Jamie Mac done with Roush?

S

steveluvs3

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DOVER, Del. - The driver dominoes in the Sprint Cup Series are apparently beginning to fall into place.

Jamie McMurray will not return to Roush Fenway Racing next season and has been actively seeking other employment, the Observer and ThatsRacin.com have learned.

In the past week or so, representatives on behalf of McMurray have notified other Cup teams of his availability beginning next season, multiple sources confirmed on Sunday.

McMurray finished 10th in Sunday's Best Buy 400 - just his second top-10 finish of the season. An attempt was made to reach McMurray after the race, but he left the track without comment to the media or the Ford Racing manufacturer's representative.

McMurray's departure could accomplish two important goals for Roush.

The organization has been in discussions with sponsor Crown Royal to pair that sponsorship with driver Greg Biffle beginning next season, although a final decision has not been made, sources said. Officials with Crown Royal could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

It remains unclear whether the sponsor would move to Biffle's No. 16 Ford, or Biffle would move to McMurray's No. 26 next season. Biffle has been in negotiations with Roush for a contract extension for almost a year, but it remains unfinished.

In addition, McMurray's departure could also open the door for Roush Fenway to move from five to four Cup teams by 2009, one year sooner then required by NASCAR's four-car limits on ownership.

NASCAR officials on Sunday said they have had no discussions with Roush regarding the organization's movement to four teams in 2009.

McMurray entered the Cup series driving for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates with great fanfare in 2002, winning the fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway while substituting for an injured Sterling Marlin. He went on to spend three more seasons with Ganassi before leaving for Roush in 2006.

McMurray snapped his career-long 166-race winless streak in Cup last season, taking the July race at Daytona Beach, Fla.

He is now 22nd in points, 259 outside the top 12 that will qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
 
I think Mcmurray is way over rated. He may get a nationwide ride:cool:
 
McMuffin is a feather-weight --- IMO, he has no real credentials except his good looks and charming personality.

If he is looking, and it has been denied that he is, he may get a dose of "what have you done lately" in the real world.
 
TRL, you took the words right out of my mouth. Jamie is at best, a soso driver. But I think that with his experience, he'll be able to land a job for one of the lower tiered teams. He could very well go the route of Jeremy Mayfield, i.e. float from one team to another.
 
When he won in the 40 that was the ride to beat at the time, Sterling would of probably won the champoinship if he had not gotten hurt that year. Jamie did well in Busch there for awhile, but after he left the 40 ride he has pretty much done nothing. Seemed like he had the talent there for awhile, not sure what happened, but i think he will have a hard time finding a really good ride in Cup.
 
I was thinking the thread should have said, "Rousch done with Jamie Mac." ;)
 
I dunno... The Biff doesn't really seem like a Crown Royal kinda guy.
 
i had a felling when roush would have to go down to 4 cars it was either ragan or mcmurray and ragan is the most improved driver of the year so of course they will fire jamie mac
 
I'm gonna buck the trend and say that Jamie could blossom in the right situation elsewhere. It just seems like all factors have to be perfect for any one time to get an edge these days.
 
bowtie said:
I think Mcmurray is way over rated. He may get a nationwide ride:cool:
Click to expand...

Your right, JM is way overrated....I've been saying that for years.

After he won that race in the 40 car everyone was saying he was the next Jeff Gordon, well since then he's only won one race and lets not forget that the car he is driving now won a championship not too many years back.
 
McMurray denies reports of leaving Roush: Jamie McMurray, driver of the #26 Crown Royal/IRWIN Tools Ford Fusion, will make his 200th career Sprint Cup start this weekend at Pocono. McMurray met with reporters this morning, and quickly dismissed a report from earlier this week that said he was leaving Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the year.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEXT YEAR?
McMURRAY "The same thing that I'm doing this year: the Crown Royal, #26, with Roush Fenway."
WHY DO YOU THINK [REPORTER] THINKS OTHERWISE?
"I don't know. I'm not a speculator."
THERE IS PLENTY OF SILLY SEASON SPECULATION GOING ON. ARE YOU PUTTING OUT ANY FEELERS?
"No, I have not."
HAVE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES?
"Not that I am aware of."
HAVE OTHER TEAMS INQUIRED ABOUT YOU?
"Not that I'm aware of. It's hard to answer questions because anything I answer will lead to the next question, and there's not really anything to talk about. I don't know where he got his story, and so it's certainly drawn attention to something that - it's, I don't know how you can say it, it's like whenever there's not anything to talk about, and you tell the truth, you feel like you need to add to the story so you can make people believe you. But, there's not anything to talk about."
DO YOU WANT TO BE THERE NEXT YEAR? "Yes."
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT IT? "No."
ARE YOU HAPPY?
"Yes. Certainly, we want to run better. I'm at an incredible organization, and we have all the cars and people that are capable of running to win every weekend. So, the move from Ganassi to here I really hoped was going to be able to put me in the chase every year, and that we'd contend to win races on a regular basis, and our performance hasn't been as good what's expected - whether it's from me, the race team or the sponsor. So, you want to continue to get better, and the car of tomorrow has brought some new challenges. The first four or five races we didn't run bad, but we just seemed to have bad luck or freaky things would happen to us, and it just put us in a really bad position. But the last four or five weeks have been pretty good, and you just try to continue and build on that. The thing about racing is that if you run well for four weeks everything's great, and if you run bad for two it seems like you need to go find somewhere else to drive, they say. Everything is fine here. I don't really know what the basis of his story was."
HAVE YOU TALKED TO JACK ROUSH OR GEOFF SMITH ABOUT IT?
"Well, when all of it came up, we just all talked and I never asked to get out of my contract and they never said that they were going to release me from my contract. There was never any discussion of any of that. So, we just were all trying to figure out where it came from." (Ford Racing PR)(6-6-2008)
 
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