<P> The next two weeks were rough for McMurray, as at Kansas, he was penalized by NASCAR and forced to repair damage from 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 . </P> <P> 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 amount 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 . </P> <P> 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 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 regular season ended, McMuray 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 . </P> <P> 2018 got off to a slow start . Marred with a incident under caution with teammate Kyle Larson at Richmond and a very violent crash at Talladega in practice where he blew a left rear tire and flipped over 6 times on the Backstretch . He was uninjured but had to go to a backup car . At the end of the 2018 season Kurt Busch and sponsor Monster Energy will leave Stewart - Haas Racing and have been rumoured to move to Chip Ganassi Racing replacing McMurray, whose contract expires at the end of the year . However, this has not been confirmed and only reported by Motorsport.com . </P>

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