When Jamie McMurray arrived at the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard in 2010, one of the main storylines was team owner Chip Ganassi’s quest to become the first to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard in the same season. McMurray had driven Ganassi’s Chevrolet to victory at Daytona, and Dario Franchitti put Ganassi’s Target Indy car into victory lane for the Indy 500.
Before that, no team owner ever had won the two premier auto races in the same season. Ganassi was attempting to become the first to add the Brickyard 400 to create an auto racing “Triple Crown.”
The driver that was expected to do that at the Brickyard was Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner who had adapted to driving stock cars at Indianapolis and placed himself as a favorite by dominating the 2009 race, leading 116 laps before he was penalized for speeding on pit road. Montoya finished 11th but returned to win the pole in 2010 and led 86 laps.
Montoya appeared on his way to victory before he crashed in the fourth turn with Dale Earnhardt Jr. just 14 laps from the finish.
When Kevin Harvick pitted on Lap 149, McMurray inherited the lead. He stayed in front for the final 11 laps to win the race. It was only the third time the same driver won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same season. Dale Jarrett was the first in 1996, and Jimmie Johnson won both in 2006. McMurray’s win also marked the first time the same team owner won the three biggest races of the year.
“Indy is a good track for Juan, and with 20 or 25 laps to go Juan was leading, and I was running third,” McMurray said. “I was thinking at the time that it was really going to be cool that Chip was going to win that race. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I was going to win, but Juan was leading and I was running third, and I thought it was cool. But the way it worked out with pit strategy and we were able to win made it even better.
“At Daytona, you don’t know you have won those races until you get to the checkered flag. At the Brickyard, I had a pretty big lead and led the last 10 laps and got to think about it before it was over. It wasn’t quite as emotional for me, but I was pretty excited. I didn’t feel like it was completely unexpected that we won because I had such a good lead before the checkered flag.”
McMurray realized winning at the Brickyard is something that gets bigger to a driver as time goes on.
“Indianapolis was really cool, and when you win those big races at the time it doesn’t seem as big as it is right now,” McMurray said. “When you win those big races like the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, at the time it’s not as big as it is now when you look back at how hard it is to win again. It makes you appreciate what you really had in the past.
“To win the Brickyard is a huge accomplishment. It’s different than winning at Daytona because at Daytona superspeedway racing is just so different. You don’t see average guys win at Indy or Charlotte. That’s just not the way it works. To be able to win that race was huge.”
