| After a six-year absence, Jamie McMurray is back. The Joplin native on July 19, 2008 will be racing in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR, the 21st race on the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. He is returning to the Gateway International Raceway (GIR) in Madison, IL, a track just minutes from downtown St. Louis where he made his final appearance finishing eighth. Joining him will be his Roush Fenway Racing teammates, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; fellow NASCAR Spring Cup Series competitors, Clint Boyer and David Reutimann and Joe Gibb's Racing teen phenom, Joey Logano.
McMurray, a two-time Sprint Cup Series winner, in 2000 got his start in Foristell, MO, a straight shot west from GIR down I-70, at the race shop of Mike Mittler and his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team, MB Motorsports. He made 15 total starts in a truck owned by Mittler over the next two seasons. In all, the 32-year old has 24 starts in that series and is one of only a handful of drivers with wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Truck Series.
In 2002 McMurray made history when, filling in for the injured Sterling Marlin, he took his Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge to victory lane at Lowe's Motor Speedway in only his second career NASCAR Cup Series start. That same year he ran the full season in what was then the NASCAR Busch Series, winning races at Rockingham and Atlanta and finishing sixth overall in the series' final points standings.
"It's been a long time since I raced at Gateway and I'm really looking forward to coming back," McMurray said. "I made a lot of great friends there and learned a lot driving for Mike Mittler. I still talk to him when I see him at the track and look forward to seeing him in St. Louis. It will be great to come back to such a challenging track and hopefully, I can put the No. 17 CitiFinancial Fusion in victory lane in front of a hometown crowd."
McMurray, who celebrated his birthday on June 3, is coming off a strong top-10 performance recently at Dover International Speedway. He made his 200th-career Cup Series start at Pocono on June 8.
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