McMurray win brings triple crown

Jamie McMurray’s surprise win in NASCAR’s season-opening Daytona 500 means Chip Ganassi joins Roger Penske as the only other team owner to win each of the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and Daytona 24 Hours.

McMurray drives a Chevrolet this year for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, the product of a 2008 merger between Ganassi’s NASCAR team and Dale Earnhardt Inc. For the past four years McMurray has driven for Roush-Fenway Racing, but he rejoined Ganassi (for whom he had driven previously) last winter. He is teamed this year with Juan Pablo Montoya.

Ganassi won the Indy 500 with Montoya in 2000 and again with Scott Dixon in 2008. His Grand-Am team also won the Rolex 24 Hours three times from 2006-08. Penske’s team has scored 15 Indy 500 wins, of course. He also won the Daytona 24 Hours back in 1969 with Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons, and took his first and only Daytona 500 win with Ryan Newman in 2008.