It was Jamie McMurray’s turn to kiss the bricks Sunday after winning the 17th Running of the Brickyard 400 while team owner Chip Ganassi scored a perfect trifecta for the first time ever!

photo credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR

“I’ve always enjoyed coming here,” McMurray said. “Certainly this is just one of those tracks that every driver would like to say they’ve been able to win at. Plus we only race here once a year so it makes it twice as hard to be able to have that. It’s a very special place, for sure.”

McMurray added another prestigious and coveted trophy beside his Daytona 500 crown with his second major win of the season Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He became just the third driver in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same season -- right behind Dale Jarrett in 1996 and Jimmie Johnson in 2006.

The victory came after another devastating loss for teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. For the second consecutive year, Montoya lead the most laps but failed to secure a victory. Starting from the pole, Montoya lead early and often for a race-high 86 laps. Montoya lost the lead late in the race when his team opted for four tires and six others opted for two including McMurray. With 15 laps remaining, Montoya hit the wall and took Dale Earnhardt Jr with him in the crash. Montoya finished 32nd. Last year, Montoya lead a race-high 116 of the race’s 160 laps and was penalized for speeding on pit road late in the race. He wound up finishing 11th last year. It hasn’t bode well for polesitters to win at the Brickyard. Only two polesitters have gone on to win in now 17 races.

“I’m a big believer in fate,” McMurray said. “I really believe that this was Juan’s weekend. He had a really good tire test here. He ran so well last year, had a chance to win the race. I just think that things normally work themselves out. I’m looking with 15 or 20 laps to go and Juan is leading. Not that I was content, but, If this is the way it’s supposed to be, then that’s just the way it is. Then I was like, I’m going to be really happy for Chip and Juan and everybody at our team because this is really big. It’s just a major accomplishment what we’ve all been able to put together. That team, the 42 team, has had some really good cars. They just have had some bad luck and got put in bad position. So, I don’t know, it was unfortunate for them.”

Chip Ganassi became the first car owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year.

“This is such a team sport,” Ganassi said. “Let me tell you how that other team helped us win today. There was 10 laps to go. For all yesterday and today, all the crew chiefs talk about is, What do you do with 10 to go? Four tires? They can point to the races where four tires have won, you can point to the races where two tires have won. We were in the enviable position of running 1-2. A lot of times when you’re running like that, you can do a split strategy so you have both sort of angles covered. I was behind the pit stand. Johnny Morris brought up to me, Maybe we ought to think about two. The 42 was going for four. I looked at Bono. I said, Do you think we should do the split strategy here? He said, Yeah, let’s go for two. I said, Okay. That was the call. The only reason we could do that is because we knew the 42 was going for four. As a team, we had sort of both strategies covered there, I guess. That’s the great thing about having a teammate.”

It was a good day for the points leader, a former Brickyard winner himself. Kevin Harvick lead five laps late in the race and restarted on the front row beside McMurray, but couldn’t get the advantage.

“It was a good day,” Harvick said. “We had a solid top-five car. We took a gamble there at the end to take two tires. On the first restart, it took off great. We were able to run Jamie down and pass him. Second restart, it didn’t take off so great. Just got tight. He drove around the outside of me. I guess just the first cycle on those new right side tires carried us through. We were just tight the whole second restart, but still a great day. Took a chance to try to win the race. All but capitalized on it and came up one short.”

Harvick extended his lead in the standings to 184 points ahead of 2nd place, Jeff Gordon. Gordon never played a factor in the race and finished 23rd.

Greg Biffle traded the lead with Montoya throughout the day. He lead the second highest amount of laps clocking 38 laps out in front. Biffle finished third.

“It was a pretty good day,” Biffle said. “Car ran really good. I was excited we could run with the 42 car. Last couple years he’s been really fast here. We could run with him today. Wish we would have done two tires at the end like everybody else. We thought more guys would do four, but wasn’t the case.”

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 6 cautions for 25 laps and 14 lead changes among 10 drivers: J. Montoya 1-16; L. Cassill 17; K. Conway # 18; J. Nemechek 19; J. Johnson 20; J. Montoya 21-37; M. Martin 38-47; G. Biffle 48-49; J. Montoya 50-62; G. Biffle 63-98; C. Edwards 99; J. Montoya 100-139; J. McMurray 140-144; K. Harvick 145-149; J. McMurray 150-160