a crewman who body-slammed the car (NASCAR determined this was an illegal body modification). He spent the rest of the race trying to catch up and ultimately finished 26th. At Dover, he got caught up in the big one and finished several laps down in 21st. Three races later, McMurray would finish 9th at Michigan. After a seventeenth at Sonoma, McMurray would contend at Daytona, but contact from Kyle Larson, and Jimmie Johnson would cause him to spin, causing the big one. As the summer began to wound down, McMurray would heat up. He finished seventh at Kentucky in a fuel mileage race. A good 6th place at New Hampshire would allow him to slip further ahead of his competition. However a spin at Indy, and Chris Buescher winning at Pocono didn't help, although McMurray still finished in the top 20 for both races. He would then score three eighth-place finishes in row, at Watkins Glen, Bristol, and Michigan, allowing McMurray to slip past Ryan Newman in the chase standings. This would be good, as when Kyle Larson won at Michigan, McMurray would find himself 15 points in, ahead of Newman. Eventually, Newman still looked to be in contention before he was penalized for failing an inspection and docked a significant number of points, giving McMurray a big advantage over Newman going into the Fall Richmond race, which Denny Hamlin won, and McMurray finished seventh, narrowly clinching the 16th and final Chase spot. Poor finishes at Chicagoland and New Hampshire put him in a must-win situation at Dover, unfortunately, McMurray's engine exploded midway through the race, ending his Chase hopes. McMurray served as a Fox NASCAR analyst for the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas. McMurray's first top 5 came at the GEICO 500 when he managed to avoid the Big One and finish 2nd to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in an overtime finish. McMurray jumped up to fifth in the standings after Dover, the highest he had ever been in the standings at the point in the year. McMurray racked up nine top-ten finishes in the first 16 races of the year, posting another top-five effort at Michigan. McMurray would survive the night race at Daytona to finish 14th, ahead of all drivers in front of him in the points with the exception of Jimmie Johnson. At Kentucky, he managed to score his eleventh top-ten of the year. As the