Jamie McMurray, the experienced driver of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, won his second race of the season in the demanding Sprint Cup, after a great performance at the Brickyard 400. McMurray is the third driver in the Sprint Cup’s history to win the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 400 in one season. Both victories, summed with Dario Franchitti’s win in the Indianapolis 500 in the IndyCar Series have brought Ganassi Racing the privilege of being the only team to win three of the most important races in a single season. McMurray races in the three different categories in the Nascar Series. He began racing in the Sprint Cup back in 2002, in the EA Sports 500. Up to this point, the driver of the Chevrolet Impala #1 holds a nice record of 5 wins, 6 top ten finishes and 3 starts from the pole position. Back in Indianapolis, McMurray began the race fourth in the starting grid. Ahead of him he had both Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson. The Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who happens to be McMurray’s teammate, guided this group of elite racers. It was Montoya who won the pole position during the qualifying laps. Juan Pablo Montoya had a flawless start. He was able to drive faster and with more precision then the rest of his competition. He managed to guide 86 of the 160 laps. The authority and the talent of Montoya were quite evident. It seem as if he was going to keep up the good work and just take one more win for his personal record and the third team win for the season. While Montoya managed to stay in the front of the race, he kept up holding the best line, and blocking other racers who wanted to pass him. The many risks that the racers were taking resulted in several crashes in the course. This really affected they rhythm of the race. The yellow flag was waved on several occasions throughout the race. Montoya was constant and managed to get rid of all the obstacles he faced in each of the laps. The problems for Montoya began on the 140th lap. After a yellow flag, the race was momentarily slowed down so the track could be cleaned after a crash. Many racers took advantage of the situation and went for a pits stop. Most races came in and made a change of tires. McMurray and Harvick were among the racers who made a change of tires. But they opted for changing only two tires and not the complete wheel set. On the other hand, Montoya went for a full tire change. He lost a couple of seconds and most of the advantage he was able to build up to that point. As if that was not enough, he crashed 5 laps after the pits stop. This is Montoya’s second round of bad luck at this same race. Last year he was the leader for 116 laps, but the race organizers penalized him for taking of the pits faster then what it is allowed. McMurray took advantage of the situation and made a swift attack and managed to move forward. It was a close battle between him and Harvick who kept on pushing for the lead. McMurray resisted and went on the finish line in front. Kevin Harvick finished second. Greg Biffle came in third. After the Brickyard 400, Hardick is still ahead of the driver’s classification with 2920 points. He is followed closely by Jeff Gordon, with 2736 points while the defending champion, Jimmie Johnson went down one spot, and now occupies the 4th position and is now 261 points behind the leader.
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