regular season ended, McMurray began falling closer to the cut line of the newly renamed Playoffs, though he ultimately managed to clinch a Playoff spot for the third year in a row. McMurray continued to excel, making it past the first round of the Playoffs for the first time in his career. He posted a top-five at Charlotte, before consecutive wrecks caused by Erik Jones at Talladega and Kansas knocked him out. McMurray finished out the year 12th in the standings, and racked up 17 top tens and three top-fives. The 2018 season became McMurray's worst since 2011 and 2012, having scored top-fives at the 2018 O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas in April, and the Charlotte Roval, along with 8 top-10s. He also missed the playoffs, finishing 20th in the points standings. The 2018 season also saw McMurray involved in a seven-flip rollover accident at Talladega Superspeedway during practice for the GEICO 500, leading to NASCAR attempting to reduce speeds for the race by changing the restrictor plates used. At the end of the season, it was announced Kurt Busch would take over the #1 from Jamie McMurray after leaving Stewart-Haas Racing. Daytona 500 (2019, 2021) On September 10, 2018, McMurray announced that he will not return to Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019. CGR had offered McMurray a contract to drive at the 2019 Daytona 500 before moving to a leadership position with the team. McMurray would ultimately retire from full-time Cup Series racing and later signed a contract with Fox Sports to appear on their weekday and raceday NASCAR programs, in addition to his leadership role with Ganassi. In January 2019, Chip Ganassi Racing formed a partnership with Spire Motorsports to field the No. 40 for McMurray at the Daytona 500. McMurray led a few laps in the race but finished 22nd. He returned to the Daytona 500 in 2021 with Spire, driving the No. 77. He finished 8th after starting 19th, in only his second Top 10 finish in the Daytona 500. Other racing On January 4, 2014, Chip Ganassi Racing announced that McMurray will run the 24 Hours of Daytona for the team in the No. 01 car alongside Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Sage Karam. At the team's announcement, McMurray stated, "It's the most fun race I get to run all year long. There's no points for us and it's all about being able to