Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE RACE? The 31 car kind of got beside me here. My car was a handful and I could hardly drive it, and the 31 got into this corner (points to left rear of his car) and shoved a little air on it and got me up into the cushion there down in one and two. But the transmission had been broke for half the race. I lost third gear about halfway through the race."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

Note: Tony Raines led the race once for one lap, the first lap he has led in his 39-race Winston Cup career. He finished 18th in the race, his best effort since he placed 16th at Pocono in July.

"I was very excited to lead my first lap in Winston Cup. At the end of the race that was probably the best run that I had all day. That was good as the car was going to get. It was really strong. On the last run the car tightened up a little bit but it felt like it was dragging something there at the end. Whatever it was, it was slowing me down a little bit. I'm really proud of all the guys at Bace Motorsports. The stops were awesome. I told them over the radio at the end of the race what a great job they did. I thought Larry (Carter, crew chief) called a great race and made some good calls in the pits."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

Note: Jamie McMurray was the top Raybestos® Rookie in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta. McMurray finished 15th, and took top Raybestos® Rookie honors for the 19th time this season and for the 10th consecutive race. He has been the top Raybestos Rookie in 12 of the past 13 Winston Cup races.

"I really figured last night we were a 30th place car. We made about as big adjustments today as we have ever made. We lucked out with getting to stay on the lead lap. The cautions all came out just right for us. We made big adjustments and got our car better at the end. Really, at the end it still wasn't that bad of a car but it was probably about a 15th place car so I'm pretty happy with that." THE TEMPERATURE SEEMED TO GET COOLER DURING THE RACE. "Sterling (Marlin, his teammate) said he got looser. My car was really tight and we kept freeing it up so it probably helped us out a little bit, too." WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER? "We raised the track bar, a half inch on the left side and probably about two inches on the right side, and that's a ton. It's just amazing what all we did. I can't believe that." DID THE RAIN DELAY WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE? "Yeah, because we got to sit and think about it for a long time. Donnie made really good calls on making the right adjustments." YOU WERE ABLE TO TURN A BAD DAY INTO A GOOD ONE. "I think that's what you have to do and that's what we talked about last night. In order to contend for a championship, you have to make sure you can take days that you have a 30th place car and try to run 15th. I'm shocked that we adjusted our car and made it as good as we did." THIS IS A GOOD CAR. WERE YOU PUZZLED BECAUSE IT WASN'T FAST? "We talked about it last night and we think we've figured out a couple of things that were maybe wrong with it. It is a little bit discouraging when you have a car that runs that well. Maybe I'm just not very good at Atlanta (laughs)." ATLANTA IS THE ONLY TRACK WHERE YOU HAVEN'T IMPROVED AT THIS YEAR. "We really don't know why. We qualified a lot better this time but in race trim we just struggled. Casey and Sterling both tested at Phoenix and hopefully brought us back a good setup to try. I like Rockingham. It's probably my favorite track and probably where I'll run the best at and hopefully I'll have a shot to win there." DO YOU GET MORE OF A SENSATION OF SPEED HERE? "I didn't really feel it until I see somebody hit the wall and then it's like 'Whoa.' Like when Steve Park hit the wall I thought 'OOOOHHH, man, that hurt.' That kind of brings you back to reality and you know how fast you are going. But it doesn't feel like it." IF YOU ARE IN TRAFFIC HERE, CAN YOU PASS, DESPITE THE AERO PUSH ISSUE? "Yeah, but you still have to have a better car than they do. Guys caught me that were a lot better than me and I could hold them off when I needed to. And then there were some of those guys a lap down that they could hold you up and really you weren't that much faster. It is hard to pass but there is a groove."

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"As bad as we were when it started yesterday, we pretty much made our mind up that if we could finish in the top-15 it would be a good day and that's where we wound up. We worked with it all day. Nobody ever gave up and that's the biggest thing. We kept working with the car and got it better. What kept us in there was that we could go pretty good on a long run. We finally got lapped there at the very end. It was one of those days where if you can turn around and finish in the top-15 as bad as we were because we probably had about a 35th place car, it's got to be a good day." DID THE DELAY WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE? "Maybe a little bit because we thought about it a lot, about what we were going to do. I think we started off the race way too tight. We were just way too tight and we kept freeing it up every stop and finally there that one point got it pretty good. That's the tendency of this place, is that it gets really tight as the day goes on. We just kept adjusting and we were so far behind adjusting it at the beginning of the race that we had to make some pretty major adjustments. We even raised the left-side track bar one time on pit road. That's something that you don't see a lot but that was something that seemed to help the car." HOW IMPRESSIVE WAS MCMURRAY AND THE TEAM TO YOU TODAY? "That's what championships are made of, when you can take a 35th place car and finish 15th with it. That's what you have to do. We gained in the points today and that's what we set out to do. We gained on everybody that's in front of us, I think, but one car so all in all a good day. Everybody did a super-good job. We really worked hard trying to get the car better and it worked."

Unofficial Raybestos Rookie standings after Atlanta:

Jamie McMurray 276
Greg Biffle 243
Casey Mears 195
Tony Raines 190
Jack Sprague 158
Larry Foyt 134

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