Jamie McMurray finished 40th on Saturday at Richmond. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

McMurray out again; new experience for Gordon

Neither driver will compete for 2005 Nextel Cup championship

RICHMOND, Va. -- For Jamie McMurray, it's Groundhog Day.

For NASCAR, it's A Nightmare on Elm Street.

For the second consecutive year, Jamie McMurray ends the regular season on the outside looking in at the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

	Jeff Gordon finished 30th on Saturday at Richmond. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray head-to-head in 2005 Driver Wins Top-5s Top-10s Gordon 3 5 9 McMurray 0 4 8 NOTE: Both drivers have 2,972 points after 25 races this season. Bubble troubleEdwards gets wrecked and McMurray's day ends No drive for fiveJeff Gordon's ill-handling car gets knocked into the wall Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

For the first time, NASCAR will see if its 10-race playoff system will draw fans sans the allure of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, who fell from Chase contention after hitting the wall on Lap 211 of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 on Saturday night.

Earnhardt Jr. already was out of the Chase picture after finishing 38th at California one week ago.

McMurray entered Richmond with a one-point advantage over Ryan Newman but could not fend off the No. 12 car's in-race charge. McMurray finished 40th; Newman was 11th and clinched 10th place -- the final playoff berth -- by 69 points over Elliott Sadler.

"You have 25 other races to try to makes it into [the Chase]," McMurray said, "and we just didn't run well enough in those.

"I could see Ryan ahead of me all night and we had to beat him; we just couldn't get there."

On Lap 363, McMurray was running 13th but he spun on the backstretch, slammed the inside wall and was done for the night. He ended the regular season 13th in the standings, tied with Gordon at 2,972 points, 83 out of the Chase.

"The No. 37 [Tony Raines] ran into me after the caution came out," McMurray said of the spin-and-crash that ended his night prematurely. "There's a reason that guy doesn't have a ride, and I guess he showed that [Saturday night].

"[Raines] was in the way all night. He just couldn't get out of the way. He tried, but I don't know what he was racing for or how many laps down he even was."

Last year, McMurray missed the Chase by 15 points.

"It's frustrating because you want to be in the Chase," he said, "but we just haven't run as well as we did last year.

"We fought all night and I could see Ryan four or five cars ahead of me most of the time. I had to hope that someone shoved him up out of the groove or something on one of the restarts."

However, when the dust settled, McMurray's team would look no further than bonus points to find the key reason why he again will race for 11th place -- and a $1 million bonus -- during the final 10 weeks. Through 26 races, Newman racked up 65 bonus points, while McMurray had five.

McMurray was 32nd after the season-opening Daytona 500, but fought back to a career-high seventh in points after the Pepsi 400 in July.

"You want to win so bad and we've got all the tools," McMurray said. "We just can't seem to get it put together this year.

"There's a lot worse things going on right now than me not making the Chase. Everybody needs to think about those people and not me right now."

For his part, Raines said McMurray's aggressiveness was paramount to the wreck on Lap 363.

"I don't know what Jamie was thinking or doing," Raines said. "He was driving kind of aggressive all night. I think I had less to do with the outcome of the Chase than he did."

As for the other drivers who entered Saturday night with a mathematical chance to make the Chase, pole-sitter Kevin Harvick led 167 laps and finished 10th, Sadler was 17th, Joe Nemechek was 26th and Dale Jarrett was 39th.