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Jamie McMurray ‘just wanted to survive’ Talladega, finishes second

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Jamie McMurray explains his performance in the Geico 500 and why his goals at Talladega were different than other races.

On the last lap of the Geico 500, Jamie McMurray created a hole where there hadn’t been one when he forced his way betweenKyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson to get into second place.

With Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in his sights, McMurray gunned for his first Cup win since the fall 2013 race at the 2.66-mile speedway.

“I didn’t even know how McMurray got to the middle off of Turn 2,” Busch said. “I was on the outside of (Johnson), and he just muscled us right on through there ... must be all those Big Macs.”

McMurray’s run down the backstretch set up his best finish in a Cup race since the fall 2015 race at Martinsville. Then, he finished second to Jeff Gordon as he claimed his final career win.

On Sunday, he finished second as Stenhouse earned his first.

It was McMurray’s first top five of the year and his fourth top 10.

“I thought (Stenhouse) was going to pull out farther than he did,” McMurray told Fox. “This has been a really good track for me. I haven’t been able to finish here the last couple of years. ... It’s interesting, because in years past I thought this was a track you could win at and gain great points. And we’ve run so well at so many tracks this year, this is the track I just wanted to survive at so we could go to another track.”

McMurray is now fifth in the points, four spots behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Kyle Larson.