TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jamie McMurray entered Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday hoping to channel the luck from his two prior wins at the 2.66-mile oval into a strong run that would keep his playoff hopes alive.
Instead, just 25 laps into the Alabama 500, McMurray found his car towed off on the hook and his hopes of advancing further in the postseason nearly in shambles.
As he hoped to make the dive to pit road with many of the leaders, McMurray was nearly struck by the No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch — who wasn’t planning on pitting — before being run into by the No. 77 Toyota of Erik Jones, which turned him head-first up the race track and into the path of Jeffrey Earnhardt’s incoming machine.
Earnhardt plowed into the passenger’s side of McMurray’s Chevrolet, causing race-ending damage to both cars as a result.
McMurray took full blame for the crash, not realizing that Busch and Jones weren’t intending to pit at the time.
“We wanted to pit a couple of laps earlier, and you’re somewhat dependent on the spotters to tell you when you’re going to pit,” McMurray explained. “You assume everyone is working as a group. It was my fault. I assumed that they said the 18 was going to let me in, so I thought we were all going to pit. I didn’t even know where the 77 (Jones) was.”
“When I got on the brakes, I thought we were all coming to pit road as a group. I’ll take the blame for that. I just assumed we were (all) coming to pit road right there. Obviously not everyone was.”
Jones and Mark Thompson also retired due to crash damage, but the biggest blow was to McMurray, who dropped to the bottom of the playoff standings because of the incident and subsequent 37th-place finish.
“There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s part of Talladega,” McMurray added. “We know you can come out of here with a lot of points and be a winner or you can be in the position we are right now. We’ll go to Kansas and do our best. I’m sure I won’t be the only playoff driver disappointed today.”
Jones said after being released from the medical center that he had nowhere to go when the situation unfolded in front of him.
“The 18 (Busch) started checking up in front of me, and then the 1 (McMurray) was basically stopped on the bottom of the track,” Jones said. “It looked like he was trying to get from the top of the track to the bottom. It’s unfortunate, but there wasn’t much we could really do. It’s just one of those things that happens here sometimes; you always seem to see an accident getting onto pit road.”
“I don’t really know what we had. Our 5-hour Energy Camry was okay; we just didn’t really get to race today. It’s a real bummer.”
McMurray drops from eighth to 12th in the standings, more than 30 points below the cut line.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: editor@racechaseronline.com
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