Jamie McMurray

McMurray parted ways with Chip Ganassi Racing at the conclusion of 2018. He will make a spot start in the 2019 Daytona 500 with the start-up Spire Motorsports team in the No. 40 Chevrolet. Beyond that we expect McMurray to largely be retired from full-time racing.

The Chip Ganassi Racing veteran had a renaissance in 2017. McMurray raced to three Top-5 and 17 Top-10 finishes last season. Those were his best totals since 2004, and it led to his best standings finish (12th) since 2005. With the growing youth movement in the Monster Energy Cup Series, it may be difficult for McMurray to hold onto those gains. By no means are we expecting him to make a reversal. Chip Ganassi Racing gave him great cars last season and that should continue into the new year. However, we don't expect him to post quite the same marks again in 2018. A bit of a pullback should be expected, however we don't expect him to fall far from that strong 14.6 average finish he posted last season. McMurray qualified the best of his career last year, and that is much of the reason for his improvement.

The No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing team has fallen into a predictable pattern the last three years. McMurray struggles at times with consistency, but he still averages around 11-to-12 Top-10 finishes per season. The veteran driver has not been much of a threat to win races the last three seasons, so he just hustles for those Top 10s and 15s at every opportunity. It's been good enough to get him into the Chase two of the last three years, but he's been no major threat to advance in the playoffs. McMurray would like to turn that around in 2017, but the up-and-coming Kyle Larson has been getting more attention and resources in the Ganassi camp. McMurray has slipped to No. 2 status in this two-team racing stable. While all the news is not bad, his level of performance is about as predictable as any in the middle tier of drivers, and that makes him a plug-and-play commodity in a lot of fantasy racing formats.

The Chip Ganassi Racing veteran enjoyed several moments of success during 2015, and even made the Chase for the Cup field. McMurray posted four top-5 and 10 top-10 finishes for a quite productive season. The No. 1 team just lacked the week-to-week consistency in the middle of the season that they had at the beginning and end. Crew chief Matt McCall returns for season two with the No. 1 Chevrolet team, and will continue to work towards improving this CGR team. McMurray has the talent to win races and perform consistently, but the team has several steps to take to get back to the numbers McMurray posted in 2010. That's probably a bit too ambitious for the upcoming season, but we do expect this driver and team to make some progress.

For the second consecutive season McMurray failed to break into the Top 20 of the final driver standings in 2012. The three-win, 12 Top 10 season of 2010 is becoming a distant memory for McMurray and really starting to cast a shadow of doubt on the entire Earnhardt Ganassi Racing organization. He will once again be paired with crew chief Kevin Manion in the hopes that the two can turn around this struggling No. 1 team. Prospects for that seem slim given McMurray’s Chase performance. In the final 10 races of last season he only picked up one Top-15 finish vs. five finishes outside the Top 20. Improvement will almost certainly come for the EGR driver, but it will be incremental at best.

McMurray is poised to have a tremendous 2006 season. After narrowly missing the Chase for the Cup each of the last two seasons at Ganassi Racing, he moves to Roush and will be dominant. A run at the championship in 2006 is not out of the question.