In 2000, Jamie McMurray turned heads by winning the pole award in his first race for TKO Motorsports, at Michigan in the Camping World Truck Series.
He made 16 starts in the Truck Series and finished 22nd in the standings with a single top-five and four top-10 finishes, plus a second pole.
Before that early success, McMurrary was the 1997 Lebanon I-44 Speedway track champion in his home state of Missouri. McMurray won U.S. kart titles in four of the five years between 1986 and 1992.
Based on the way he lit up the Camping World Truck Series in 2000, Jamie McMurray was one of the pre-season favorites for the 2001 Nationwide Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award. In the end, the driver of the No. 27 Williams Travel Centers Brewco Motorsports Chevrolet wound up third behind Greg Biffle and Scott Wimmer.
McMurray made his best start that year, sixth, at three very different venues: Daytona, Milwaukee and Las Vegas. That year's best finishes, 10th-place, came at a similarly unique set of tracks: Indianapolis Raceway Park, Nazareth and Kentucky Speedway. He also led his first race in that year.
In 2002, McMurray had a life-changing season. While subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin, he won the UAW-GM 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in just his second career Cup start. McMurray then won back-to-back Nationwide Series races while leading a grand total of three laps.
Havoline Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates marked history in 2003 as McMurray became the third rookie driver for Havoline to win the Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
McMurray's consistent performance throughout the 2003 season garnered five top-five and 13 top-10 finishes, along with one pole. He finished 13th in the final NASCAR Cup Series point standings.
As the 2004 Sprint Cup Series season came to a close at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, McMurray had recorded his best season to date. McMurray scored a seventh-place finish in the 400-mile season finale to earn his 23rd top-10 finish of the season. It was also his 12th top-10 finish in that season's last 14 races. McMurray finished the season 11th in points, and collected a check for $1 million for the points finish.
McMurray signed with Roush Racing midway through the 2005 season.
After finishing the season 12th in the points with one pole and 10 top-10 finishes, McMurray was set free from Ganassi for 2006 in the last month of the 2005 season.
For 2006, he joined Roush Racing to drive the No. 26 Ford, which used to be the No. 97 driven by Kurt Busch.
In 2007, McMurray gained his second career Sprint Cup Series victory. He started 15th in the Pepsi 400 and went to victory lane, beating Kyle Busch to the finish line. Additionally, McMurray won the pole at Infineon Raceway in June, and captured three top-fives and nine top-10s in 2007.
McMurray wasn't able to make it to victory lane in 2008 but the Ford driver had a solid season in the COT's first full-time year in Cup competition and ended the year on a high note. All four of McMurray's top-five finishes came in the season's last six races. In fact, he posted three consecutive top-three finishes to finish out the year 16th in the standings. That points finish was his best to date for Roush Racing.
