21st - Place Finish for No. 1 Team at Talladega

21st - Place Finish for No. 1 Team at Talladega

Talladega, Ala. (April 17, 2011) – Jamie McMurray and the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team started and finished the day in 21st–position.  After spending most of the day paired up with teammate Juan Pablo Montoya just completing laps and trying to stay out of trouble near the back of the pack, the No. 1 team’s chances for victory dampened when Montoya was involved in a late-race accident.

Prior to the weekend’s event at Talladega Superspeedway crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and McMurray mapped out the plans for all the on-track activity. The No. 1 team would limit their practice time on Friday to just a few laps to “shake-down” the car and make sure there were no issues.  Saturday’s qualifying would be the only other activity before the start of the Aaron’s 499.  The direction was to drop back to the rear of the field to work with draft partner and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.  Everything was going according to plan until Montoya was involved in a late-race incident, which left McMurray scrambling to find a partner with only a handful of laps remaining.  Without a tandem drafting partner the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was shuffled back and credited with a 21st-place finish.

After the race McMurray stated “It is frustrating to just hang out all day trying to avoid problems, only to lose your partner there with a few laps to go.  Once we decided to make a run to the front, our cars worked great together and marched straight to the point, so we know we had cars capable of contending for the win.”

NOTES
- McMurray has an average starting position of 13.5 in the first eight races of this season
- McMurray maintained his 23rd-position in the point standings
- This was the 18th race for McMurray at Talladega Superspeedway, he has lead at least 1 lap in 11 of those events,     including leading lap(s) at the last four races

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series take a break from racing action this weekend.  The next race will be at Richmond International Raceway Saturday April 30th at 7:30 PM (ET), the race will be covered live on FOX and MRN radio affiliated stations.