Jamie McMurray
Arguably, the biggest winner at the Glen was not race winner Denny Hamlin, but that of Joplin, Missouri’s McMurray.
The driver of the No.1 McDonald’s Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing had another strong run today, and both entered and leaves WGI sitting most comfortably in the points standings for a spot in the playoffs.
Like he has much for the entire season, McMurray flew under the radar and picked up another solid top 10 finish, placing eighth spot in a rather action packed race at WGI.
“I was glad to make it to the end,” said a happy, yet exhausted, McMurray. “We’re in the position now with the Chase coming up, that you have to get all the points that you can. To get wrecked and to lose 15 points on the last lap is not worth it. But it was a really good day for the McDonald’s Chevy.”
McMurray currently finds himself breathing a heavy sigh of relief, as he holds a 30 point lead over teammate Larson.
Chris Buescher
In a week, Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chris Buescher has gone from an outside prayer at even being inside the top 30 on points to close the season to having the ultimate underdog shot at chasing a championship.
Buescher came to Watkins Glen looking to stay out of trouble and to close the gap to David Ragan and 30th place in the points standings. With 33 to go however, Buescher and Ragan were involved in a wreck that would end Ragan’s day and send Buescher to the garage to fix his No. 34 CSX/Play It Safe Ford.
The chaos was started by Paul Menard, who ran wide, and ultimately left drivers like Buescher and Ragan with no place to go to avoid being collected.
“That is not how we expected that one to go,” a dejected Buescher said. “I came through the other side of it and the 4 car (Kevin Harvick) was sitting there backwards. I tried to get down to avoid it and hooked the splitter in the mud, tucked it under, and got stuck.”
“These CSX guys, they worked really hard to get this fixed quickly and got back on track and took the green flag with everybody else there. I am proud of them for that. They did a good job and we were still running there at the end. In the grand scheme of things, from a points standpoint, it was a little bit of a gain but we definitely don’t want to do it like that anymore.”
The rookie showed poise in adversity and returned to the track in hopes to gain any ground he possibly could in points. He wound up finishing 30th, and is only three points out of beng Chase-eligible with four races to go.
