NASCAR Cup Series

McMurray shows you can go home again

Published Jul. 27, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

Darrell Waltrip

You know folks, it’s been my experience in racing, as well as the job market in general, that once you quit a job and go somewhere else, you can’t always come back. After you leave and find out the grass isn’t always greener, there are not a lot of bosses willing to take you back. Not a lot of people are willing to give you a second chance.

So it’s really refreshing and gratifying to see the success Jamie McMurray has enjoyed since he got his old boss, Chip Ganassi, to take him back. If you remember, Jamie won his first Cup race driving for Chip. Then Jamie got a chance to drive for Roush Fenway Racing.

At the time it was a good decision. Roush teams were winning races, they had a strong lineup and the Fords were always up front. Unfortunately after being there, Jamie realized that he was the odd man out. NASCAR had announced a cap of four teams per owner, and here was Jack Roush with five.

Jack already had Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, and they all were winning races. Jack also landed UPS, which was a huge sponsorship deal, for David Ragan in the No. 6 car. So the handwriting was pretty clear on the wall about which team was going to have to go.

Now, Jamie had won at Daytona and Talladega for Jack, so he seemed like a good restrictor plate racer, but not really that competitive at the other tracks. In today’s NASCAR you have to be good everywhere. You have to be strong on the big tracks, the little tracks, the road courses and the medium-size tracks.

So at the end of 2009, there Jamie was with no team and not a real bright future in the sport. Naturally, he was pretty discouraged. He really didn’t have any idea what he was going to do or where he was going to go.

A lot of times you will hear people say, “I’ll never do this” or “I’ll never do that.” You hear me talk about my Golden Rules a lot. One of them is “Never say never.” Inside our sport, it literally is too small to ever use the word “never.” It will come back to haunt you or bite you.

This is where Jamie should be an inspiration to us all. Martin Truex Jr. decided to leave the No. 1 car and drive for Michael Waltrip Racing. So naturally the No. 1 car needed a driver. Unfortunately Jamie had some strikes against him. He already had driven for Chip, so would the people there accept him back? The sponsor, Bass Pro Shops, was rumored to be leaving, plus Jamie wasn’t considered a real outdoorsman. Would Jamie and No. 1 crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion even get along? So there were a lot of hurdles that Jamie had to overcome.

However, I knew when we got to Daytona in February that he had made a good move. He and Bono were a good match. Here’s why I say that.

Jamie had come up on my motorcoach to wish me a happy birthday. Earlier he had wrecked a car in practice and he was telling me that he really hadn’t spent much time around Bono and didn’t know him that well.

I remember Jamie telling me that back in the garage after wrecking the car, he didn’t know how to approach it with Bono. He didn’t know whether to stay away from Bono or go speak to him and explain what happened. But Jamie decided to talk to Bono, and Bono was really great about the whole thing. He assured Jamie that everything was fine. He told Jamie not to worry another moment because they had a backup car just as strong.

That one moment in time, and the way Bono handled it with Jamie, set their entire program off on the right foot. At that moment, Jamie knew he had people around him who believed in him. Trust me, that’s all a driver needs.

I love seeing Jamie have the success he is having. What an amazing season the No. 1 car has enjoyed. They won the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and could also have won the Coca-Cola 600 and at Talladega. What an incredible year it has been for Chip, too, in winning the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and now the Brickyard 400.

This is a team that at the beginning of the year, no one would have said would do anywhere near what it has accomplished. That’s just so cool to me because I love it when people exceed expectations. We are seeing that Jamie McMurray is not just a good driver, but that he is a great driver.

That young man sure knows how to win the big races. The other cool thing is he is such a good guy. He and his lovely wife are expecting their first child. Last year it might have been dark and gloomy, but 2010 has been nothing but sunshine and blue skies for Jamie McMurray.

I am so proud of him and what he has overcome to enjoy the success he is having. I really am glad for him. Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing has them a little superstar and didn’t even know it.