Rusty Wallace can tell Jamie McMurray everything he needs to know about Larry Carter. Credit: Autostock

McMurray has changed personnel, outlook in '07

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One of the first things Jamie McMurray did at the end of a miserable 2006 season was to call his old friend and crew chief, Donnie Wingo, to see if he was available.

He wasn't.

"I called Donnie, but he is loyal," McMurray said. "He still has a contract with Chip Ganassi and he is going to honor that. I asked him, 'What are your plans?' and he said, 'I still have a year left on my contract.'

"So that was the end of the conversation."

McMurray knew it was a shot in the dark, but he had to try. Wingo, an easygoing South Carolinian, was crew chief when McMurray enjoyed his career year of 2004 (nine top-fives, 23 top-10s).

When McMurray left Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the 2005, he admittedly underestimated the impact Wingo had had on his career. When McMurray arrived at Roush, he was paired with Jimmy Fennig.

Changing of the guardMcMurray talks about adjusting to his different crew chiefs Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836 HEADLINES •   Carter joins Roush Racing as crew chief for McMurray •   McMurray posts top-five speed on first day of preseason tests

"The thing with Donnie Wingo that was so great was that we had that friendship that I believed in him and vice versa," McMurray said. "If I would ask Donnie to do something, no matter how wild it was, he would just do it. I really didn't have that last year."

By the time the year ended, McMurray had gone through three different crew chiefs, each one lacking the same chemistry he had shared with Wingo.

"When we made a crew chief change [in the spring], the media built that up because we ran good the next few weeks," McMurray said. "Personally, I didn't feel like that was what was going to turn our team around."

It didn't. The season was nearly a total washout. It started badly, and it got worse. McMurray spent the final race of the season running in the back until his engine mercifully expired with 18 laps to go.

"I never would have guessed that it would have been that big of a deal," McMurray said of the change to Roush Racing. "I can remember looking up at the scoring monitor a couple years ago [and seeing slow cars] and thinking, 'How can someone be that far off? How can you be that slow?'

"And I know now."

After the season, team owner Jack Roush told McMurray to go out and find exactly the crew chief he wanted. It was something Roush didn't do in the spring of 2006, when he removed Fennig and installed intense, engineering-minded Bob Osborne as McMurray's crew chief.

Jamie McMurray has bounced back before. Credit: Autostock

EVEN KEELED One of the things that kept Jamie McMurray sane during the offseason is the fact that he has gone through similar doldrums.   In 2001, when McMurray was in his first full season of Busch competition, he scored only three top-10s. He led only one lap and finished 16th in the standings.  People whispered that he was spending too much time making sure his car was safe and not enough time making sure it ran as fast as it could go.   "It was a horrible year," McMurray said. "It was the year Dale Earnhardt was killed, and a lot of drivers were working with their seats, trying to make the car safer, and I really liked working on racecars.  "The only thing I had that I could truly work on was my seat, so I messed with it every day, always tried to make it safer and I enjoyed it. As the year went on and we ran so bad, the guys were like, 'Maybe that wreck [McMurray] had at Talladega scared him.'  "I was not scared. I want to be safer, and I enjoyed working on seats."  McMurray worked on ironing out the frustrations during the offseason and in 2002 ran much better, finishing sixth in points.  "Everything was just great," McMurray said. "And this year, as it went on and when it got over it, I sat down and I was like, 'Wow, this is almost like my first year of Busch.'  "When things don't do well, it is hard to figure out what is wrong."  -- Ryan Smithson

On paper, it looked like a solid move. Osborne was credited with helping Carl Edwards score four wins in 2005, and his skills as a crew chief were beyond reproach.

But McMurray says he never clicked with Osborne.

"I didn't have that friendship with my crew chief that I had with Donnie," McMurray said. "I didn't have that friendship, that comfort zone. Jack made the change in Texas, didn't ask what I thought. He just did it, and it didn't work."

McMurray was allowed to put out his own feelers to various crew chiefs, and one man who called back was Larry Carter, who had worked with McMurray when the two were both employed by Rusty Wallace's Busch team.

McMurray wasn't able to get Wingo over to Roush Racing, but Carter has a similar style, and Carter was eager to make a move after spending a year working for Michael Waltrip.

"Donnie and Larry kind of ran in the same clique. They are really good friends," McMurray said. "I had a relationship with him already and he is a lot like Donnie, same demeanor and personality.

"You feel very relaxed around him, very comfortable. Some guys don't need that, and I do. I do need that."

McMurray said that Wallace, who was Carter's driver at Penske Racing in 2004-05, had a major influence on getting Carter to come to work at Roush.

"When I spoke with Rusty, he was like, 'Man, you have got to find someone that is willing to fight for you, that believes in you,'" McMurray said.

"When I told him I was talking to Larry, he was like, 'Man, Larry does an incredible job of getting the right people and building a great team that wanted to be together.

"[Rusty] told me that it was a great choice, a great decision. It was a big deal to have someone like Rusty that backs you up in a decision that you already think is a good idea."

Once Carter started working on McMurray's cars for the 2007, he set about rebuilding and replacing some of the parts that had not worked.

By the time Carter was done, he had managed to replace several of the key components to a modern Nextel Cup team. The car chief was replaced; a new tire specialist was brought in; engineering help added.

"I pretty much know all these guys," McMurray said. "I never would have guessed last year when the season ended that we would be able to get the quality of people that we did, they are people that I am very comfortable around and people that believe in me."

Roush moved Todd Zeigler, formerly the car chief on the No. 6 Ford, to McMurray's team. Engineer Derek Stamets was lured from Penske Racing, and Billy John completed the revamping.

McMurray said he considered John to be one of the premier tire specialists in the garage, and he also said that Zeigler would become the new front tire changer.

"I never would have guessed that we would have been able to assemble this team that we have," McMurray said.

McMurray also hired a trainer who deals with mental conditioning.

McMurray wouldn't confirm the trainer's name until he officially starts work in a week or two.

"I have hired the best trainer in motor racing, hands down," said McMurray, 30. "If you watch much SPEED Channel, you will know who I hired.

"He is not only good at the physical side, but he is good at making you headstrong and making you believe that you are better than everyone else.

"I am doing everything I can to be more successful."