Press Room

Jamie McMurray has lunch every day with his dad. They play golf together. They ride go-karts.

They’re not just father and son, but best friends.

And this week, they shared an experience of a lifetime, spending three days bass fishing with crew chief Bono Manion and Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, which is the primary sponsor of McMurray’s Sprint Cup team.

“Life is good right now,” said Jim McMurray.

How could it not be? Jamie won NASCAR’s two most prestigious races this season — the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400.

His wife, Christy, is expecting a son in December, and Jim McMurray can’t wait to put his grandson in a go-kart, the way he started Jamie as an 8-year-old in Joplin, Mo.

But it’s going to take a win in Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway to top the fun they had at Morris’ Black Oak Lodge on a 4,000-acre site with five major bass lakes in southwest Missouri.

Maybe.

“It was probably one of the most special weeks we ever spent together in our life,” said Jim McMurray, 63. “We caught 20, 30, 40 bass every morning and every evening for three days. Some of the fish were in the 3- and 4-pound range.

“The best part of it was Johnny was with us, we cooked the fish we caught that day, and the last evening Johnny had elk. We cooked elk. It was great. We laughed the whole time, from the time we got there to the time we left.