INTERVIEW: McMurray previews his Chase

Somewhat overshadowed by his more popular teammate and his own restrained personality, no one is talking about Jamie McMurray as a dark horse Sprint Cup championship contender. But perhaps they should.

The 15-year veteran has enjoyed a remarkable second-half surge and has finished outside of the top 10 only thrice over the past nine races. That's good enough to contend for a spot in the championship race at Homestead, but no one is talking about it.

Instead, many have focused on his young teammate Kyle Larson following his first victory last month at Michigan, or the fact that McMurray didn't clinch a playoff berth until last weekend at Richmond. But McMurray has been much quicker as of late and is hoping to change the narrative during the firt round of the elimination format.

"I feel much better about the Chase this year," McMurray told RACER on Wednesday night. "We brought fast cars last year but really thought they would be better. We tested at Chicago with some of our upgrades and saw a real difference. I know some of the guys who won early haven't shown their hands but I really think we're going to be fast."

The 40-year-old earned his first playoff appearance last season but was eliminated in the first round. He went on to finish 13th in the overall championship. Combine that with a middling start to this season and folks are sleeping on his chances.

But he doesn't mind.

"Everyone is different," McMurray said. "I think some guys love the attention. They love the spotlight but I'm not that guy. I love racing. I love the competition. I try not to draw attention to myself. And if that means I end up under the radar, I'm okay with that."

This is the fastest Chip Ganassi Racing has looked in several seasons and McMurray credits the new cars the team started building over the summer. McMurray had only posted two top-10s through 13 races but has since earned seven more.

"At the start of the season, we ran 13th to 20th and that's where we would finish," McMurray said. "But that changed about eight weeks ago. We didn't go from 15th to contending for the win but slowly crept up on it. We've learned some things and and now we're third to seventh.

"Each weekend, we're bringing faster and faster cars and I think we're going to be even faster this weekend."