McMurray Takes No. 37 Yard-Man Ford to Top-15 Finish in Fontana

Fontana, CA (February 25, 2007) – In his first full race back with Brewco Motorsports, Jamie McMurray took the No. 37 Yard-Man Ford Fusion to a solid 15th place finish in the Stater Bros. 300 at California Speedway on Saturday.

McMurray’s run at Daytona International Speedway a week ago ended early after he was involved in an accident. He and the Brewco Motorsports team were looking forward to getting to California to show that they could run up front.

McMurray qualified the Yard-Man Ford in 17th place. Early in the race Saturday he reported back to Crew Chief Newt Moore that the car had gotten loose – an issue that would plague the Brewco team much of the night.

“The car felt really good at first, but then we just got loose,” McMurray said. “I’ve never been in a car that got that loose when other drivers were trying to pass me. It was pretty incredible.”

Moore brought McMurray down pit road on lap 28 in the 17th position to work on the loose conditions. The No. 37 Brewco crew was lightning-fast on pit road, picking up six spots on the stop.

“We knew we were battling changing track conditions, but on each pit stop we kept making the adjustments we thought we needed to win the race,” said Moore.

After more adjustments on lap 63, McMurray reported tight conditions back to Moore. The team stayed out on the track after a late-race caution, opting for track position over making more adjustments. McMurray was in the third position by lap 92 and ran in the top-10 for many of the closing laps of the race. After pitting in the tenth position on lap 122, McMurray took the Yard-Man Ford back out on the track in 15th place.

“We had one miscue in the pits tonight, but overall I think our guys did a great job,” said Moore. “We have a few new faces going over the wall this year and the more these guys work together, the better they’ll get. I know they’ll rebound next week and be even stronger on pit road as the year progresses.”

“Our Yard-Man Ford got better throughout the night, but I just felt like at times we weren’t able to pass other cars,” McMurray said. “Newt and the guys did a great job working on it and communicating the changes with me. We know we can always do better, but I’m happy with a 15th place finish, especially after last week.”

“It was our first full race with Jamie and I thought he did a great job,” Moore said. “We’re excited to have him back in the car for the Las Vegas race in two weeks.”

Next for the No. 37 Yard-Man Ford will be the Telcel-Motorola Mexico 200 presented by Banamex at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday March 4. Greg Biffle will be behind the wheel of the Brewco entry, marking his first start at the south-of-the-border road course. Television coverage of the race begins at 1:30 pm EST on ESPN2.