Cessna/Mcdonald's Team Endures at Charlotte For

Results (with starting position) from the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway 1. (3) Edwards, No. 19 Toyota 2. (4) Biffle, No. 16 Ford 3. (15) Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet SS 19. (22) No. 1 Cessna/McDonald’s Chevrolet SS (McMurray) 25. (9) No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS (Larson) Cessna/McDonald’s Team Endures at Charlotte for 19th Place Finish The Coca-Cola 600, which is the longest race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) schedule, is the annual series stop for Memorial Day weekend. Jamie McMurray and the No. 1 Cessna/McDonald’s team looked to wrap up two weekends of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, billed “10 Days of Thunder”, with a strong run. The No. 1 Chevy started from the 22nd position and finished the 400-lap race with a 19th place result. Jamie McMurray, making his 450th career NSCS start on Sunday in the season’s longest race, experienced a car that seemed to change considerably racing from late afternoon into the cooler evening temperatures. Crew chief Matt McCall and the No. 1 team worked tirelessly to manage the balance. Unfortunately McMurray lost a lap to the leaders on a long green-flag run and was never able to regain position on the lead lap to make a run to the front and settled for a 19th-place finish. With his finish, McMurray maintained his eighth place ranking in the NSCS point standings. NOTES OF INTEREST • This was McMurray’s 450th career NSCS start at the same track where he captured his first NSCS victory in 2002 • The Coca-Cola 600 was slowed by caution eight times for 39 laps CGRFS Quoteboard: Jamie McMurray – No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS: – “Tough night for our Cessna/McDonald’s team. We had a difficult time finding the balance on the car tonight with the changing track conditions racing from day into night. The guys on pit road worked hard and gave it all we had. We were hoping to stretch the fuel mileage at the end and pick up a few spots, but too many others did the same thing”. Handling Issues Result in 25th Place Finish for Larson On the biggest racing weekend of the year, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) was at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) for the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600. As teams prepared for the 400-lap event, the Target crew steadily made improvements on Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet SS, and looked poised for a strong race starting from the ninth position. However, after a good start, Larson began to experience handling issues that would persist throughout the race and result in a 25th place finish. To start the weekend, the Target Chevy showed good speed in the initial practice session, which later would help Larson transfer to the final round during qualifying and earn a ninth place starting position for the race. It was the ninth time this season that Larson has transferred to the final round of qualifying, and the seventh time he has qualified inside the top-10. Although the penultimate practice provided some challenges for the team, the Target Chevy again showed good long run speeds in the final practice session leading up to Sunday’s 600-mile endeavor. Larson initially got off to a good start as the race got underway, but would begin to experience handling issues shortly before the competition caution was shown on Lap 25. The crew made adjustments during the first pit stop to improve the car, which provided some help, but handling issues would continue to trouble Larson throughout the race and adjustments continued to be made. Larson would ultimately finish the race two laps down in 25th place. With the finish, Larson remains 22nd in the NSCS driver point standings. NOTES OF INTEREST: • The caution flag was shown eight times for a total of 39 laps • The lead changed 22 times among nine drivers • The race took just over four hours to run TCGRFS QUOTEBOARD Kyle Larson – No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS – “Tonight’s race was pretty frustrating for our team. We worked hard from the first practice to get the car better for the race, but tonight wasn’t our night. Initially, we started off alright, but fell back kind of early and just didn’t have what we needed as the race progressed. It’s not the kind of race we want to have, and we’ll keep working hard to earn better finishes for Team Target.” NSCS teams will run the FedEx 400 Benefitting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway next Sunday, May 31. FOX Sports 1, Sirius XM NASCAR Channel 90 and MRN Radio will have live coverage at 1:00 p.m. ET. About Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Chip Ganassi has been a fixture in the auto racing industry for over 25 years and is considered one of the most successful as well as innovative owners the sport has anywhere in the world. Today his teams include four cars in the Verizon IndyCar Series, two cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and one Prototype in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Overall his teams have 17 championships and over 160 victories, including four Indianapolis 500s, a Daytona 500, a Brickyard 400, six Rolex 24 At Daytonas and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Ganassi boasts state-of-the-art race shop facilities in Indianapolis and Brownsburg, Ind. and Concord, N.C., with a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Pa. For more information log onto chipganassiracing.com .

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