DOVER, Del. — Chip Ganassi Racing entered Dover Int’l Speedway on Sunday with one car on either side of the Chase elimination line, but with high hopes of finding a way to put both Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray into the Round of 12.

Unfortunately, Miles the Monster had other ideas and by halfway in the Citizen Soldier 400, the organization’s hopes of advancing in the playoffs were dashed in a cloud of smoke and a shower of sparks.

McMurray’s ambitions of putting last year’s excruciating first-round exit behind him soured at lap 179, when he reported over the radio that he had lost a cylinder and could smell oil leaking from the motor as his car dropped power.

It only took 14 more laps for that report to turn into utter disappointment, as McMurray’s engine expired following a restart and left a billowing trail of white smoke in its wake.

The resulting retirement relegated McMurray to last in the final rundown, a 40th-place finish and just a single point scored dooming his Chase in the end after entering the day just five points out.

The Joplin, Missouri native ended up 15th in the Chase Grid at the end of round one, 32 points adrift of 12th-place Austin Dillon. It is the second straight year he has been eliminated in the Round of 16.

“Earlier in the race, I had a vibration and I said something about it. We had some issues earlier with driveshafts vibrating and that’s what it felt like, but then it went away, oddly enough,” McMurray explained. “Then it started vibrating again, then a few laps later it finally broke.”

“I had a good car and for the last two months, our team has worked really hard to get the cars better. It’ s unfortunate that both the (No.) 42 and the (No.) 1 had problems today, but it is what it is and that’s why we race. I’m proud of my team and proud of our guys with all the hard work we put in. It stinks that it’s over this way, but we get to race next week, so we’ll come back and try again.”

For Larson, who entered the day five points ahead of the cutoff as the last man in, his backslide began after his car lost power under caution at lap 39.

With the team eyeing a potential battery issue, Larson was pushed back to pit road and lost a lap while his crew attempted to sort out the problem. Leaving pit road, however, the Elk Grove, California native was zinged for having too many men over the pit wall — resulting in a pass-through penalty under green that dropped him to 39th, three laps in arrears to the leaders.

Ultimately, the problems compounded further when Larson blew a right front tire to bring out the race’s third yellow at lap 182, dropping him to a total of six laps down and out of all contention for advancing to round two.

Though Larson kept his foot in the gas and rallied to 25th, he remained six laps down for the final 200 laps and came home 12 points outside the elimination line, while Austin Dillon leapfrogged him to advance into the Round of 8.

“I don’t know what happened with the battery or whatever … but I lost power, then I lost a lap and we had too many men over the wall,” Larson lamented. “Really, if we didn’t have too many men over the wall, we probably would have been alright because we were only one lap down (at that point). That was a nice little Christmas present for Austin (Dillon) there by both Ganassi cars.”

Larson realized, however, that his Chase wasn’t completely lost in Dover. The No. 42 had a tire issue at Chicagoland Speedway in the Chase opener and has been plagued with various ‘tough luck’ instances since the beginning of his Cup career in 2013.

“I had bad luck at Chicago and probably lost 12 points there with a right front failure so, that’s a lot of the difference right there. Today’s bad luck … all the bad luck in my career, I don’t know what I have to do to shake this monkey off our backs.”

“We’ll just stay positive and come back next year and go for a championship. Our team came a long way from where we started the season, so hats off to everybody at the shop. We just didn’t have good luck again this year.”

For the Michigan winner, whose score in August put him both in the Chase and marked his first-career Cup win, his goal for the rest of the season is simple.

“Our Target Chevy has been good every week so, we’ll go out and try to win some races,” Larson said emphatically. “Even though we aren’t in the next round, we still have a shot to (finish) fifth in points. We are going to try our best to run as high up in the points as we can.”

But for Chip Ganassi Racing, the disappointment was tangible after a season in which they placed both of their cars into the playoffs for the first time.

It was a day … and a season … of ‘what could have been’.

And now, the team will have to wait until February to take a renewed shot at chasing their first Sprint Cup.

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 22-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: [email protected]

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