CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The pressure is officially on Jamie McMurray, a one-time Chase contender who now finds himself in jeopardy of missing races.

A disastrous start to the season — his best finish was a 22nd at California — sent McMurray into NASCAR’s first off weekend ranked 36th in the points standings. It had to have made for a miserable break for McMurray.

He heads into Martinsville Speedway, where he must qualify on speed to make Sunday’s race. It’s an agonizing position for any driver, but must be particularly difficult for the self-loathing McMurray — a guy who was so despondent over his first season at Roush Fenway Racing, he couldn’t sleep and was convinced he had to relearn how to drive.

A personal trainer and a sports psychologist helped him rebuild his confidence, and the work seemed to pay off last season when McMurray snapped a 166-race winless streak and showed flashes of the skill that had once anointed him NASCAR’s next superstar.

A replacement driver for an injured Sterling Marlin, McMurray set a NASCAR record by winning in his second start in October 2002.

But with just two victories in 191 career starts, he’s never lived up to that early billing. Even now, in his topflight Roush ride, McMurray is struggling to get the job done.

With the pressure mounting to solidify a spot inside the top 35, McMurray instead finished 40th or worse in the past two races. His last-place finish two weeks ago in Bristol dropped him five spots in the standings, and put him officially outside the top 35.

And there’s no relief in sight.

McMurray hasn’t notched a top-10 finish since Texas last November and that snapped a streak of five consecutive finishes of 24th or worse. He hasn’t been inside the top five since his last-lap victory at Daytona last July, his second and last win.

It’s a far cry from where he started when Chip Ganassi Racing hired him in 2002. McMurray finished 13th in the points during his 2003 rookie season, and just missed out on making the Chase in 2004 when he wound up 11th when the 10-driver field was set. He was 12th the next season.

Recognized as a promising driver in underperforming equipment, car owner Jack Roush took a chance on him in summer 2005 by signing him to a contract that initially wasn’t supposed to being until McMurray’s deal with Ganassi ended after the 2006 season.

But McMurray used the early signing as leverage, often wondering why Ganassi would hold him to a contract McMurray clearly didn’t want to fulfill. The two car owners negotiated late into the season before Roush finally secured McMurray’s early release.

It didn’t come cheap, and Roush’s investment has yet to pay off.

McMurray ran through three different crew chiefs in 2006 while finishing 25th in the standings driving for the same team that had won a championship two seasons earlier. It led McMurray to see a sports pyschologist, and Roush allowed him to handpick his own crew chief for 2007.

McMurray settled on Larry Carter, and the early results were positive as he showed flashes of the potential Roush and so many others had seen in him.