Sharpie 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

LARRY FOYT, NO. 50 HARRAH'S DODGE:

"I guess I just lost it, really. We kept trying to free the car up off the corner and just never could get the car right all night. The Harrah's Dodge was just sliding a lot and not really getting to the racetrack. We had to make some changes from yesterday because we were hitting the racetrack too much and raise the car. I think we just kind of lost our balance there." THIS PLACE NEVER GETS ANY EASIER, DOES IT? "It was tough. It was even tougher than running the Busch car here. It was all night just fighting the car and fighting the traffic. It seems like we've got to be on the record for cautions because there were quite a bit out there tonight. You kind of have the same pace; you've got a lot more cars closer together here. There are so many cars that are so even that it just come down to track position and who's going to be patient and you see a lot of guys that aren't patient. We killed our self in the pits again, twice we left lug nuts off and then I sped down the pits one time so. It was kind of a comedy of errors for us tonight "

NOTE: FOUR RAYBESTOS® ROOKIES FINISHED ON THE LEAD LAP IN TONIGHT'S SHARPIE 500 AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY, THE MOST ROOKIES TO FINISH ON THE LEAD LAP SINCE THE DAYTONA 500: JAMIE MCMURRAY (THIRD), TONY RAINES (20TH), CASEY MEARS (21ST), AND GREG BIFFLE (22ND).

JAMIE MCMURRAY IN THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT BRISTOL, SCORING HIS FOURTH TOP-FIVE AND SIXTH TOP-10 OF THE 2003 SEASON. MCMURRAY HAS MORE TOP-FIVE AND TOP-10 FINISHES THAN ANY OTHER RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE THIS SEASON. HE TOOK TOP RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE HONORS FOR THE 10TH TIME THIS SEASON.

TALK ABOUT RACING MATT KENSETH FOR THIRD PLACE. "You know if it had been anybody but him I probably wouldn't have blocked him but I figured he's racing for points. I didn't figure he'd wreck me. The last lap I didn't think he'd take a chance on that. What a car. We had good pit stops and I told Donnie (Wingo, his crew chief) when the race was over that he must be one smart crew chief because this is a totally different car than what we qualified or practiced. It was horrible. We made a bunch of changes and he kept asking me what to do and I said you just do whatever you think is right because I said I don't have a clue. He must have made the right choice. We had a really good car. It was horrible in 'Happy Hour' but Donnie made a bunch of changes and he kept asking me what to do and I said 'I don't know, I'm kind of lost right now.' Whatever he did was right because it was a totally different racecar. Even at the end when we weren't quite as good as the 97 I couldn't have made it any better. I was driving my heart out. We'll take third from Bristol because this place is like a superspeedway race: it can bite you and you can have a really bad finish. I'm really proud of my guys too because we struggled with pit stops at the beginning of the year and I think we beat out some of the best pit crews. I'm really proud of those guys." YOU WERE FEELING A LITTLE UNDER THE WEATHER EARLIER TODAY. "I was really nervous before the race today because in my Busch Series career I have not finished very well here. Man, to come out of here with third, that's wonderful." WHAT WAS IT LIKE TONIGHT WITH ALL THE CAUTIONS? "I knew there had to be a lot because I wasn't tired, and I got tired in the Busch race yesterday even. We needed long runs. We were certainly better on the long run but I'm still thrilled with what we got." THIS IS YOUR FIRST TOP-FIVE ON A SHORT TRACK. "After 'Happy Hour' I was pretty nervous. I told Donnie after the race that you've got to me a pretty smart guy because this is completely different racecar. Not only did we have a pretty good car but we had good pit stops and it's wonderful when we finish in the top-five. A really bright future is ahead for the whole Havoline team." WAS IT A SURVIVAL GAMEPLAN TONIGHT? "It started out that way but we ran about 20 laps and I kept passing cars. I wasn't driving hard; I was just able to get by guys. We actually raced out way up there. We didn't use pit strategy to get up there. We worked out way up to like 20th and then somebody spun out and I had to stop to keep from hitting him. I went all the way to the back again and we drove our way tall the way to the front. We didn't get a 'gimme' tonight. We worked hard and got what we deserved." WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE BOOS FOR KURT BUSCH? "Well, he's never done anything to me but I think he's probably brought some on from his past. I think he's egged that on. I hate it for Jimmy (Spencer) that he didn't get to race this weekend because he's really good at Bristol. I know of all the race he didn't want to give up this was it. That's what cool about racing is that there are cheers and there are boos and boos aren't always bad. Dale Earnhardt got booed a lot so I don't know that it's all bad. I know he got into Sterling (Marlin) and spun Sterling out. Kurt is just a little wild. I mean he drives really hard. I kind of joked around about Robby Gordon being wild and Kurt is the same kind of guy but he can get the job done too. He might make a lot of guys mad but as a car owner you know he's giving you 100 percent. He got into me a little bit too but he's just really aggressive and I think he's really lucky to be able to finish as many races as he does. He tried to jump on the outside on a restart and I tried to floor it and I got by one and fell all the way to the back. He just kind of turned down in front of me. The thing is, with 200 laps to go, it's not worth wrecking your car to pinch a guy out of a spot. There's a lot of give and take and I did a lot of giving and taking. He did a lot of taking, I think." HOW DID YOU HOLD UP PHYSICALLY HERE TONIGHT? "I was really tired in the Busch race last night but tonight, I'm tired but when you finish third you're not near as tired." HOW HARD IS IT TO RACE CLEAN HERE AT BRISTOL? "Typically, when you get wrecked here it's because you are in the way. It's hard to get out of the way so guys just run into you. We had a really good car and typically I could catch a guy and really ride him hard and he'd just move out of my way. It was a pretty good night."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"I melted the bead off the right front, kind of like (Kevin) Harvick did in the truck race with two laps to go. What can I say?" WAS IT A PRETTY CLEAN RACE FOR YOU? "(Scott) Wimmer took me out down there, spun me out, and I smashed the front-end in on the wall. That probably didn't help the car any. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. It's one of those Bristol racing deals. Jeff (Gordon) gave us our lap back. It's pretty unfortunate. I wanted to come for tires and the crew chief wanted to stay out. I was in pretty bad shape. It's unfortunate."

