Texas: Jamie McMurray preview

FAST FACTS:

* In eight visits to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, Jamie McMurray has posted five top 10's and two top-five finishes. The best finish came in April 2005, where McMurray finished second.

* HUGE Improvement -- McMurray has an average starting position at TMS of 30.1 and an average finish of 13.8 -- an improvement of 16 positions.

* Return of Crown Royal Cask No. 16 -- This weekend, McMurray will pilot the No. 26 Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Ford Fusion. The No. 26 Ford will also sport the autism puzzle pieces in support of autism awareness and the Jamie McMurray Foundation.

* Double-Duty Weekend: McMurray will run the Nationwide race this weekend in the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion.

McMurray on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
"After our run last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, I know all of the guys are ready to get back to the track. Hopefully, the run last week is a showing of what is to come for the No. 26 team. We've had a lot of bad luck in the first five races, and hopefully, last weekend was our turning point. We moved back into the top-35 in points, and now we are focused on continuing to gain points every week, and get ourselves back to where I know we belong.

"Texas isn't a track that I normally qualify very well at, but one that I really enjoy racing at. In the past, we typically qualify pretty bad, but have a great run at the end. We are bringing the same car that we ran in Fontana, and after our test last week in Nashville, I really think we will have a good car. We haven't been that strong at the mile-and-a-halves so far this season, but I think that after our test and the engineering that has gone on back at the shop, I really feel good about this weekend.

"We have a lot going on this weekend with our special paint scheme, which helps kick off 'National Autism Awareness Month.' Crown Royal has also helped out by giving us some of the car this weekend to run the autism puzzle pieces. We are running the black and gold Crown Royal Cask No. 16 car, which is a really good looking car."

Crew Chief Larry Carter on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
"Well, with the good run we had in Martinsville, I'm really hoping the No. 26 team has the monkey off our backs. We've worked really hard this season at putting ourselves in a good position each weekend, but it seems the bad luck followed us. We had a good run last weekend, and I'm excited about the next couple of races. We had a good test last week at Nashville, and a few weeks ago, I thought we had a great test at Phoenix. We are taking the same car this weekend that we ran in Fontana, which was a pretty good car, we just couldn't get the handling down for Jamie. With the changes we made back at the shop, the No. 26 team should have a pretty good showing this weekend in Texas."

-credit: rfr