CONCORD, N.C. — Jamie McMurray and crew chief Keith Rodden didn’t just use their talents to get to victory lane Saturday night in the Sprint All-Star Race.
They used their experience.
Both have had serious success at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and those good days gave them the confidence they could get the job done Saturday.
McMurray won in his first-ever Cup race at Charlotte in just his second career Cup start back in October 2002. He won again at Charlotte in October 2010. He won the Sprint Showdown in 2013.
“This is a really good track for me,” McMurray said. “I won my first race here, we won here in 2010.”
Rodden had been a longtime engineer with driver Kasey Kahne and crew chief Kenny Francis, and has four top-fives in his last six points races at the track with a win in the Coca-Cola 600 in 2012 and runner-up finishes in both events last year.
Rodden said with the new aerodynamic rules for the cars, there wasn’t much he could bring from the technical side that he learned during his time with Kahne at Evernham Motorsports, Red Bull Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.
“Racing here a lot, really paying attention, keeping up with the track, that sort of thing that Ray (Evernham) and Kenny really instilled in me, so that sort of thing is there (with me),” Rodden said. “It's still Charlotte, right? But no setup or no technical things, really (helped from before).
“It was just kind of keeping up with the racetrack.”
“Keith told me tonight before the race that we had the 5 car (of Kahne) setup from last year,” McMurray said.
But was he joking? Yes, he probably was.
“The setups are so different now from what we would have had last year,” said Francis, who was excited for Rodden and went to congratulate him after the race. “I ain’t using anything from last year. I don’t know if Keith is, but I sure am not, I can tell you that.”
While they tapped into past experience, McMurray and Rodden also have seemed to click in their first year together at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“Having confidence in someone, especially as a driver, in the guy that is ultimately responsible for your car which has your name on it and is your life … that's huge,” McMurray said.
“And I just have so much confidence in not only his ability to make my car fast but also to make the right decisions on pit road and make all of get us to victory lane. He's done a great job.”