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| No Jimmy, this is how you play your guitar. |
When Roush lured Jamie McMurray away from Chip Ganassi this offseason, it was thought that McMurray would slide seamlessly into the Roush machine just like the other drivers. Yet with only one top-10 finish in the first five races, McMurray and his frosted tips weren't fitting with Jack Roush's mold of immediate success—and fedoras.
| Racing Ruminations |
| Any hack columnist can predict the top five Samsung/RadioShack 500 finishers. I predict the top five and the guy who will finish 17th! |
| LAST WEEK Top five: 2/5 17th: 0–1 |
| SEASON Top five: 14/30 17th: 0–6 |
| 1. Jamie McMurray |
| 2. Tony Stewart |
| 3. Jimmie Johnson |
| 4. Matt Kenseth |
| 5. Casey Mears |
| 17. Kyle Petty |
At Martinsville, McMurray's crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, shook things up a bit, dumping the shocks package the rest of the Roush team was using in favor of a setup that was more comfortable for the driver. The result was a ninth-place finish—his second-best of the season—and the run helped prove that success in NASCAR is about more than just technology, setups, and mullets.
This isn't the IRL, where horsepower and aerodynamics rule while drivers are told the same thing NFL coaches tell Trent Dilfer—"Try not to screw this up, all right?" In NASCAR, you need a fast car, a comfortable driver, and the ability to whore yourself out to a major corporation. Teams must find a way to balance the technology and comfort, even if it means the driver's favorite setup is slightly slower in computer simulations. (There's no compromising the whoring, however—every driver must have a trusty set of kneepads.)
Luckily for McMurray, it looks like the team found that balance in Martinsville. Between Roush technology and a comfortable setup at Texas, one of his best tracks, McMurray should drive right into Victory Lane this weekend—exactly where Roush Racing expects to be.