CONCORD, N.C. -- He was still wearing a smile and a celebratory winner's hat from the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day when he lumbered down off his driver's pit box following the end of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

There was the slightest hint of disappointment in car owner Chip Ganassi's voice, but only a whisper of it. One of his Sprint Cup drivers, Jamie McMurray, had just finished second in NASCAR's longest race.

“

It was an awesome day anyway. After what happened earlier, it would have been icing on the cake to win here, too.

”

-- CHIP GANASSI

"[Winning the 600] would have been nice," Ganassi said. "It was an awesome day anyway. After what happened earlier, it would have been icing on the cake to win here, too."

Six hours earlier, Ganassi had been in Victory Lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- where another driver of his, Dario Franchitti, had won the Indy 500 to help Ganassi become the first owner in racing history to win both the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500 in the same year. It was McMurray who had given him the first leg of that racing exacta by winning the Daytona 500 in February.

And when McMurray kept battling with eventual Coke 600 winner Kurt Busch for the lead through much of Sunday night at CMS, it looked for awhile as if Ganassi was going to be able to pull off a rare motorsports double by winning America's biggest open-wheel race and one of NASCAR's most prestigious events in the same day.

McMurray was out front on Lap 377 when the final caution of the 400-lap event came out. Busch, who had been running second at the time, was able to come into the pits for crucial adjustments and got his No. 2 Dodge out ahead of McMurray's No. 1 Chevrolet, sealing both of their fates on a day and night when they clearly were the class of the 43-car field with one caveat. Busch was better on the short runs; McMurray better on the longer ones.

"I knew whoever came out ahead on that last pit stop between Kurt and I, if somebody didn't screw up, that would be the race winner," McMurray said. "It would take me too many laps to run Kurt down. ... I just didn't have enough time in the end."

Chasing history

When Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 went green again with 21 laps remaining, Busch quickly passed three cars that had elected not to pit -- and as he had envisioned, McMurray didn't have enough time to get his car up to its previous speed after falling slightly off the pace. Thus, his chase to gain Ganassi a piece of Memorial Day weekend racing history fell just short. (Continued)