McMurray Claims First Win of 2009 Season in His Irwin Marathon Ford at Talladega
November 2, 20098:13 AM
Talladega, AL (November 1, 2009) – Talladega Superspeedway is always a wild-card type of race on NASCAR’s circuit, and this past weekend, the superspeedway celebrated Halloween along with the normal race weekend festivities. Driver Jamie McMurray and his No.26 IRWIN MARATHON team hoped that it would be a weekend filled with treats rather than tricks, and thankfully, Sunday’s race brought them a lot to celebrate as they claimed their first win of the 2009 season. After rain showers forced qualifying to be canceled, McMurray and team patiently raced a smart race Sunday that allowed McMurray to drive his way to the front of the field towards the end of the race. After a late-race caution found the race going into extra laps, the team feared that their fuel levels wouldn’t make it, but in the end, McMurray was the victor Sunday afternoon at Talladega.
Talladega Superspeedway is the largest of the two superspeedway tracks that the Sprint Cup Series visits each year and due to the immense speeds the cars can attain while racing in such close proximity to each other, it’s a race where things happen in the blink of an eye. There is always a large multi-car wreck commonly known as “the big one” and teams plan race and pit strategy leading up to the race in an effort to possibly avoid being caught up in the wreckage.
Rain showers in the area forced NASCAR officials to cancel Saturday’s qualifying effort and set the starting line-up according to the point standings. This meant that McMurray and his IRWIN MARATHON Ford would begin Sunday’s race from the 22nd starting position and in the middle of the field. The teams were able to get two practice sessions in on Friday and McMurray told crew chief Donnie Wingo that he was happy with the car’s performance during those sessions.
Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 saw the green flag drop at 12:23 C.S.T. and McMurray allowed the IRWIN MARATHON Ford to drop back to the rear of the field in an effort to stay out of harms way during the opening runs of the race when a lot of incidents tend to occur. As predicted, the first caution of the day came early during lap five and it allowed McMurray to pit under yellow for four fresh Goodyear tires and to top off the fuel levels. McMurray restarted 37th and continued to hang out towards the rear of the lead pack.
Green flag pit stops began to cycle through starting on lap 42 and Wingo found himself in the midst of several negotiations from other teams wanting to work together on pit stop strategy. If several cars could pit together on the same lap, then when they all rejoined the field, there would be a small group that would then be able to draft with one another.
Wingo called for his driver to come down pit road on lap 49, but just as McMurray had committed to come down pit road, the caution came out as a car spun out on the frontstretch. Wingo still opted to pit on that lap for four tires and fuel, but NASCAR decided that the No. 26 machine had pitted too early and made McMurray start at the end of the line for the restart on lap 56.
McMurray continuously found himself being shuffled through the field as the three-wide racing wreaked havoc on the leaderboard. McMurray was stuck in the middle of the pack without many options of places to be able to advance and so Wingo knew that pit strategy would be necessary in order to get a jump on several cars. Under caution on lap 141, Wingo called for a two-tire stop in which he also told his team members to pack the car full of fuel. The fast pit stop allowed McMurray and the IRWIN Ford to restart ninth on lap 144 as the No. 26 Ford eagerly fought for position within the top five. By lap 151, McMurray had claimed third, and on lap 152, McMurray was scored as the race leader for the first time all afternoon.
The next thirty laps found McMurray fighting to defend his position, but he remained in the top three until he reclaimed first on lap 181 with just seven scheduled laps remaining. The fifth caution of the day came during lap 184 for a multi-car wreck that occurred on the backstretch and forced officials to red flag the race for over twelve minutes. The halt in action found Wingo and his team worrying about fuel mileage and if in fact there was enough to get them to the end. The caution set up a green-white-checkered finish and forced the race to go into extra laps of racing.
McMurray restarted first on lap 190 and as the field was coming off of turn four, and 13 car melee occurred and froze the field. McMurray was scored as the race leader and inevitably claimed his first win in the Sprint Cup Series since he edged out Kyle Busch by .005 seconds at Daytona in July of 2007.
“What an exciting day,” exclaimed McMurray after the race. “I saw the guys wreck behind me and I didn’t know if you had to take the white and I just wasn’t real sure what the rules were. The No. 9 went to the outside because he saw the same issue, but I just moved up and kind of tried to block him. As soon as I crossed the start-finish line I shut the engine off, pushed the clutch in, and coasted around as far as I could. We had a lot of fans out here today and, certainly, thanks to them. Irwin Industrial Tools, this is my second Cup race I’ve won with Roush in our Irwin Marathon car, and it’s been a long time since I’ve won. I want to assure every fan out there that I appreciate this as much as anybody, so thanks to all my fans who have stuck with me. I just can’t believe it’s our time again today for a win.”
McMurray won Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, and in the process, claimed his third career victory in the Sprint Cup Series. Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano rounded out the top-three finishers Sunday afternoon.
Next weekend the Sprint Cup Series travels to Texas for the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and the seventh race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Pre-race television coverage begins on Sunday, November 8th at 2:30p.m. E.S.T. on ABC. Radio coverage will be provided by the Performance Racing Network.
NEXT UP:
Dickies 500
1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, TX
Sunday, November 8, 2009
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