Last year at season end in Las Vegas, as he helped during championship week to unveil the new Chevrolet, Jamie McMurray pronounced his year miserable.
But this season, the driver of the No. 1 LiftMaster Chevrolet, is celebrating a pretty good year so far, especially after a top-five run at New Hampshire and an honor for his crew chief to boot.
“Other than getting tangled up on Lap 40, it really was a good race,” McMurray said. “We just really had a good car, had good pit strategy, and had good pit stops.”
“It was truly hard to pass there, but we were able to pass a few cars and then had good track position at the end.”
McMurray’s crew chief Kevin Manion also received the MOOG Problem Solver award, recognizing the team’s comeback after a spin out early in the race. In fact, McMurray and Manion’s No. 1 Chevrolet improved by a race-high 0.331 seconds in earning its second top-five finish in three races.
“Jamie and Kevin were running as strong as they have all year in the second half,” Tim Nelson, Federal-Mogul Motorsports Director, said. “You could tell that Jamie loved the setup of their MOOG-equipped chassis, and Kevin and the Earnhardt-Ganassi crew were nearly flawless on pit road.”
With this success, McMurray has indeed expressed satisfaction in his pretty good year to date. And he even thinks this year has been better than when he won several of the major races on the circuit, including the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard race.
“Yeah, it’s been good,” McMurray said. “I think our cars have been even better than what they were in 2010 when we won some big races.”
“We haven’t been able to execute as well as we need to,” McMurray continued. “But the speed of our cars has been good so yeah, they’ve done a really nice job obviously with this Generation 6 car.”
“We were able to hit on a few things that really worked well for us at a variety of different tracks.”
McMurray is hoping to continue his pretty good year at Dover International Speedway this race weekend. While he has had some success at the Monster Mile, he also knows that the ‘monster’ is always lurking and ready to pounce.
“So Dover, I really enjoy coming here but at the same time, this is a track that if your car is not right, it’s miserable,” McMurray said. “You can’t get out of the way and for a mile track, the lap times are really fast.”
“So, it’s easy to go a lap down if you get off,” McMurray continued. “But at the same time if your car is good, it’s a really fun track to race on.”
As he celebrates a pretty good year in 2013, he is also looking forward to some of the changes to come for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, including the young up-and-comer Kyle Larson joining the team in the seat vacated by Juan Pablo Montoya.
“It will be new with Kyle (Larson) but Kyle’s been racing for a long time, even though he’s young,” McMurray said. “I already know Kyle so I’m looking forward to that.”
“It will be interesting to look at how Kyle approaches things, which will be different than what someone who has been around a long time has,” McMurray continued. “Sometimes you get fresh ideas and see another perspective on things.”
“Kyle’s actually getting to come to our organization at a really good time,” McMurray said. “It would have been a challenge for him a couple years ago because our cars were not really good.”
“But I think our cars are really good right now so he is fortunate to be coming on at a really good time for the company.”
As with most drivers not in the Chase, McMurray has just one thing on his mind as he ends up his self-proclaimed pretty good year.
“Just trying to win a race before the year is over,” McMurray said. “We’ve had really good cars and we have a couple of really good tracks like Charlotte coming up.”
“I also feel good about Dover,” McMurray said. “I thought we had the best car here in the spring and then a part fell off someone’s car and went through our radiator.”
“So, we had a really crummy spring race.”
“I think Charlotte will be a good track for us too,” McMurray said. “We ran really well there the last few times.”
“And Martinsville has always been a really good track for me too,” McMurray continued. “So, I feel like we have a few really good tracks coming up for us.”
So, will McMurray feel differently than he did in Vegas last year about this season when the checkered flag flies in Homestead?
“Last year, we were just terrible,” McMurray said. “We ran the last ten races just trying all kinds of off-the-wall stuff.”
“We never really hit on anything,” McMurray continued. “So, Vegas last year was just a bad season and when you end not running well, it makes for a long off-season.”
“But this year, our cars have been a lot better,” McMurray said. “I feel good about the last few races that we have left.”
“Certainly, this year has been a lot better than the last.”
