Donnie Wingo helps Jamie McMurray shine in the Shootout...can these two keep up the good work?

  


  Jamie McMurray: Is a breakthough season in the works? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
   Can Donnie Wingo recreate the magic he and Jamie McMurray once had together, as crew chief and driver?
   Judging from their performance in Saturdays night's Shootout debut for car owner Jack Roush, it certainly looks promising.
   This is one of McMurray's strongest tracks on the NASCAR tour anyway, but his showing in the first race of the season was excellent.
   Though McMurray was nipped at the by Kevin Harvick, in a frantic green-white-checkered finish, Roush's fifth driver is looking strong for the 500 itself.
   "It will be a long night….and I'll think about maybe what I should have done different as I go to sleep," McMurray said slowly after Saturday's run.
   McMurray was in command down the stretch, but a late crash setup the sprint. He was leading Hendrick duo Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and McMurray looked like a sitting duck – particularly with NASCAR's new restart line, a short 50-foot span in which the leader has to make his move to the gas.
   "It's too small, I'd prefer 100 feet, at least, because the leader is at a disadvantage this way," Johnson says.
   The new rule is a reaction to Harvick's slow restart at Phoenix last fall, which bunched up the field and triggered a big crash.
   This time, though, McMurray played the restart just right. He blocked Johnson low, and then blocked Gordon high, leaving those two teammates side by side behind him.
   But then Harvick came blasting along on the high side, and Denny Hamlin charged right up the middle, and it quickly became chaotic.
   "I moved up to block Kevin, and when I did I didn't go all the way up against the wall," McMurray said.  "But I thought I was far enough up against the wall that he couldn't fit. 
    "And my reasoning for not going up against the wall is I assumed he would slingshot back to the inside. And I didn't want to have to have another four feet to move back to the inside to block him.
   "Somehow his car just fit through there.  I wouldn't have bet it would have."
   So McMurray didn't win, but a second place finish was certainly better than getting caught up in the wild crash just behind him.
   And for Wingo the night seems like magic.
   "It's a really good night for us," McMurray said. "It's the first race Donnie has crew-chiefed again for me in the last three years, and he did a really good job.
    "We won here in July a couple years ago, but last year I felt like this was one of my worst tracks -- The car did not drive very well, and I could never get a good feel for it."
   No such problems so far this time.
   McMurray, like most drivers, got antsy over the off-season, without testing.
  "When you sit all winter….I was a little nervous before the race started, just anticipating," McMurray said.
   "After practice I knew how well my car was driving and thought if we can just stay out of trouble we'll have a chance to win.
   "It's hard to explain -- when things are going well, everything just 'flows.' And it's easier to run well than it's ever been for me, just because everything is working."
   But that final restart…
   "Honestly, the leader is a sitting duck with this car….and yet it's cool because you can pass him," McMurray said. "With the other car, if there had been a green-white-checker, I don't think you would have seen a pass, because you couldn't get the shove you can with this car."
   The show itself was a great one…and that's something the sport needs, given the worrisome economy. 
    "I think it's huge," McMurray said of the overall impact of the drivers' performances. 
   "When we did driver intros, I looked up in the stands as we were driving around and it didn't look like a huge crowd. (Estimated at 80,000)
   "I thought 'Well, it is the Shootout, and we typically don't have as many cars (as in the 500).
   "But you look up there, and you've take that for granted – that ever since I've been in this sport they've been selling out Bristol and all these tracks.
   "With the economy the way it is, and with layoffs, it's almost depressing to turn the news on.
    "I think it will be a tough year for us and for the tracks to sell tickets. 
    "I would help out what I could to sell tickets, and to do something right now to make sure you're going to have sellouts the next 10 or 20 years…whenever the economy gets turned around."
   Of course it wasn't all driver, or ill-handling cars, or bumpy track, that made the difference in action Saturday.
   And drivers may spend a few days pondering what it may take to have a good handling car for the 500.
  While Kyle Busch and others complained about ill-handling cars, McMurray said "My car did not feel out of control. 
   "They do bounce around a lot -- and that's good. 
    "Someone said 'They should repave the track,' and I'm like 'Oh my, no.'
   "That's what makes Daytona so great -- the huge bump in turn one. That's what makes the really good-handling cars shine: when you hit those bumps and your car doesn't get out of control.
   "Now there were some that didn't drive very well, but that's just fine. Talladega is an example:  you can't pass, because everybody's car drives well.
   "When we race in the daytime (the 150s Thursday), it's going to be a little different, especially when we get to run 40 laps (100 miles) on a set of tires.
   "When the Shootout started, the fastest cars weren't in the front. And what was edgy was the guys that started in the front had cars that didn't drive very well, so they'd have to slow down getting into the corner. And then somebody would shoot the gap on the outside, and it was sucking those guys around. 
   "I saw Bobby Labonte -- for three laps he was trying to get out of the way and he couldn't.  I don't know how he didn't spin out all the way, but he didn't. 
   "Now when it gets hot, it's going to be worse. So handling will be huge."
   And confidence too.
   And confidence is now something McMurray has again, with Wingo running the team. They ran together for several years at Chip Ganassi's, though they didn't really have that much success.
   "When we ran at Ganassi, we ran really well, and I didn't think we had nearly as good equipment as we do right now," McMurray said.
   "I'm so anxious to get this season underway, and get through those first four or five races and hopefully get to see you guys a lot."

   


   
Donnie Wingo, Jamie McMurray's new crew chief at Jack Roush's (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)