Fourth-place finish at Richmond a sign of continued 2015 success
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RICHMOND, Va. — Stock-car racing leaves no option for do-overs, and little room for regrets. Jamie McMurray had neither one after coming up short Sunday afternoon behind dominant race-winner Kurt Busch.
McMurray made the most of a car better suited to long green-flag stints in the rain-delayed Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway, keeping pace with and making gains on Busch in the later stages of the race. But the timing of three caution flags in the final 50 laps conspired against the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet team, offering only short runs of green-flag racing near the end.
Though McMurray faded to a fourth-place finish — behind Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson — by the checkered flag, he left Richmond without any of the nagging “what-ifs” that sometimes lead to sleepless nights.
“I mean, when I look back at our race today, you go home and lay down tonight and you think about everything, I really ‑‑ there’s nothing that I could have done any better,” said McMurray, who led twice for four laps. “I just didn’t have a car that was quick on the short run. I had one that would go at the end. When I look back at those restarts, if I could have gotten ahead of him, I still don’t know I could have held him up. I thought as a team, driver, crew chief, we did a really good job today.”
Though the finish was just his second top-five of the season (the other being a runner-up effort last month in Phoenix), Sunday’s race represented another building block for McMurray and new crew chief Matt McCall, serving in just his ninth race atop the pit box for the No. 1 camp. It’s also another stride toward ending a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series losing skid that stands at 49 races, dating back to October 2013 at Talladega Superspeedway, site of the circuit’s next race.
McMurray said the communication between himself and the team has improved, but so have his chances of breaking back into Victory Lane, a step that would push him into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs for the first time in his career.
“You know, last year I thought was probably my best year in Cup racing, even though we didn’t have the wins that we did in 2010,” said McMurray, who did cash in with a win in the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race last May. “I thought consistently we were the best. When we had this crew chief change, I was a little bit nervous about what was going to happen. But Matt has done an exceptional job. Honestly our cars are probably better, are better this year than what they were last year, and he’s done a really nice job of calling the races and giving me a really fun car to drive that’s fast.
“You know, honestly, I look at every week like we’ll have a chance to win. The 4 (Harvick) and the 41 (Busch) are extremely quick, but I think we proved today that we have a team and a car capable of, put in the right position, to compete with those guys. I’m really happy with my team.”
According to McCall, in his first full season as a Sprint Cup crew chief, the feeling is mutual.
“It’s going great. He’s easy to get along with, and that helps,” McCall said. “He’s the type of person that makes it really easy to communicate. He tells you what’s wrong with it and we attempt to fix it. That’s the way it’s been going. I can’t complain. We want to win races and that’s what we’re coming each week to do. Hope we keep pushing ahead and make that happen.
“Fortunately, I feel like every week we roll in with equipment where we should have a legitimate chance to win if we can put all the pieces on the puzzle correctly.”
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