February 16 - 22, 2012
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Page 13
February 16 - 22, 2012
McMurray Sees Changes For Better
Two years ago, Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year. Last year, everything fell apart. After three victories -- he also won the Charlotte Motor Speedway fall race -- McMurray plummeted to 27th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings last season, finishing in the top five only twice and winning the pole at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Needless to say, changes were in order during the offseason. Team owner Chip Ganassi overhauled the entire team in the wake of disappointing seasons by both McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya. "Well, Chip has made a really big commitment," McMurray said. "I mean, they changed a lot of management. There's been a tremendous amount of changes to the '42' car (Montoya). There have been quite a few changes to the '1' car (his). We hired a lot of new people from different organizations. "You know, the frustrating part is that we won races with the guys who were here before, won some really big races," he said. "But I think the morale in the shop got way down, and everyone ... you know, you start criticizing everybody, and
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Chip needed to make a change to get everybody pumped back up." Based on preseason testing, the speeds at Daytona International Speedway figure to be way up. It appears that speeds of more than 200 mph will be commonplace in the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 18 and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26. "For me it doesn't really feel any different," said McMurray, who is from Joplin, Mo. "You can't tell a 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray is all right with the changes made by owner Chip Ganassi. He's also good with the expected increase in speeds for the season, based on preseason big difference from testing. (John Clark/NASCAR This Week photo) 190 to 205. You do at a place like Texas or Atlanta, but here (Daytona) not so much because you have so much grip, the cars drive so well, and you don't feel the big speed difference. "I don't know why NASCAR is OK with going a little faster now. My guess would be that they have become educated on how fast the cars can go and, if they get out of control, how stable they will be. I always thought 200 mph was the 'don't go past' zone, but they seem to be comfortable with that, and the car doesn't feel a lot different." ••• Monte Dutton covers motorsports for The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette. E-mail Monte at nascarthisweek@yahoo.com. ©2012 King Features Synd., Inc.