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McMurray feeling at home at EGR

Jamie McMurray says he is feeling more comfortable on his return to Chip Ganassi's NASCAR Sprint Cup team than he ever was during his time at Roush Fenway Racing

The 33-year-old won on his return to the squad in the season-openning Daytona 500 and came close to a second victory two weeks ago at Talladega, where he was narrowly edged in the end by Kevin Harvick.

McMurray spent four years driving for Jack Roush after three seasons with Ganassi, where he won for the first time in only his second race with the team. During his spell at Roush, he never managed to be a Chase contender but won twice, first at Daytona in the summer of 2007 and then at Talladega last autumn.

Ten races into the 2010 season, McMurray admitted to be feeling much more at home at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing than he ever felt at Roush, a team where he struggled to fit in.

"I just seem to be a lot more comfortable at EGR than my years at Roush," said McMurray. "That was a tough place to fit into. It's such a big organisation. They have so many great racecar drivers over there that it's kind of hard to find your place. I think coming back here, they build really fast cars. It's a lot different environment."

During his time at Roush, McMurray drove one of the five cars the organisation fielded, whereas at Ganassi he only shares the garage with Juan Pablo Montoya. He believes a tighter group and a closer relationship with Chip Ganassi is making the difference for him this year.

"It's a lot smaller environment, a lot more personal," said McMurray. "My relationship with Chip is a lot different than what I had with Jack. I think I only called Jack maybe three times in my four years of being there on the telephone.

"Typically it was something was wrong or I really needed to talk to him. I talk to Chip usually every Monday, then normally twice a week I talk to him. Sometimes we call and talk about racing, and sometimes we just talk about life, what's going on, just to say hi.

"My relationship with Chip is a lot different than with Jack. It's a completely different organisation. It's not quite as big. You know everybody here. I think it just kind of fits my personality probably a little bit better."

McMurray started the season as the points leader thanks to his Daytona 500 win, but he has been unable to stay consistently at the front and has dropped down in the standings since then, currently sitting in 19th spot. Despite that, he refuses to worry about putting too much emphasis on points.

"As soon as you're not the points leader, you start worrying about [points]," said McMurray. "But I don't think you can show up every single week and worry yourself about the points. When you show up at races, you show up to win and run as well as you can. If you don't get the finish, it doesn't do you any good to worry about the points or the Chase.

"I think everybody pays attention to that. If that's your number one goal, to worry about points, you're not really doing your job."

Despite his positions in the championship, McMurray currently leads all Sprint Cup Series drivers in season race winnings partly due to his Daytona victory, which earned him more than US $1.5 million.

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