Success is all about the people you’re working with, and what kind of relationship you have with those people.

Take for example the case of Jamie McMurray, who is enjoying the best year of his career in 2010. After starting the year off with a Daytona 500 win and a Fontana pole, he won the pole at Darlington Friday in record-breaking fashion and has been running up front regularly in 2010.

This is the same Jamie McMurray who looked like a fish out of water for four seasons at Roush Fenway Racing, and had everyone wondering if his days of contending for race wins were over. The promise he showed early in his career was completely gone.

So what’s the difference this season? Easy. He now is somewhere where he feels like he belongs, enjoys the company of the people around him, and that is translating to success at the track.

This week he has been very candid about the fact that while at Roush, he never really seemed to fit in, and was like a fifth wheel (literally, too, as Roush had five cars entered each week).

McMurray said that during the four years he drove for Jack Roush, he only talked to the Cat in the Hat a handful of times. Contrast that with the current tight relationship he has with boss over at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. Now in his second go-round driving for Ganassi, McMurray has come alive.

In less than a year, he has gone from “career dying” to “career surging”.
It’s a universal lesson that can be applied far beyond racing. In any industry, there are people who have goals of working for the biggest companies, but after spending some time at their new high-profile jobs, they realized they never fit in with the way things were done there. After they return to their roots, at less glamorous but more comfortable settings, they thrive in their profession.

This is the case of McMurray,and the night-day difference between 2009 and 2010. No longer is he an afterthought destined to finish mid-pack or worse. He is returning to prominence and hopes to bring Chip Ganassi back to the Chase in 2010.

Considering how tough the competition is in NASCAR and how difficult it is to beat superteams like Hendrick and Roush and Gibbs, that would be an amazing accomplishment and a testament to the power of simply feeling like you belong.

While the cars are obviously the biggest part of winning and running well , there’s no denying that this psychological boost has helped McMurray to some of his 2010 success.

Now as to whether that confidence can prevent a Darlington stripe? We’ll find out Saturday night.

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