July 28, 2010
By Chuck Abrams
A year ago, a lot pf people were whispering that Jamie McMurray may be out of a Cup ride and looking to head to the truck series. After years of doing little at Roush Racing, Jamie Mac looked to be on the outs in the Sprint Cup Series.
But Chip Ganassi knows a thing or two about drivers and he took another chance bringing McMurray back into the fold. With Martin Truex, Jr. leaving, a lot of folks were also wondering just what Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing would look like going forward. Many had written off EGR after much driver turmoil in the wake of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. leaving his fathers company.
Now Chip looks like a genius and Jamie Mac is having the year of his career. Jamie has won both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year and Chip has the Indy 500 to add to his list of accomplishments this year.
Unfortunately for Jamie, he has had a string of less than stellar races this year that have him sitting in 16th place in the standings, nearly 200 points out of the Chase. Which means that all the writers pointing out that the Brickyard winner has gone on to win the title 8 out of 12 times, or something like that, it is most unlikely this year because McMurray has been the most unlikely of winners this season.
Of course, 200 points can be overcome especially looking at whom Jamie Mac would have to leap frog to get into the Chase. Newman, Earnhardt and Martin have been fluctuating in this tweener land all season so it is possible to put together a series of races to pass them. But getting into the Chase will mean beating out Biffle, Bowyer and Edwards. While none of these four will send shivers down your spine, they have been consistent enough to stay in the hunt -- something McMurray has not done.
While this has to be a great week for EGR and McMurray, they have to feel bad for teammate Montoya who gave up another possible win at the Brickyard. At least he gave it up to a teammate. But Montoya and Ganassi have to wonder where this season went wrong. After being very competitive and making the Chase last year, Montoya has looked good from time to time only to succumb to accidents, ill handling cars or as at the Brickyard, bad pit calls.
At some point, EGR will have to quit being happy with seasons that they can build on. Maybe next year they can get it all together. If Chip can ever work his IndyCar magic in stock cars, they will be a force to contend with.
Greg Biffle looked stout most of the day on Sunday as well and a win for him would have been as huge as McMurray's win. But running in traffic, albeit not a lot of traffic, Biffle complained the new spoiler causes the cars handling to drop off dramatically.
Egads, the dreaded aero push has returned. Did it ever really leave though? Anyway, you have to give a shout out to Biffle for making the race interesting most of the day since all other contenders were mere also-rans most of the day.
Only on the last pit stop with 22 laps to go did things get really interesting. A two-tire stop for Harvick and Stewart, among others, made for a real race to the end. But clean air for Jamie Mac and a battle for second between Harvick and Biffle made staying off the wall McMurray's biggest worry.
Now the Cup boys go back to Pocono for another LONG race. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have limited cautions, which will mean another "quick" race. But that also means another parade race where the cars that are not handling well will fall back quickly and not have many chances to tweak their cars.
Let me know your thoughts.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
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