Team News
McMurray Provides Ganassi a Triple Crown
By: Jim Utter, Charlotte Observer
July 29, 2010
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Kevin Harvick may have lost out at a chance at a second Brickyard 400 win to Jamie McMurray, but he was certainly conscious of the significance of the moment.
McMurray's team owner, Chip Ganassi, already had won NASCAR's biggest race, the Daytona 500, in February with McMurray at the wheel and IndyCar's biggest event, the Indianapolis 500, in May with driver Dario Franchitti.
Now back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, McMurray's second Sprint Cup Series win of the season handed his owner a motorsports version of the "triple crown."
"If you're in the IndyCar Series, you want to win the Indy 500; if you're in the Cup Series, you want to win here and you want to win at Daytona," Harvick said. "To win all those in one year is remarkable.
"It will probably never happen again."
To have it unfold with McMurray claiming two of the three victories would have been unthinkable a year ago and was even doubtful with less than 25 of 160 laps remaining in Sunday's race.
McMurray's teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, appeared safely in command when a caution for debris on Lap 138 sent all of the lead-lap cars to pit road for what would be their final stop.
Six teams, including McMurray, elected to take just two new tires and moved to the front of the running order. Greg Biffle and Montoya - two of the strongest cars - took four tires and restarted seventh and eighth, respectively.
McMurray was passed once by Harvick but retook the lead with 11 laps to go and held on for his first Cup win that didn't come at a restrictor-plate track.
Montoya, who dominated this race for the second consecutive season, never performed as well after the pit stop and wrecked out of the race on Lap 146.
"This is a win for the team. Certainly we sit here, I don't want to take anything away from Jamie and [crew chief Kevin Manion], but the team wins and the team loses," Ganassi said. "Today was certainly a mixed emotions day in that respect.
"Without [Montoya's] team, [McMurray] wouldn't have won, I don't think, and vice versa. That's what happens."
Ganassi's triple crown wouldn't have been possible without the second coming of McMurray.
McMurray started his Cup career with Ganassi but left at the end of the 2005 season for an opportunity to run with Roush Fenway Racing - one of the top-performing Cup organizations at the time.
His career there never panned out, and a year ago this time McMurray didn't have a job lined up yet for this season. He eventually reunited with Ganassi to drive the No. 1 Chevrolet.
"I think that me leaving was good for me. You know what I'm saying?" McMurray said. "I know by me leaving it's made me appreciate the situation I'm in, the relationships I have with Chip, [and team owners] Felix [Sabates] and Teresa [Earnhardt].
"Our friendship is much more than it ever was before. For me, it's because I've matured so much from when I was here before and learned a lot."
Ganassi agreed.
"From where we were a while back, people had Jamie written off, people had us written off. But I think what I said once before - [it was] a semester at sea for Jamie," he said. "He couldn't have come back a better person.
"We had grown as a team, and he had grown as a driver. We picked up where we left off, I think. I'm really happy about that."
There was also a bigger picture to look at following McMurray's win, such as a shot to still make the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup.
McMurray is 16th in points, 151 behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer with six races before the field is set.
"Everyone wants to make the Chase. Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase," McMurray said.
"This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points, nobody cares.
"I would really like to be in the Chase, but I have no focus on that at all."
At least until next week.
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