Jamie McMurray turned in a season-best third-place finish in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to mark his first top 10 of 2018.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver had gotten off to a slow start in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. But he stayed near the front of the field most all afternoon on Sunday to help point things back in the right direction.
“We just had a really good car and were able to miss some of those accidents,” McMurray said of his performance. “The off-weekend couldn’t have come at a better time for us. We had such a horrible season going and it’s awesome to run as good as we did today at a 1.5-mile.
“We have so many of these and I feel like we have been a little bit behind on the 1.5-miles but had a really good run today.”
McMurray didn’t have the best outing in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race but still thought the experience was beneficial to Sunday’s Cup effort.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt to get a little bit of track time,” he said. “The track is pretty treacherous when you get out of the groove. Obviously, I spun out yesterday in the Xfinity race, so I learned not to go up there, but it was a really good day for our Cessna/McDonald’s Chevrolet.”
So after his first top-five finish since last October in Charlotte, McMurray believes there are better days ahead.
“We really struggled this year and especially on the 1.5-mile’s,” he said. “I’m really proud of everybody for the car that we had and to be able to put the whole race together. The off-weekend for us couldn’t have come at a better time. We needed a little bit of a break, so hopefully we can get on a roll here.”
