Jamie McMurray, on all accounts, had a more than decent weekend at Martinsville Speedway in the Sprint Cup Series.

McMurray qualified inside the Top-5 and brought the car home virtually without a scratch in eighth to score the top finish among all Roush Fenway Racing drivers.

That's how it was supposed to be when McMurray signed the contract with Roush a few years ago -- Jamie would become a household NASCAR name among the top stars of the sport.

Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.

There's hardly anything to not like about Jamie McMurray. That's true, at least, if you don't despise Jeff Gordon.

McMurray's background on the short tracks of the midwest prepared him for his NASCAR career, and when he scored his first-career win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in his second-career race, the future couldn't have been brighter.

After flirting with making the Chase with Chip Ganassi Racing, McMurray was viewed as one of those drivers that could make it over the hump with quality equipment.

Roush Fenway brought that equipment, but the results haven't panned out. A combination of Roush and Ford falling behind for the past 2 years in the Sprint Cup Series didn't help his cause, but McMurray has had nothing short of a revolving door atop the pit box during that time.

McMurray, despite picking up a dramatic restrictor-plate, Michael Waltrip-style, victory at Daytona in 2007, just simply hasn't lived up to his billing.

H/T to Jayski on this one.

Roush Fenway Racing hosted its annual stop on the NASCAR Media Tour Thursday afternoon, but one of the Ford team's top drivers wasn't anywhere to be found. And lucky for him, this wasn't a mandatory post-race interview.

Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford for Roush Fenway, decided he had better things to do -- like not going to jail -- rather than attend the meet & greet media function. Yeah, McMurray was serving his civic duty as a juror in his now-home area of Iredell County.

Like always, McMurray sounded pretty upbeat about the process in the news release from the team:

"I can't believe that I'm going to miss the media tour this year," said McMurray. "Instead of being the driver of the #26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, I'm Juror #7 at the Iredell County Courthouse, after being selected for jury duty earlier this week.

"So rather than joining my teammates at Roush Fenway Racing this afternoon, I'll be at the courthouse serving my civic duty. I'm looking forward to returning to Daytona in a couple weeks and hope to catch up with all the media when I get there.

Now, if I'm McMurray, I don't know if I'm telling the whole world my specific juror number in a specific courthouse. That would concern me as an average person, much less someone of McMurray's fame. There's far too many weird people in the world in my book.

It is cool, though, to see that Jamie has no problem with serving on a jury. You'd think there would be multiple ways for McMurray to first avoid the interview process, but also to avoid being selected.

And heck, you just don't see famous people in a local court room on good terms everyday. Way to go Jamie.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 17th-place Jamie McMurray.

Driver: Jamie McMurray -- Joplin, Missouri
Team: No. 26 Crown Royal Ford
Points: 17th (-3167)
2006: Finished 25th in Season Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 1 pole, 3 Top-5s, 9 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Jamie McMurray did something in 2007 that he hadn't accomplished since his 2nd-career race in 2002.

Win a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points-paying race.

McMurray captured a thrilling win at the Pepsi 400 in July at Daytona International Speedway. McMurray's Crown Royal Ford Fusion slid just in front of Kyle Busch at the stripe to his first race ever with his Roush-Fenway Racing team. McMurray's first-career win came in Charlotte in '02 with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Despite the win, McMurray had his second-worst season ever in terms of Top-10 finishes. Just 9 times did the high-profile team find its way to the Top-10 at the end of the 36-race season. Compared to his career-low in 2006 with 7 Top-10s it's an improvement until you realize McMurray had 23 of those Top-10s in 2004.

I don't think I could ever pick Kasey Kahne to win at Bristol after seeing him crash out of his first Nextel Cup race at the track during his rookie season. Needless to say, Kahne was so shook up from the experience that he was literally shaking on camera.

Friday night, though, he apparently found a good way to calm down.

Kahne won the pole for Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway with a lap of 16.016 seconds, or 119.805 mph.

Juan Pablo Montoya will line up on his outside with Jamie McMurray, David Ragan and Dave Blaney rounding out the top-5. Virginia-native Ward Burton dropped a nice lap and will start 14th.

Bristol just got a facelift over the summer with a brand-new concrete repaving job, and it really set back the lap times at the track. Jeff Gordon won the pole at BMS in April with a lap 125.453 mph in the first Car of Tomorrow race, obviously much quicker than Kahne's lap.

Slower speeds, though, could add up to better race Saturday night with more side-by-side racing because cars are more even.

As if Bristol really needs to get any better though.

The race to the Chase for the Nextel Cup is well under way and the points margins are narrowing as the stakes get higher with each passing race. Following each race on the the road to the Chase, the Fanhouse takes a look at the week's biggest winners and losers.

