DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Daytona International Speedway was a track where Jamie McMurray twice visited victory lane during his Cup career. Now the historic venue serves as a kickoff point to a dream season.
Saturday marks the beginning of his first full season in the broadcast booth, something that has been a goal for a very long time.
"I'm just lucky that Fox allowed me to stay and do this," McMurray told AltDriver during a sitdown at Daytona.
McMurray's 2025 schedule features work with multiple broadcasters. He will continue working as an analyst for Fox Sports while contributing to pre-race shows and interviewing drivers.
The driver-turned-analyst will also join Adam Alexander and Parker Kligerman in the CW Sports booth to call all 33 Xfinity Series races.
The interesting thing is that McMurray's workload will not drastically increase. Where he puts his focus will just slightly change.
Instead of preparing for multiple pre-race shows and multiple episodes of "NASCAR Race Hub" each week, he will spend more time preparing for calling the action on the track.
"The pre-race is a little bit different just because you get the rundown and you make your story based on the information given to you," McMurray said. "Where being in the booth is, I would tell you, more exciting because you're at a live sporting event.
"Just being there is exciting. I really like the fact of getting to share my take, or what I see, with everyone. It's just fun. I don't know how else to explain it."
McMurray has dabbled in booth work during his time at Fox Sports, which helped stoke that passion. He called multiple Truck and Xfinity Series races over the years. He joined the booth for a Cup race at Kansas in 2022 and a Cup race at Sonoma in 2023.
He never took these opportunities for granted. Instead, he sought more booth appearances.
McMurray finally got his chance when CW Sports inked a seven-year broadcast deal to exclusively air Xfinity Series races. The new partner came calling because as it turns out, it wanted him in the booth from the very start.
CW Sports and McMurray first talked well over a year ago and ultimately worked out a deal. Now, he will have the opportunity to live out a career dream.
The work in the booth will only be more special based on McMurray's boothmates. Alexander is one of his closest friends and someone he talks to multiple times a day. They have wanted to call races together for several seasons.
Kligerman, who worked for NBC Sports, is someone McMurray has respected from afar.
"The reality in TV is that you don't pick who you work with," McMurray said. "They hire the best two or three people, and then you figure out how to make chemistry work.
"Yeah, we have this amazing situation, because (Adam and I) wanted to do this together for years, and (CW Sports) ended up wanting both of us to do it.
"...What I would tell you about Parker is that when Parker started doing TV, I had raced with him a little bit, but I didn't know him. And I remember seeing him in the garage and telling him, 'You're really good at TV.'
"TV is subjective. Everybody likes something different. But I liked what he said, the way he said it."
This trio will now join forces while calling races for the fan-favorite NASCAR series. They will highlight the underdogs of Alpha Prime Racing, Jeremy Clements Racing, and other teams. They will discuss whether JR Motorsports can defend the title.
There will be a never-ending supply of storylines to cover during the season, something that truly excites McMurray.
Of course, simply providing analysis of the race won't be McMurray's sole task in his full-time move to the booth. One of his priorities is finding a way to deliver information in a way that everyone can understand.
Sometimes, going too technical is the wrong choice.
"The goal is to try to explain it like you would to your mom -- not my mom, because my mom was racing," McMurray joked. "Just explain it to the casual fan."
Another priority is to report what he is seeing while relying on his history behind the wheel. He has dealt with the same highs and lows that the Xfinity competitors will face each season. He knows the emotions they will have to deal with, and he will be able to convey that to the fans.
This is something he has experience with after several seasons at Fox Sports. The big difference is that he previously reacted to interviews while watching from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
Now, he will deliver this analysis from the booth as drivers battle for the biggest prize in the Xfinity Series.