With no 2010 ride, McMurray picks good time to win

TALLADEGA - Jamie McMurray picked an opportune time to earn his third career victory.

Despite snapping an 86-race winless streak with a victory in the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, McMurray finds himself in the unenviable position of not knowing where he will be driving next season. McMurray hopes his win will make him a hot commodity among NASCAR's free agents.

"Well, certainly being able to win is not going to hurt my chances at getting another ride," McMurray said.

"There's not a lot of rides available right now. I think everybody knows what rides are out there. If a sponsor were to call me, that would make it a lot easier with the amount of teams that re shutting down."

NASCAR has capped the number of full-time teams that owners can field at four, and heading into to 2009, the Roush-Fenway Racing stable was made up of five teams - McMurray's No. 26, David Ragan's No. 6, Matt Kenseth's No. 17, and Carl Edwards' No. 99.

The bottom line is that someone was going to lose their ride, and unfortunately for McMurray, he was the one left on the outside looking in. McMurray's fate was sealed when Kenseth's longtime sponsor DeWalt Tools announced that it would leave at the end of this season.

McMurray's sponsors - Irwin and Crown Royal - will shift to the No. 17, leaving the 26 unsponsored and making McMurray's ride the obvious choice for contraction.

McMurray has been rumored to be moving to the No. 1 Bass ProShops Chevy owned by Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. That ride is being vacated by Martin Truex Jr. at season's end.

"For me, I just hope that we can get it signed and announce it whenever they want to so that it will make it a little bit easier to sleep at night."

Johnson takes commanding points lead

With three races to go in the 2009 Chase for the Cup, Jimmie Johnson has all-but wrapped up an unprecedented fourth consecutive points championship. Johnson intentionally ran in the back all day Sunday before picking off a few positions late in the race.

The Lowe's Chevy managed to miss the two late race pileups to finish sixth. Johnson's closest competition, Hendrick Racing teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, were each caught up in the Big One on lap 189.

Despite leading seven laps to Johnson's zero, Martin ended up on his hood and was saddled with a 28th-place finish, while Gordon caught enough damage to relegate him to 20th after a strong run in the top 5 almost all day.

Johnson now holds a 184-point lead over Martin and 192-point advantage over Gordon heading into this week's race at Texas Motorspeedway.

"I am good with that," Johnson said. "That is a good number."

Fans getting seating upgrade, price break

Track officials announced major changes coming to Talladega Superspeedway. Beginning immediately, work will commence on a two-phase, $13-million grandstand renovation project. According to a press release provided by track officials, more than half of the speedway's seats will be replaced with wider seats and larger aisles in time for the Aaron's Dream Weekend in April, 2010, and remaining work will be completed by the fall race, set for October 31, 2010.

In addition to the seating upgrades, the track will be lowering ticket prices for several sections. Single-day seats in several towers were reduced to $95 from $120, and prices for two-day tickets in the Allison Grandstands will be dropped from $60 to $49.