NASCAR Cup

Dover II: Jamie McMurray preview

Texaco/Havoline Team Fast Facts: * Points Position: Jamie McMurray and the Texaco/Havoline Team moved up two positions to 11th in the overall standings after their 12th-place effort at New Hampshire. The No. 42 team is vying for the ...

Published: Sep 21, 2005, 9:35 PM

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Texaco/Havoline Team Fast Facts:

* Points Position: Jamie McMurray and the Texaco/Havoline Team moved up two positions to 11th in the overall standings after their 12th-place effort at New Hampshire. The No. 42 team is vying for the position (11th) during the final nine races in hopes of capturing the $1 million bonus for being the highest finishing non-Chase squad. McMurray and crew received the bonus last season after scoring three top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes in the final 10 events.

* Chassis: Crew Chief Donnie Wingo and the Texaco/Havoline Team have selected chassis #403 for this weekend's race at Dover Int'l. Speedway. This car is clearly one of McMurray's favorites as the team has previously run it 11 times in 2005 recording top-10 finishes at: First California (fourth-place finish), Texas (second), Darlington (sixth) and first Pocono (10th).

* McMonster Mile Results: McMurray has two top-10 finishes in five NEXTEL Cup Series starts at "The Monster Mile", both of which came in this event (Sept. 2003 & 2004). He has an average start of 13.0 and an average finish of 13.6 at the one-mile, concrete speedway.

* Last Time Around: McMurray fought an extremely finicky race car during the first event at Dover this season. It went from loose to tight with each pit stop for adjustments. The handling issues could've been attributed to front-end damage sustained after an unavoidable accident early in the race. McMurray finished 26th.

Jamie McMurray on Dover:

"There's a reason Dover is called the 'Monster Mile.' Things happen so quickly at that place. The track acts as a sweeper when a wreck happens, and usually collects more than one car. If you can avoid the wrecks and be there at the end, you can get a good finish.

"We struggled with the handling quite a bit at Dover earlier in the season. The car reacted drastically to every minor change that we made, but we believe that was caused by some damage from an early race accident. Whatever the case, we're taking a different car this week and it's one of, if not our best car. We last ran it at Bristol and had a top-10 run going before cutting a tire in the closing laps. I'm anxious to get on track with it because I believe it will be equally as good at Dover as it was there."

-cgr-

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