James: Chip Ganassi Racing comes up short in Chase

DOVER, Del. – Chip Ganassi Racing has enjoyed a solid 18 months on the race track.

Scott Dixon won the 2015 IndyCar title. In Ford’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time in 50 years, Ganassi won the Le Mans GTE Pro class championship.

And this fall, for the first time, the organization placed two drivers – veteran Jamie McMurray and third-year racer Kyle Larson – into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Sunday didn't contribute to the legacy, however.

Pursuit of a first Sprint Cup title ended unceremoniously at Dover International Speedway as both McMurray and Larson sustained mechanical woes to be expelled from the 10-race playoffs after the first elimination event. Still, team owner Chip Ganassi seemed to be trying to find positives through the disappointment after patting Larson on the arm following the race.

Truex wins again; Larson, McMurray, Stewart, Buescher eliminated from Chase

“Obviously, it’s been a better year for our team but it’s disappointing to be out in the first round,” said Ganassi, who has won 17 championships in open wheel and sports cars, but none in NASCAR since launching a program in 2001. “We still have good cars and we still got a good team. We just had sort of a confluence of all events today that didn’t help us.”

Larson entered the race holding the 12th and final transfer spot by five points over McMurray and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon but sustained an electrical problem and subsequent penalty for too many men over the wall to finish 25th. Dillon advanced.

McMurray’s engine expired midway through the race, relegating him to a 39th-place finish and ending his hopes of advancement.

Still, McMurray said, it will not be hard to push through the final seven races of the season.

“It’s really hard when you run bad,” he said. “The fact we’ve run so well and been very consistent, you’ll have things like this happen. It’s frustrating when it happens at this point when you can’t really afford to have anything go wrong, but Hendrick motors have been pretty amazing for the last five years we’ve had them. I think I’ve only had two motor failures, they’ve just both happened in the Chase.

"The most frustrating part of the sport is to run bad. The fact we’ve run so well, you’ll just have things like that happen. Nobody’s down. We’re frustrated. Bad that we’re stuck here watching the race, but having good cars is what it’s really all about.” 

Larson was left wondering what he could take away to prepare for a return to the Chase.

“Oh, I don’t know. Find some good juju,” he said. “We had bad luck at Chicago. We probably lost 12 points in Chicago with the right front failure. That right there; and then today’s bad luck and all the bad luck I’ve had in my career. I don’t know what I’ve got to do. But we’ll stay positive. We’ll come back next year and go for a championship. Our team came a long way this year from where we started the season.”

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames