Jenna Fryer, of the Associated Press, asked McMurray, “Jamie, you were talking about how appreciative you are, how great it is to be back with Chip. Do you ever wonder what if you never left what might have happened?”
He smiled, and said, “We're not dating. I mean, we’re not,” to a chorus of laughs from those assembled.
And while it’s fun to kick around the idea of “what if,” Ganassi said it was good for McMurray to get away. But it’s tough for him to imagine that this first year would have gone so well.
“Is it surreal? Yes,” Ganassi said. “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, a semester at sea for Jamie. 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. And I'm really happy about that.”
How could Ganassi not be happy? Even though both of his drivers aren’t in Chase contention, Ganassi has won the two crown jewels of NASCAR: the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same season. It’s only been done twice before, and the other two owners to accomplish it are legends of the sport as well: Rick Hendrick and Robert Yates.
For McMurray, joining his old pal Ganassi at the beginning of this season after being let go at Roush Fenway Racing was an easy choice. But, he opined that maybe the media shouldn’t be writing things in the way that they write them. “For me, and I just said this on TV, I think it's a lesson for all the media, that instead of writing the story that this guy should be fired, the story should be this guy needs to find a new situation,” he said.
Sound familiar?
Mark Martin lectured the media gathered around him on Friday afternoon that they shouldn’t make their storylines out to look like he’s going to get fired one year early from his ride at Hendrick Motorsports.
“I’m going to do what I want to do for now. I’m going to drive the 5 car,” Martin said. “That’s what we’ve said all along and I felt very disrespected when the media doesn’t accept that because what that means is that you make me look like I’m about to get fired and that’s very disrespectful and that’s what you all are doing and it’s very disrespectful and I deserve better than that because I’ve always been as straight as I can be.”
Martin and McMurray were teammates at Roush for one year, Martin’s final year, in 2006. Even now the 34-year-old McMurray respects Martin and the organization he drives for Hendrick Motorsports.
Jimmie Johnson said on Saturday that the Earnhardt-Ganassi teams had strong cars and were probably the favorites for the Brickyard 400. “That team, I was thinking about this in general just watching the 1 car's performance, Ganassi is doing a great job on all fronts,” Johnson said. “It doesn't matter if it's Grand Am, IndyCar, NASCAR, they've really impressed the racing world with what they're capable of regardless of car and type of racing. So I think they're going to be a favorite and they're going to do a great job.”
And when McMurray was told what Johnson said, he agreed that his team is closing the gap on the big-time teams like Hendrick and Roush. “It seems like every year you have an organization that is a little bit above the rest,” he said. “It seems like it's been Roush, it's been Hendricks. I think our organization, I really don't think there's any better cars out there.”
“They just build really fast, lightweight cars. The setups and stuff that go in them, they just work really well. So I think that means a lot to me that that organization who you would consider one of the best thinks that we're a threat.”
In fact, one co-owner of Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing is Felix Sabates, and he said, “The guy that got to feel like an idiot tonight has to be Jack Roush. He's the one that let him go.”
“Inches from a clean getaway,” Ganassi said, laughing.
But the whole time the media asked McMurray questions he had the largest smile on his face. And that is why it’s tough to root against his win at Indy, and his opening win at Daytona. McMurray sits 151 points out of a Chase berth, but he doesn’t care.
“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,” he 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.”
And right now, everyone is talking about Jamie McMurray—the guy from Joplin, Missouri, who won his first Daytona 500 and first Brickyard 400 in the same year. I doubt he’ll wipe the smile off his face any time soon. He’s having too much fun right now.
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