CUP: McMurray Talks Acting, Fishing And Emotional Trip To Joplin

Sprint Cup

CUP: McMurray Talks Acting, Fishing And Emotional Trip To Joplin

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver Jamie McMurray discusses life both at and away from the track...

SceneDaily.com | Posted December 20, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Jamie McMurray endured a difficult 2011 season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Article by Michael J. Fresina, SceneDaily.com

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the September issue of NASCAR Illustrated

In 2010, Jamie McMurray was one of only five drivers to win three or more races, but McMurray was the only one of those drivers not to earn a Chase spot.

Inconsistency, mixed with a little misfortune, relegated the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 winner to an outsider’s view as Jimmie Johnson went on to win his fifth straight championship.

Inconsistency – even misfortune – is nothing new for the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver. Let go by Roush Fenway Racing, McMurray’s career looked as though it might be over at the end of 2009.

Reunited with team owner Chip Ganassi, a resurgent McMurray staged a comeback.

The 2011 season produced little of last year’s magic. The highs and lows were replaced by mid-pack racing and poor finishes.

McMurray is resilient and will soldier on, knowing his next triumph is likely waiting just out of sight around another bend in a career that has seen more than its share of bumpy stretches.

Off the track, the soft-spoken and affable McMurray is a family man and father, a fisherman and reluctant actor. And, in the wake of the tornado that destroyed his Joplin, Mo., hometown last year, McMurray is also a committed rebuilder of decimated structures and lost hope.

Starring in commercials to sell sponsors’ products and services has become as common and necessary for today’s NASCAR stars as taking practice laps.

On a steamy day in May, NASCAR Illustrated tagged along as McMurray and professional fisherman Kevin VanDam put in a long day shooting several commercials for their shared sponsor, Bass Pro Shops.

The second of a two-day production schedule had Austin Dillon, McMurray and VanDam on set (primarily a dock on Lake Norman, N.C.) from 11 a.m. until well after the sun dipped below the horizon.

“There is a lot of standing around, waiting to do something,” McMurray says. “Then you have to do it over and over. Last year, the first time Kevin and I did this stuff together, we both got kind of annoyed.”

“When they tell you to do a million takes of a single shot, the frustration sets in,” VanDam says. “Having someone there, like Jamie, who is such a great guy with a great sense of humor, makes it much easier.”

This was McMurray and VanDam’s second year working together.

“We should be getting better at it, but we’re not actors,” VanDam says. “When they ask us to vary our inflection or the expression on our faces, it’s like, ‘Huh?’”

“The director was really good. He knows we’re not actors,” McMurray says. “We would say a line and instead of asking us to say it differently or with a certain kind of emotion, he knows that the way we say it the first time is probably what he’s going to get. It’s like, ‘Look, that’s how I say it.’ Asking me to try it ‘as if it’s raining’ means nothing to me – unless it’s raining.

“Kevin and I laugh about it a lot because there is the director, who gets it; the agency, which has a vision; and the two of us, who are not actors. There seems to be a constant struggle.”

Like TV shows and movies, commercials are almost always shot out of sequence and seem disjointed and choppy, even to the participants, actors and crew.

For VanDam and McMurray, the payoff comes weeks later when they get to see the final product.

“It’s really rewarding to see how they can take something that made no sense at all when we were filming it, with lots of takes and one-liners, and turn into something so polished, seamless and cool,” McMurray says.

“It’s awesome to see the commercials when they’re done,” VanDam says. “The fans seem to love them. That’s most important. Commercials provide great exposure, but only if people like them and don’t flip the channel when they come on.”

McMurray likes that the Bass Pro commercials are usually funny, but don’t try too hard for the big laugh. On this day, they shot a scene in which McMurray’s Earnhardt Ganassi crew sprints down the dock and jumps in the water to service the boat, like a pit stop. A “dock stop,” they called it.

“There is nothing worse than watching someone try to be funny and not be funny,” McMurray says. “The Bass Pro guys get it right more often than not and don’t cross that line into cheesy.”

Fish Tale

When McMurray landed Bass Pro Shops as his primary sponsor for 2010, people questioned if the preppy guy whose most recent obsession seemed to be golf, was “outdoorsy” enough. For his part, McMurray couldn’t have been happier. Though hunting, a big share of Bass Pro’s business, had never been his passion, fishing is.

“I used to fish a lot as a kid,” he says. “That’s what my dad and I used to do together, how we spent our time.”

For McMurray, representing the outdoor equipment and camping company has delivered a treasure trove of amazing opportunities to fish and enjoy nature.

In fact, McMurray says the sponsorship may prove a bigger boon for his father, Jim.

“He’s retired now and likes to fish every single day,” McMurray says. “With this Bass Pro deal, he’s like a professional angler who doesn’t get paid!”

McMurray is often paired – for commercials, appearances and events – with VanDam, seven-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

“Jamie loves to fish and is actually pretty good,” VanDam says. “He asks a ton of questions, and is a quick study and very competitive.”

During a break in the commercial shoot, McMurray and VanDam took a boat to a nearby cove and tried to outdo each other.

