Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: McMurray makes most of his break

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Jamie McMurray still has a hard time believing his good fortune, which may explain the perpetual grin he had on his face during this week's NASCAR test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

It has been more than three months since McMurray stunned the racing world by winning the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in only his second Winston Cup start and now he is preparing for his rookie season in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge.

"It just seems unreal that that happened to me and I was the lucky one that got to do it," McMurray said of his victory while driving in relief of the injured Sterling Marlin.

"The thing is, I got to get in a great racecar with a great team and just happened to make the most of it and it was my turn. I'm still just extremely excited."

Even more exciting than the win, McMurray said, was the way he ran in each of the six races he drove in Marlin's No. 40 Dodge.

"The win was awesome and that was great but the thing that excited me the most was that we went to Atlanta and ran well and Rockingham -- everywhere we went we ran in the top 10," McMurray said. "Circumstances maybe took us out of (contention) but we were a contender each week."

In addition to his victory in Charlotte, McMurray had a seventh-place showing at Atlanta Motor Speedway and a 15th-place effort at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.

The goal this year for McMurray will be to repeat the consistency of his abbreviated 2002 season and try to avoid the ups and downs normally associated with a rookie driver and a first-year team.

"That's kind of our goal this year; just to be able to go out every week and just be competitive," the 26-year-old Missouri native said. "We don't have to be the fastest car each week.

"The biggest thing is to try to be consistent and work together as a team. It's a new team and it takes a while for everybody to work well together and to communicate and I feel like that's going pretty good."

Those were the only five Winston Cup drivers to test on Thursday and all speeds were in race trim. Tony Stewart posted the fastest lap during the four days of testing with a speed of 168.75 mph on Wednesday.

Todd Bodine, who set the Winston Cup track record at LVMS by qualifying for last year's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 with a speed 172.850, had the fastest lap in qualifying trim this week at 169.758.

Stacy Compton was the fastest Busch Series driver to test on Thursday with a lap of 164.634. Kevin Harvick posted the fastest lap among Busch Series drivers this week at 164.885 on Wednesday.

Pemberton will be responsible for overseeing Ford's development in the Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck Series.

Among the professional drivers scheduled to test this weekend are reigning NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., Top Fuel Drivers Darrell Russell and Cory McClenathan and Funny Car drivers Gary Scelzi, Scotty Cannon and Whit Bazemore.

NHRA Pro teams will test until 5 p.m. today, from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Spectator gates open at 6 a.m. each day.

Single-day passes for adults will be sold for $20 while a three-day adult pass will be $40. Various discounts will be offered for children and military personnel. Each pass includes admission to the pits.

CBR plans to run Cowin in both the Bud Shootout and the Pomona race. Team owner Mark and Andy Carrier are hoping that Cowin's involvement will help attract potential sponsors for the remainder of the 2003 season. If not, they said the team would be placed on hold until a primary sponsor is found.

Cowin drove Darrell Gwynn Racing's New York Yankees dragster last year and finished eighth in Top Fuel points. Cowin will test with the CBR team this weekend in Las Vegas.

Patrick Lemarie, a former Formula One test driver, has been named as the driver for PK Racing, the new Champ Car team owned by Craig Pollock and Kevin Kalkhoven. ...

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais will join Newman/Haas Racing as the team's second driver this season, joining Bruno Junqueira.