McMurray gets push he needs for win

Nearly five years of frustration in a 166-race losing streak ended for Jamie McMurray in the blink of an eye, by a bumper, Saturday night.

That was the margin of victory for McMurray over Kyle Busch in the Pepsi 400.

McMurray, with an aerodynamic push from teammate Carl Edwards in the final moments, blasted through what only a few laps earlier appeared to be a parade of Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets.

“Huge thanks to Carl Edwards,” McMurray said afterward. “He pushed me to the win.”

Busch, holding the inside line on the final lap, was getting a push from his elder brother, Kurt.

But it wasn’t enough to hold off the McMurray-Edwards freight tandem of Roush Fenway Racing Fords at the final second.

McMurray “was completely out of control, but he got it to the finish line first, and that’s all that matters,” said Jeff Gordon, who finished fifth.

“I actually hit the wall after I crossed the start-finish line,” McMurray said. “I heard a lot of screaming on our radio channel and I didn’t know if it was because I’d hit the wall or because my guys were happy that we’d won.

“I went into Turn 1 and waited for it [the channel] to clear, and I was like, ‘Who won?’ And they were like, ‘You did.’ ”

When the final scramble was over, Kyle Busch and Gordon were the only two Hendrick drivers in the top five. Jimmie Johnson wound up 10th, and Casey Mears was punted in the draft all the way back to 19th.

Kurt Busch was third in a Penske Dodge, with Edwards fourth.

McMurray hadn’t won since his second Cup start ever, at Charlotte in October 2002. He was considered a prodigy then, but as the years wore on he drifted deeper and deeper into flash-in-the-pan status.

“This is more special to me, and I’ll appreciate it more than Charlotte,” McMurray said. “At Charlotte I went home and went to sleep and didn’t think much about it. Tonight I’ll go home and won’t go to sleep. I’ll just think about it.”

In those years, “I grew up a lot,” McMurray said. “I’ve realized you’ve got to have more than a good driver. You’ve got to have a good leader and all the elements of a team.”

There was stark contrast in attribution to teammates by winner McMurray and loser Kyle Busch.

“I didn’t get much help from my teammates tonight,” said Busch, who will leave Hendrick Motorsports at the end of this season to make way for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to join Gordon, Johnson and Mears. “I’ve got to thank my brother for pushing me there at the end and sticking with me.”

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NASCAR’s top series will get its third name in six years beginning in 2008, as the Nextel Cup series becomes the Sprint Cup series.

Sprint-Nextel decided to change the brand name because “We’re refocusing our company around the Sprint brand,” said Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer for the wireless telecommunications company.

The announcement came before the Pepsi 400.

Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.

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The Chase

Nextel Cup standings through 18 of 36 races. After the 26th race of the season, all drivers in the top 12 will earn a berth in the Chase for the Cup:

*--* Pl. Driver Points Behind 1. Jeff Gordon 2,773 -- 2. Denny Hamlin 2,496 277 3. Matt Kenseth 2,390 383 4. Jimmie Johnson 2,366 407 5. Jeff Burton 2,345 428 6. Carl Edwards 2,308 465 7. Tony Stewart 2,234 539 8. Kyle Busch 2,190 583 9. Kevin Harvick 2,172 601 10. Martin Truex Jr. 2,157 616 11. Clint Bowyer 2,142 631 12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,040 733

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