“I actually caught something,” McMurray says. “Not a fish, really, more like bait for a bigger fish. But he didn’t catch anything!”

Despite beating VanDam 1-0 that day, McMurray has tremendous respect for VanDam and knows how difficult it is to make a living as a professional angler – as a professional athlete of any kind.

“You know, people watch NASCAR on TV and think, ‘That’s not really hard. They’re just driving cars. I can do that.’ Or when you watch Kevin VanDam fish, it’s just fishing, right? Then, go out and try to do what they do on that level and it’s a whole different deal.”

When the analytical McMurray fishes with VanDam, he picks the angler’s brain and VanDam enthusiastically explains every little detail from different ways to cast to different equipment and even the kind of sunglasses he uses for different weather, different water.

“It’s crazy the level of expertise it takes to make a living at something others do as a hobby,” McMurray says. “I am always left thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh. There’s a reason he wins all those tournaments.’”

“Being a professional in any sport requires very specific skills and talents,” VanDam says. “I’ve fished with athletes from just about every sport and can tell you that each one realizes at some point during the day that fishing the way we do, is harder than it looks. But by the same token, if you put me in their environment, on the track, a court or field to compete with them, it would be a disaster.”

McMurray says, “In racing, you can be a great driver, but without a great team, you’ll never win. In fishing, it’s really just you. Ability is your tool, your weapon, your meal ticket. It’s incredible.”

For McMurray, competing with VanDam on the lake is a perk of his association with Bass Pro Shops, but what he’s most looking forward to is some low-key fishing with his son, Carter.

“It will be right off the dock, not some big trip,” he says. “We’ll get some tackle together and just enjoy being together. Fishing isn’t always about catching fish. It’s about being with your family.”

My Hometown

Jamie McMurray visited Joplin, Mo., earlier this year hoping to lift the spirits of residents affected by a deadly tornado. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

On Sunday, May 20, 2011, the deadliest U.S tornado in 60 years ripped through McMurray’s hometown, Joplin, Mo. The tornado, which cut a swath more than seven miles wide through the center of Joplin and scattered debris up to 70 miles away, killed more than 150 people and damage estimates were as high as $3 billion.

The destruction of the city where he was raised had a profound impact on McMurray.

NASCAR Illustrated asked him to share, in his own words, his recollection of hearing the news and his feelings as the enormity of the tragedy became clear.

“I heard about the tornado when I got an email from a member of the media asking if my family was OK, that a tornado had gone through Joplin. I hadn’t heard anything about the tornado and, frankly, you live in that part of the country, you get kind of used to tornadoes.

“I decided to turn on the Weather Channel to see if anything was being reported and was stunned. It was like, ‘Oh, man. I get it now.’

“I immediately called my mom. She doesn’t live there anymore, but still has friends and very close ties to the community.

“She received a phone call from one of her friends who said, ‘I’m in the closet now. It’s here.’ She was panicked.

“People don’t get panicked in that part of the country when a tornado [warning] comes through because it happens all the time. When you cry wolf so much, people don’t get scared. For my mom’s friend to be scared, we knew it was bad.

“I stayed glued to the TV and when they started showing the footage from St. John’s Hospital, which I know really well, I couldn’t figure out where anything was around it. It was all gone.

“It looked like a scene from a movie about the end of the world, like the camera was tricking my perspective. The bark was off the trees and there were little fires popping up everywhere. It was a wasteland.

“Unfortunately, it was all too real.

“Like a lot of Americans, when I saw the destruction of the Tuscaloosa, Ala., tornadoes [in April], I was like, ‘Man that’s really bad,’ but I didn’t give it a lot more thought.

“But when it happens in your hometown, and you see the devastating results on a place so familiar, that’s when you realize the magnitude of it all. That’s when it all started really shaking me up.

“I had a friend call and tell me, ‘Jamie, you can literally stand on one end of town and see the truck stop all the way on the other end of town.’ When I was a kid, you couldn’t see two blocks across town because of the buildings, homes and trees. Now, there is nothing there. He says people go out every day, look around and cry.

“The house I grew up in, which my parents bought in 1970, was destroyed. All that was really left was the front wall and the brick fireplace.

“When my mom sold that house, it tore me apart. I wanted the house to remain in the family. I thought, ‘I’m just going to buy it.’ Then I wondered what I would even do with it. I wanted it, but I took for granted that I could always go back and buy it later in life.

“Now, I think of the Miranda Lambert song, ‘The House that Built Me,’ about going home to visit the place where you are raised and experiencing the flood of memories she describes.

“I can’t do that. My house is gone. I can’t even walk through it.

“Joplin will rebound, however. It has to. Joplin is strong and its recovery began almost immediately. It had to.

“It will not, however, get back to where it was in my lifetime, but it will come back.

“Joplin is a really small town, but it is the hub of the entire region. It’s the place people go to shop, to work, to go to school. It’s the center of life for that part of Missouri. It sounds silly, but that’s where the mall is – or was, and will be again.

“I am committed to being a part of Joplin’s recovery. It’s too important to ignore.”

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