Laps Led 480 Avg. Start 18.2 Avg. Finish 16.3

Almost from the moment that announcement was made, there had been talk about if McMurray was going to be released from his current deal with Chip Ganassi Racing in order to begin work for Roush a year early.

Turns out, McMurray was released from his Ganassi contract last week. However, now he'll drive the No. 97 car that's currently piloted by Kurt Busch and not Mark Martin's No. 6 Ford, as was originally intended.

McMurray spoke to a group of media members, including NASCAR.COM's Mark Spoor last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway to discuss the stresses involved in finalizing the deal, the affect of NASCAR's new team limits on his future and his plans for next season outside of Nextel Cup racing.

Q: What does NASCAR's new car cap mean as far as your deal with Roush Racing?

McMurray: I talked to Geoff Smith (Roush Racing president) and Jack (Roush) and it really doesn't pertain to me. They're grandfathered in, I guess, through 2009 and my contract runs through 2009, so I'm good as long as I'm there so far. That's not something I'm really involved in, anyway. That's pretty much up to the owners and NASCAR.

Q: Is there any difference to you between coming to Roush driving the No. 97 car, as opposed to driving the No. 6?

McMurray: This has taken so long to see exactly where I'm going to be and where Kurt is going to be. Obviously, that was a big deal to get in the 6 car and to have Mark (Martin) personally come ask me to replace him when he retires and things just didn't work out that way.

The 97 (Busch) obviously won the championship last year and has won races this year and Roush Racing has been so successful, not only this year but for the last two or three years with the championships they've won.

That's hard to answer because if you say you're disappointed not to go to the 6, I mean it's a really good organization and I'm looking forward to going and obviously being with what's currently the No. 97 team.

Q: Are you feeling, or have you felt any stress during this whole process?

McMurray: Yeah, because I just wanted to know. I made the commitment to Chip and I spoke with Chip two or three weeks ago and I told him. We talked about that there was a possibility that this deal might get accomplished this year and I just wanted to know exactly where I was going to be.

The wintertime is when you start building new cars and you want to know what team you're going to work with. If that was going to be the 42 team, then I was OK with that because I had made my commitment to driving for Chip through next season. But at one point I thought it was gonna get all worked out, and then there was a point where it was not gonna get worked out and I just wanted to know where I was going to be.

The guys I'm working with now, they're my best friends and it wasn't going to be that bad of a deal to have to stay with them. But when you know your future is with another organization, you want to move on.

Q: Is there any advice you could give a driver that may find himself in a similar situation?

McMurray: Everyone's doing what's best for them. You're not really in control of that. Once you make your decision, then the owners and the sponsors have to do what's best for them and it takes a lot of time and it's something that's very frustrating and sometimes you wonder why they can't just get it worked out. So I guess just let everyone work it out and don't worry about it, since it's not in your control.

Q: What was it that finally caused you to make your decision to leave?

	Credit: Autostock
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McMurray: I'm certainly not going to get up here and bad-mouth anyone because Chevron Texaco has been wonderful to work with and I won with Chip and Felix in our second race. It looked like a very bright future. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out.

We've had a lot of success. We've run second I don't know how many times we really ran well, we just never got back to Victory Lane. That's the reason I'm leaving.

I've talked with Chip about this numerous times, it has nothing to do with personal feelings. I get along extremely well with everyone at the organization, including Chip and Felix.

It's certainly a business decision and Roush has won two championships. Right now I think they're as strong as they've ever been with five drivers in the Chase, so I'm looking forward to that. This is my decision and this is what I want to do and I'm very excited about moving on.

Q: What are your plans for next season outside of Nextel Cup? Will you run some Busch races next year? How about the Rolex?

McMurray: I think that actually there's already been a little talk about running the 24 Hours of Daytona. That's a fun race and we're ready to get back in cars by the time that rolls around. As far as the Busch deal, I have every intention of being with Rusty (Wallace)'s Busch team for next year.

Rusty has become probably my best friend in the garage area, as far as drivers go. We hang out a lot and whether you're playing golf or just talking about racing, he's one of my best friends and he's a great name to be involved with.

He's somebody I've always looked up to and we've made a lot of changes to the Busch team. We ended last year winning at Darlington and running second at Homestead and really felt like this year we had a shot to win a lot of races and things haven't gone well for us. It's been a struggle, so we've made some changes internally with crew chiefs and everything and right now the Busch team is as fun as it's ever been and everybody is getting along really well.