In five starts at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, McMurray
has produced one top-10 finish.
McMurray averages a 27.2 starting position and a 24.0 finishing
position at Chicagoland Speedway.
Currently, McMurray is 23rd in the Sprint Cup point standings.
ESPN ESPY Awards - Last week, McMurray was nominated for a 2008
ESPY Award for Best Finish - his 2007 finish at Daytona International
Speedway, where McMurray edged Kyle Busch to line by .005 seconds. Fans
may vote at www.espys.tv until July 12th.
Jamie McMurray -- No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion
"I would have to say that Chicagoland is probably one of the toughest
tracks for me on the Sprint Cup circuit. I'm not sure exactly why,
but it's my Achilles' heel. Other than my first couple visits to
the track, I've always seemed to struggle at Chicagoland. I told
myself after the race on Saturday in Daytona that all week I wouldn't
focus on the past at Chicago, but that I'd go into the track with a
fresh outlook on the weekend.
"I know on paper, it doesn't appear that our team has had a very
good run here recently, but if you ask me, we've had some of the
fastest cars the last few weeks. In Michigan we were really fast,
Sonoma we were running second, in Loudon we were good, and last week in
Daytona, I thought we had a pretty decent car. This No. 26 Crown Royal
team has worked really hard in getting the cars exactly where we need
them, but it just seems like we've had some rough finishes. We just
need to be there at the end of these races.
"Hopefully we can go to Chicagoland this weekend, stay out of trouble
and get a good finish for this No. 26 Crown Royal team."
Crew chief Larry Carter on racing at Chicagoland Speedway:
"I think we have a great car for this weekend's race in Chicago. I
know Chicago hasn't been the best track to Jamie over the years, but
I'm pretty confident about the race this weekend. This is the same
car that we ran well with at Texas. This weekend has a lot of unknowns
going in -- this is the first time we've raced at Chicago at night,
and also the first time with us running the new car at the track. I'm
pretty confident we'll be able to take a lot of the information we
learned at Charlotte and Texas and transfer over into this car. This
weekend, we just need to get solid track position and stay out of
trouble and it should be a good race for the No. 26 team."
-credit: rfr
