McMurray Takes No. 37 Troy-Bilt Ford to 18th Place Finish in Charlotte

Concord, NC (May 28, 2007) – Jamie McMurray fought  a loose racecar and changing track conditions for much of the evening, but was able to pilot the No. 37 Troy-Bilt Ford Fusion to a solid 18th place finish in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Saturday.

The No. 37 Brewco Motorsports team did not test at the track earlier in the month, as some Busch Series teams did, so they weren’t quite sure what to expect when they prepared for the practice sessions Thursday. Crew Chief Newt Moore and the crew were pleasantly surprised: the Troy-Bilt Ford was 16th fastest in the first practice session – after turning only three laps – and was seventh fastest in the final practice.

On Saturday McMurray qualified the Troy-Bilt Ford in the 15th position. At the start of the race, he reported back to Moore that the car was “a little loose now, but I think it will be good.” After a fast pit stop by the No. 37 Brewco team, McMurray was running in the 10th position on lap 29 when he reported that the pit stop changes made the car very loose – “almost too loose,” he said.

The Troy-Bilt team’s next opportunity to pit came on lap 96 when they made air pressure and trackbar adjustments to try and correct the loose conditions, but McMurray reported shortly after the stop that the car was still a bit loose.

On lap 146, Moore guided McMurray down pit road again for fuel and more air pressure adjustments. The changes seemed to be what the No. 37 Troy-Bilt Ford needed: McMurray moved from the 29th position on lap 149 to the 20th position by lap 174. He would end the race one lap down in 18th place.

“Toward the end there Jamie was running unbelievable lap times,” said Crew Chief Moore. “The car looked really, really good. The adjustments we made near the end of the race were exactly what we needed, but we dug ourselves in a hole at the beginning of the race it seemed, so we didn’t get the result we were hoping for. I’m just proud of Jamie and all of our Brewco guys for hanging in there and rebounding from a rough start to the night. All in all we feel like we had a solid weekend, being fast in practice and qualifying well – we just didn’t get the top-10 finish we know we’re capable of.”

Next for the No. 37 Brewco entry will be the Dover 200 at Dover International Raceway on Saturday, June 2. McMurray will once again be behind the wheel of the No. 37 Ford. Television coverage of the race begins at 2:30 pm EST on ESPN2.