When the first red flag came out to halt Sunday’s Daytona 500 for track repair, one thought came to eventual champ Jamie McMurray: He was hungry.
During the second break, having snacked on a granola bar and a banana, McMurray turned his attention to fine-tuning his No. 1 car. He used the time — two embarrassing mid-race delays, totaling 2 hours and 25 minutes, were called to mend a patch of broken asphalt — to huddle with his crew to discuss adjustments and strategy.
“I’m like, ‘We got to get our car better. It’s not horrible, but we’re not fast enough to win right now,’ ” McMurray said yesterday in Midtown.
“I don’t know if it was the sun going down or a combination of the sun going down and the adjustments we made to the car, but when it was the green flag, it was, ‘Oooh, our car is running all of a sudden.’ ”
Consider it a pothole break well spent. When the Great American Race resumed, McMurray used the car’s extra giddy-up to dash to the front with two laps remaining and hold off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a pulsating, green-white-checker finish to win NASCAR’s marquee event.
“That was nice for us to have that [delay], and it worked,” McMurray said. “The adjustments that were made to the car made the car faster, and having four tires was perfect, because we didn’t have to pit at the end when some of those guys did.”
It was a breakthrough performance for the affable McMurray, 33, the 2003 Rookie of the Year who earned his first 500 title and fourth career win, three of them coming at Daytona or Talladega, where restrictor plates are employed. To get there, he had to stave off a hard-charging Earnhardt, whose own plate-racing prowess is the stuff of stock-car — and family — legend.
“I could see that coming,” McMurray of his reaction to finding Junior in his rear-view mirror. “I hope this is not his day to win this. I hope this is not all about Dale Jr.”
Adding to the emotion, McMurray was appearing in his first Sprint Cup race since rejoining Earnhardt Ganassi Racing this winter and pairing up with crew chief Kevin Manion. He was cut by Roush Fenway at the end of last season following a four-year stint.
“As a driver, that’s what you want to be able to give your team — the Daytona 500,” he said.