Proposal, finish make it a good week for McMurray

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- For Jamie McMurray, it's been a very good week.

First, the Roush Fenway driver turned in a third-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway, his best result since winning at Daytona last July. Then on Sunday, he notched another third at Phoenix International Raceway to give him four results of seventh or better in his last five Sprint Cup starts. And in between he proposed to his longtime girlfriend Christy Futrell at the Phoenician, a swank five-star resort at the base of Camelback Mountain in nearby Scottsdale.

Of course, she said yes.

"I think the guys that typically end well start next season well, so it makes racing so much more fun," McMurray said. "It's been a really exciting week for me, getting engaged -- what about that? That's pretty exciting stuff, huh? So, it's been a fun week."

First, the engagement. McMurray and Futrell have visited the Phoenician before every Phoenix trip for the past three years, so it seemed like a natural place. They arrived last Sunday night after the Texas race, and McMurray had planned to ask the next day. But he couldn't wait.

"I'm, like, 'I can't wait another day. I've got to do this right now,'" he said. "It was cool. We've had so much fun this week. It's exciting for me because it's certainly a big deal to find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. Christy's been glowing, that's been so cool to me to see how excited that she's been. I think she likes me."

He even got down on one knee. "Yeah, I got on my knee," he said sheepishly. "Christy and I have been together for so long that it's weird when you're talking to your friend. You picture that as a child, I think, doing that, and you don't know what the person looks like, but we're sitting there, and I'm, like, 'Gosh, this is my best friend.' I kind of felt corny. Do I have to get on my knee? Because I'm certainly not Romeo, by any means, you know? Not even close."

Now, back to the racetrack. McMurray was solid all weekend at Phoenix, starting second and staying in the top 10 all day. He finished one spot ahead of Carl Edwards, his teammate who is pursuing Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup crown. Johnson won the race, putting Edwards 141 points down with just one event remaining. McMurray said team management never asked him to move over so Edwards could gain one more position.

"I think if we got to Homestead it would be different," he said, referring to Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of the final race. "If he needed those five points to win the championship, it's different. But that's a lot of ground he'd have to make up. Nobody ever said a word to me."

With good reason, given that McMurray is in the midst of a pretty nice stretch himself. He's still not absolutely sure what's clicked, other than the fact that he's not getting caught up in accidents, and his cars have been clearly faster the second half of the year. He also believes his No. 26 team has done a better job lately of making adjustments, partly because the driver is doing a better job of explaining exactly what the car needs. He's made up four positions in points in his five-week surge, improving from 20th after Talladega to 16th after Sunday's event.

Yet he's still bringing up the rear at Roush, where Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle all made the Chase, and David Ragan was the last man knocked out. McMurray will have a new crew chief next year, with Donnie Wingo -- who worked with the driver from 2003-05 -- slated to move over from Chip Ganassi Racing to replace Larry Carter at Roush. And before the Chase began, some members of his pit crew were moved to bolster the over-the-wall squads of Edwards and Biffle.

All those changes haven't been easy to digest, especially given McMurray's late-season run.

"The way they explained that to me is that, if next season, if I'm in the Chase and somebody is not at Roush, if I needed somebody off that team, they would give it to me. It was just based on the guys that are in the Chase and the guys that aren't. So I kind of understand that, but at the same time, for me I'm doing everything I can and along with everybody on the team and with [sponsors] Crown Royal and with Irwin, it seems odd that you would take away from them to help someone else. I guess it's because I got the short straw, too, and they've told me that part of this process was trying guys out for next year to get them ready," he said.

"It's just really tough for the two tire changers that they've brought over. They've never worked with any of these guys, and some of these pit crews have been together for years. I know the 48 team [of Johnson] has been together for a long time. And you can't expect somebody just to jump in and in a few races do better than those teams that have been around for a long time. Hopefully we'll be able to get that worked out. We had bad pit stops at the beginning [of the race], but the last two were really good. I beat cars out of the pits. Those guys are certainly more than capable of doing it. It's just being a little more consistent, but they did a good job at the end."