TONY RAINES IN THE NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET MADE UP THREE LAPS DURING THE SHARPIE 500.

"It was interesting. We had a problem there at the start. We had to pit right away on the green flag and got down three laps. The problem was really hampering out handling there at the start and then we got the car really good there for a while and we got three laps back. When we got back on the lead lap, I don't know if something happened or if we just lost the handling on the car but the car got tight in the center. We could make it loose off or we could make it tight off but we could not fix the center. That's kind of where we ended up. I'm not surprised if a spring collapsed or we bent something banging wheels with somebody because it just didn't handle quite as good as it did early on. Obviously it was a pretty good car because we got back three laps but it's Bristol and it's in one piece. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good night." WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT YOU DIDN'T GET INTO TROUBLE BECAUSE YOU HAD TO RACE SO HARD? "I was in front of trouble, behind trouble, and beside trouble all night. To come out of here without being in a big wreck was petty lucky. We did get spun once but I was kind of falling back and Casey (Mears) got underneath me and I tried to close the door. I didn't surprise myself when I spun out but we needed a caution to put tires on and we got a couple spots back. It was an exciting night last night and tonight." WILL THIS RUN TONIGHT GIVE YOU MOEMENTUM FOR THE NEXT FEW RACES? "I hope so. I hope all those sponsor watching TV keep seeing this white car in their way and maybe they will want to use us for some good."

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, NO 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"We had a good car. Everything worked out good. The pit crew again stepped up again tonight when they needed to step it up. Jamie drove a hell of a race. Everything seemed to do good. We were not that good yesterday. We made a good many changes this afternoon and it seemed to help the car a lot." YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RUN WELL IN THE RACE AFTER STRUGGLING IN PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING. "Each time we have sent back to the track again we've improved each time. That's the biggest thing, is when we go back the second go-around to these tracks things have been better each race. We've had some misfortune there in some of them but we've had good cars. On the qualifying deal, we were good in practice the whole time but I think the weather kind of hurt us there in qualifying. The other guys had cooler temperatures but all in all I think it was a great week." IS IT FRUSTRATING TO NOT IMPROVE ON QUALIFYING? "Most of the time we pick up when we qualify. This time we didn't pickup as much as we had been picking up but I don't think it really hurt us tonight because once we got caught up we were fine. Pit strategy kind of played out like we wanted it to. We had fresher tires than all those guys at the back and we were on the same tires and the guy in front of us. All in all I think it was a good night."

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