McMurray hoping to end streak

The racer is winless in 125 races.
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Jamie McMurray's wait for his second career win is taking a whole lot longer than it took for him to drive into Victory Lane the first time.
With a winless streak stretching 125 races, a new team and a crew chief shake-up, McMurray has yet to fulfill the promise of his blazing start when he won a Cup race in only his second career outing.
"Making the Chase would be a huge deal for me because I've been so close, but I would give up making the Chase to win some races," McMurray said. "It's been so long since I've won."
Near-instant success
Much longer than any racing pundit would have predicted after McMurray subbed for an injured Sterling Marlin four years ago and won at Lowe's Motor Speedway in only his second race, becoming the quickest winner in NASCAR's modern era.
When the wins dried up and a spot in the Chase never materialized, McMurray made the jump from embattled Chip Ganassi Racing to Roush Racing to take over the car Kurt Busch drove to the 2004 Nextel Cup championship.
McMurray acknowledges he expected an instant boon this season with the move. Instead, he found success no easier to achieve than he did at Ganassi. He routinely started in the back of the field and had two 37th-place finishes and a 35th in the first seven races.
"We've had a lot of small things go wrong this year," he said.
With McMurray off to a sluggish start, owner Jack Roush ordered a risky shake-up designed to jump-start the struggling team. Bob Osborne, who found success as Carl Edwards' crew chief, took over McMurray's team after the driver never seemed comfortable working with crew chief Jimmy Fennig.
Getting closer
So far, the move has paid off, capped by last week's second-place finish at Dover. McMurray hopes to keep the momentum going into today's race at Pocono.
"It just seems that maybe the communication is a little bit better with Bob and myself throughout the race," McMurray said. "The 48 car showed last week that if you don't start out good, that there's a possibility you might make your car better throughout the race."
McMurray has climbed in the standings to 15th place, 590 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and 151 points out of 10th. McMurray also qualified in the top 10 for the second straight week, starting eighth in today's Pocono 500.
One other good sign: Osborne led Edwards to a win on the triangle track last season.
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