Great Story Would Be Joplin Native McMurray Winning Coca-Cola 600

I always love the sentimental approach to handicapping games where sometimes teams get up a little more when having a heavy heart. I use it quite often in football and basketball. Jamie McMurray is a Joplin, Missouri native who will definitely have a lot on his mind. Will he be able to focus in a normal capacity or will he be pre-occupied like many of us might be in the same situation?

The combination of what happened at Joplin and how well McMurray has done over his career could be a positive situation on the track. Two of his six careers wins, his first and last win, have come at Charlotte. Last season he was runner-up in this race and then won the fall event.

The only problem in the whole equation is that McMurray’s car looks no where near the 2010 level. He’s bringing the chassis from last week which was horrendous in practice and the race itself. I will be rooting for McMurray to do well in hopes of maybe bringing some joy to his hometown, but it’s more likely that he’ll perform poorly based on his teams’ recent trends.