Standings following the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway:

7. +2 Jimmie Johnson
8. -- Kyle Busch
9. -1 Kevin Harvick
10. -- Clint Bowyer
11. -- Martin Truex Jr.
12. +1 Kurt Busch

13. -1 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
14. -- Ryan Newman
15. +1 Greg Biffle
16. +1 Mark Martin
17. -1 Jamie McMurray

Biggest Winners
Kurt Busch again. As predicted, he has passed Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jimmie Johnson also had a great week regaining the two positions previously lost with a top 5 finish.

Biggest Losers
Ryan Newman's good run and solid 7th-place finish didn't do a thing for his points situation given the other Chase contenders good performances.

Despite a 2nd place finish, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell to the unlucky 13th position with a 7-point differential. It's not much, but for some drivers that could affect the psyche. I don't anticipate that happening to Junior, but something's gotta give for him to make the Chase. Will it be his teammate?

Five more races to go and over 20,000 points to go around. Please stand by.

The race to the Chase for the Nextel Cup is well under way and the points margins are narrowing as the stakes get higher with each passing race. Following each race on the the road to the Chase, the Fanhouse will take a look at the week's biggest winners and losers.

Race to the Chase Standings after the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard:

7. +1 Kevin Harvick
8. +1 Kyle Busch
9. -2 Jimmie Johnson
10. -- Clint Bowyer
11. -- Martin Truex Jr.
12. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.

13. +1 Kurt Busch
14. -1 Ryan Newman
15. -- Jamie McMurray
16. -- Greg Biffle
17. +1 Mark Martin

Biggest Winner
Kurt Busch - All he had to do this week to gain momentum in the race to the Chase simply finish the race and capitalize on the misfortune of the two drivers in front of him impeding his way to the top 12. Check.

Biggest Losers
Dale Earnhardt Jr. - He led several laps and was looking at a top 5 finish when the engine blew on the #8 Bud Chevy. Junior didn't fall to the 13th spot this week, but the unlucky break cut his 30-point cushion inside the top 12 to 13 points.

Ryan Newman - He was already dropping fast in the opening laps today when he spun into the wall and retired from the race, giving up the 13th position to Busch and distancing himself further from the Chase.

It's only one race since we posted them, but so far it looks like the Fanhouse was right on the money assigning better Chase odds for Busch, than Earnhardt and Newman.

The first three of ten races to the chase are in the books, but the chase picture hasn't become much clearer since the Fanhouse posted its Race to the Chase Power Rankings prior to New Hampshire.

Barring multiple, unpredictable and unforeseeable crash and burn scenarios, the top seven drivers in the points standings are most assuredly guaranteed a spot in the 2007 Chase to the Nextel Cup Championship:

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Matt Kenseth
4. Jeff Burton
5. Carl Edwards
6. Tony Stewart
7. Jimmie Johnson

The five remaining spots will be given away in a game of musical chairs to be played by 10 drivers over the next seven races:

8. Kevin Harvick 9. Kyle Busch 10. Clint Bowyer 11. Martin Truex Jr. 12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

13. Ryan Newman 14. Kurt Busch 15. Jamie McMurray 16. Greg Biffle 17. Casey Mears

Fanhouse odds
The Fanhouse doesn't expect too many upsets, so while it's not yet set in stone, what we see in the top 12 now is pretty close to what we're gonna get at the end of seven more weeks.

Kevin Harvick (1:1) - With the exception of his Daytona 500 win, Harvick has had a fairly uneventful season. If he can maintain the status quo, he'll have a spot in the Chase.

Kyle Busch (2:1) - As long as he doesn't do anything crazy, like quit Hendrick in the next seven weeks, Shrub should be a shoe in.

Casey Mears posted Friday's top qualifying lap at Chicagoland Speedway to take the pole for Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400.

Mears start at the front will be the eighth time this season that a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has started from that position. Jeff Gordon, who starts 11th, tallied the other seven, including five official poles.

The remaining events had qualifying rained out, thus the field was started by owner points.

The pole was the third of Mears' career in a season that has seen a steady rise since a rough start -- capitalized by his win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. He starts Sunday's race 19th in points after hovering on the top-35 bubble before Charlotte.

"That's sleight of hand."

"No, it's magic."

Regardless, for Jamie McMurray on Saturday night at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, it was the right stuff.

McMurray edged Kyle Busch in the second-closest NASCAR finish on record.

Winning for the first time since his triumph at Lowe's in 2002 -- 166 races ago -- McMurray became the third Roush driver to win this season when it looked like Chevrolet was the sure bet in the closing laps.

The last five races at New Hampshire International Speedway have been won by five different drivers, as have the last five July races. Add the COT to the mix and it's anybody's guess who wins this weekend. Instead, we're going to look at who holds the power heading into the first of ten races to the chase.

1. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Except for having babies, this pair does everything together. Too bad for them there aren't two Nextel Cups. Their mission: to out race each other for the most wins--without their crew chiefs--to be the top seeded driver in the chase.
2. Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart. Together they have racked up eight top 5 finishes and 21 top 10s and have led a combined 1,322 laps. But neither has been able to find victory lane yet this season. Their mission: to make a few of their led laps count.