When you win your first Winston Cup race in only your second career start while driving someone else's car and working with an unfamiliar team, that's a pretty significant accomplishment in anybody's book.

And when you finally have a full-time ride and team you can call your own, the possibilities for success become almost endless.

Such has been the case of Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 42 Dodge.

After replacing the injured Sterling Marlin in six of the final seven races last season -- including winning at Charlotte in his second career Cup start, impressively holding off veteran driver Bobby Labonte in a final lap shootout, no less -- McMurray received his just rewards, being chosen by team owner Chip Ganassi to become part of a three-car Cup team this season along with Marlin and fellow rookie Casey Mears.

While McMurray has admittedly struggled at times and has yet to reach Victory Lane thus far in 2003 -- his top finish has been third (twice) -- what we've seen lately has been the maturing and seasoning of an incredible talent that is just starting to boil to the surface.

In three of his last four starts, McMurray has registered two top-five finishes and another top-10 in what is usually the roughest part of the Winston Cup schedule. And now that he's sitting in 18th-place in the standings and has a realistic shot of not only finishing the season in the top-15 but also of winning Rookie of the Year honors, the young Joplin, Mo., native is returning dividends on the faith Ganassi put into him.

"To look at where we were at the beginning of the season (with a disappointing 31st-place finish at the Daytona 500) to where we're at now is very impressive," McMurray said. "People have to remember this was a brand new team that was put together from scratch, so we all knew it would take some time to get everything working smoothly."

Indeed, it has been in the last seven races -- starting with an outstanding third-place finish at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis -- that McMurray has started to make more than a few people take notice of his accomplishments.

He came into Indy 25th in points and left in 21st. And now with just nine races remaining on the schedule, McMurray is on the precipice of ending the season in the top-15 -- he's currently just 25 points behind teammate Marlin (17th place) and 133 points behind current 15th-place holder Bill Elliott -- and finishing as the series' Rookie of the Year to boot.

	McMurray has eight top-10 finishes this season.

"When you look at our last seven or eight races, I think you can see the momentum and strength that our team has shown," McMurray said. "From about Indy on, we've had some strong runs and have put ourselves in position to win at least three of the last eight races, and that does a lot to build everyone's confidence on the team.

"I think what I'm most excited about is that we've had some of our strongest runs on tracks that are known for being hard on the driver and the car. We've run great at Indy (third), Bristol (third) and Darlington (fourth) and that's exciting to me because that shows the strong foundation that we have on the No. 42 team. It's only going to get better."

That's a mighty strong prophecy, but McMurray has shown he has the talent, team and support to fulfill it. He returns to Dover International Speedway -- Hurricane Isabel permitting, of course -- for Sunday's MBNA America 400 as one of the hottest drivers on the circuit. In his first go-round at the grueling one-mile oval back in early June, McMurray started 19th and finished 13th.

"As a driver, I'm getting to go back to a lot of these tracks for the second time now, and we have notes we can go off of from our first visit," McMurray said. "You can't beat seat time.

"We also have done a lot of testing over the summer months and have gained some valuable information that is adding to our solid performances."

McMurray, who currently leads Greg Biffle by 16 points in the Rookie of the Year standings, is coming off his eighth top-10 finish of the season last weekend at New Hampshire. He also has been the highest-finishing first-year driver in six of his last seven starts, and has scored more top-five (five) and top-10 (eight) finishes of any rookie on the Cup circuit in 2003.

While Dover presents a challenge because of its grueling pace, where drivers have to manhandle their cars more than perhaps any other track with the exception of Bristol, racing for the checkered flag can make for a long and tiring day. Compounding the problem is Dover has a reputation as a place where normally clean and green races can suddenly become wreck-filled affairs.

"Dover is definitely one of those places that if you can avoid the wrecks and be around at the end, you'll have a good finish," said McMurray, 27. "Things happen so fast at Dover that you don't have much time to react if something goes wrong in front of you.

"We're taking a proven car this weekend to Dover. This is the same car we've run at tracks like Rockingham (finished fifth), Fontana (fifth) and Chicago (eighth) with, and it's the same car we had at Dover back in May, so I feel very confident heading into the race.

"The 42 team has a lot of momentum on its side. We've had some strong runs the past few weeks and have put ourselves in contention to win races. I think Dover is going to be another momentum builder for the team."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.