Jamie McMurray’s Show Car - Up Close and Personal
Submitted from NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Well I went and did it, I went and saw the number 26 Jamie McMurray show car today. It was in town at two locations - one at the West End of the City and one at the East End. Even though I live closer to the East End location I went to the West End showing because it was earlier in the day, therefore I would be able to coach my son’s T-Ball Team tonight. As it turns out, it rained cats and dogs so the game was cancelled, and I would imagine they put the show car away early too. So, unlike the Tony Stewart autograph session that I missed, my luck today held out. 
I’ve been to a lot of show car appearances around this neck of the woods, and let me tell you I’ve seen some high calibre machines like the Dale Earnhardt collection (Wheaties, Olympic, Taz, Silver, Peter Max, Bass Pro Shops) and I’ve seen some pretty low calibre machines as well, like the Jeff Gordon show car that came to town just after he switched to his current flame job paint scheme. The Gordon car looked like somebody just ‘put it together’ thinking that since it had the 24 on the side everyone would oooh and awwwe about it - that didn’t happen, there were a lot of disappointed fans - but the car was junk. Unlike the Gordon car the RCR cars of Dale Earnhardt were nice pieces, every attention was given to detail - there was even a detail printed history of each car.
Today’s viewing of the Jamie McMurray car would fall closer to the Earnhardt cars than the Jeff Gordon car (don’t get me wrong here, I went and saw another Jeff Gordon car a year or so later and it was nice - I guess someone back Hendrick’s listened to all of the complaints from the Gordon fans who were disappointed in what they saw earlier)..
What makes the whole show car experience even better is when the person, or persons, who are in charge of displaying the show car know their stuff and are truly fans of the sport. Such was the case today. The guy, Paul from Just Marketing Int., who was displaying Jamie’s car was awesome, he knows his stuff and was very personable. The show car is slowly making it’s way across Ontario where it will end up in Montreal for the Aug. 3 & 4 Busch race.).
Anyway, let’s talk about the car. The car originally started life skinned as a #17 Dewalt Taurus built for Matt Kenseth. The car ‘fell out of Matt’s good graces’ and was ‘parked’ until Jamie came to Roush. Jamie tested it and liked it. He raced the car at Bristol that first year at Roush’s and hit the wall pretty hard. His crew were able to piece it back together and get him back out 87 laps later, which at Bristol, where they run 15 sec. laps, it is pretty quick work to get back out on the track after a wreck and only be 87 laps down. The car was taken back to the shop and during the rebuilding process, actually it was the tear-down process that precedes the rebuild, they found a significant hairline crack that compromised the integrity of the frame. The car was then placed on the show car circuit.
My one problem with the show car was that it was obviously a short track car, based on various things seen throughout the car and by what Paul told me of the history of the car, but when they re-skinned the car as a Ford Fusion they didn’t put any of the cuts into the front nose-piece to allow for the venting of the brakes and so on. When I looked under the car, most of the ducts and coolers were in place, butted up against a solid bumper with no screened hole cut out for ventilation.
Here is another bit of info that Paul told me that many of you might not have known - I certainly didn’t - the car Jamie just won in at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona was brought back to Roush/Fenway and place in Jack’s museum as is, and the back up car from that race was immediately placed on the show car circuit and will also be be in Montreal the weekend of the Busch race. As a matter of fact, the guy in charge of that show piece was called back off the road to drop his current show car off and to pick up that one for display. With no use for the super-speedway CoY, I can only assume that a lot of other teams are doing the same as Jack did with his - turning them into show cars, or selling them to ARCA etc..
When going to see a NASCAR show car, it is about the whole experience; seeing the car in detail, talking with knowledgeable presenter(s), getting some pretty good pictures, talking with other fans, and maybe getting a little swag, like a sticker or promo picture. All of these requirements were met, except seeing the car in detail part - but to the car’s credit, it wasn’t that bad, I’ve seen a heck of a lot worse passed off as show cars. If you get a chance to see it over the next few weeks as it makes its way to Montreal I recommend you do so, and don’t forget to talk with Paul, it’ll make your experience that much better.
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