Blown Tire Early in the Race Forces McMurray and the Crown Royal to Finish 36th at Fontana
October 12, 20098:34 AM
Fontana, Cali. (October 11, 2009) – Auto Club Speedway is a track on the Sprint Cup series circuit that the No. 26 Crown Royal team had high hopes for as they entered this weekend’s Pepsi 500 event. Statistically speaking, racing at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway is driver Jamie McMurray’s best track for average finishing position. Sunday’s race, however, did not play out to favor the statistics in the way that the team had been hoping for. Despite having a good handling car, an incident early in Sunday’s race, found McMurray and his Crown Royal Ford in the garage for repairs as they fell 41 laps to the race leaders by the end of the afternoon. A blown right rear tire caused McMurray to smack the wall in turn one, and the damage to the right rear of the car was considerable. Despite major repairs to the body of the damaged Ford, McMurray spent the remainder of the race at the back of the pack and finished 36th.
The race weekend in Fontana, California began with promise since Roush Fenway Racing had developed a reputation for success at the two-mile track. McMurray also found himself entering the weekend at the track on the Cup series circuit where he had the best average finishing position, so the No. 26 team was eager to see what Sunday would bring.
McMurray qualified 29th for Sunday’s Pepsi 500 and the green flag waved at 12:35 p.m. EST as the 43-car field roared to life behind pole-sitter Denny Hamlin. McMurray, who was stuck in the middle of the pack at the start, found himself jockeying for position immediately. Auto Club Speedway is a fairly wide track, which allows drivers room to race and pass, so McMurray planned to use the wide track surface to his advantage.
Within the opening ten laps of the race, the Crown Royal Ford had moved up to 21st when McMurray called in over radio communications to crew chief Donnie Wingo that “the car’s balance is pretty good, we just need a bit more grip.” Wingo made a note of the handling as he and the pit crew made a plan for their first pit stop of the afternoon. The race continued under green and the field began to cycle through green flag pit stops starting around lap 37. On lap 39, Wingo called his driver down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel along with an air pressure adjustment.
The field continued to cycle through pit stops under green, but by lap 52, McMurray radioed in to his team that the Crown Royal Ford was “quite a bit looser.” McMurray found himself slowly losing positions on the leader board as other competitors were able to challenge the Crown Royal Ford for position, since McMurray was too loose.
Unfortunately, bad news came over the radio during lap 60 when Wingo and the team heard McMurray exclaim that a right rear tire had blown. The right rear tire blowing out caused the No. 26 machine to slam into the wall and caused considerable damage to the right side. The first caution of the day came out immediately, and McMurray brought his damaged car down pit road for further assessment.
During lap 61, the team changed the right side tires and assessed the damage to the car before sending McMurray around to rejoin the field. The next time by, McMurray returned to pit road in order to allow the team to do several repairs to the fenders before they serviced the Crown Royal Ford with four fresh tires and fuel. Still under yellow, McMurray was also providing feedback to his team in regards to the car’s handling and drivability so that the team could decide if any further repairs were necessary at the time. On lap 63, McMurray radioed in that the car’s housing felt as if it was loose, so he drove the Crown Royal Ford to the garage for repairs on lap 65.
The team swung into action repairing all that they could on the right side and right rear of the car. Finally on lap 100, McMurray rejoined the race, but would spend the remainder of the afternoon fighting to keep up track position in his damaged race car. At the end of the 500 mile race, McMurray was forced to leave Fontana with a 36th-place finish.
“It’s really unfortunate that we had such horrible luck today,” said McMurray after the race. “We started out the race, and I thought we were going to have a pretty decent day with our Crown Royal Ford, but when the right rear tire blew out, it forced the right side of the car into the wall and caused a lot of damage. I’m really proud of all the work this team did to repair the car enough where we were able to return and finish the race, but it was just a disappointing afternoon for us.”
California native, Jimmie Johnson, won Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in a late-race shootout with his fellow teammate, Jeff Gordon. Gordon went on to finish second, while Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top-three finishers Sunday afternoon. With the win on Sunday, Johnson also moved into the lead in the driver point standings with a 12 point lead over Mark Martin.
Next weekend the Sprint Cup Series returns to the “home base” for most of its teams, North Carolina for the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Pre-race television coverage begins on Saturday, October 17th at 7:00p.m. E.S.T. on ABC. Radio coverage will be provided by the Performance Racing Network.
NEXT UP:
NASCAR Banking 500
1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Concord, NC
Saturday, October 17, 2009
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