UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Raybestos Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Unofficial Raybestos Rookie points after Las Vegas:

Jamie McMurray   33
Casey Mears      29
Jack Sprague     28
Tony Raines      23
Greg Biffle      21

"That was good. It was solid. We didn't do anything special. We ran well all day. We qualified 18th and finished 15th. We didn't do anything huge, but got a whole race in and we were competitive the whole race. Everybody did a great job. I'm real happy and I learned a lot. If we continue to do what we're doing we'll get better and better."

YOU RACED SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN THE SPORT IN THE CLOSING LAPS OF THE RACE. HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN? "I learned a lot. These guys have a lot of experience and there's definitely some things here and there that they did to me that I've learned to do to them next time I went back. I hope they keep doing it to me all year long because I'm going to learn a ton."

HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO KEEP UP WITH THE TRACK DURING THE RACE? "It changed quite a bit and then it came back to how it was more toward the beginning as far as the balance of my car went. We had to go back towards the way we were at the beginning of the race but it definitely changed quite a bit. It definitely got a lot slicker throughout the race."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE THE HIGHEST FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE? It's great. It's unfortunate that Greg (Biffle) didn't get a chance to qualify for this race because he would have been strong. Jamie (McMurray) has been real competitive. It just feels good to have some good runs now. I feel pretty good about it."

LARRY FOYT, NO. 14 HARRAH'S DODGE:

"It was a long day. We got to where we were running pretty decent there in the middle segment there. We were way behind but the lap times were good. Craven came up on me pretty fast and I just tried to hold my line and he kind of swung out and took the air off of me so I was just trying to save the car and I guess he got in the back of me and turned us around. I haven't seen it so I'm not exactly sure what happened. Then it was just another wreck down there and I was trying to get woaed to miss it and everybody was braking pretty heavy and we blew a tire. It was a long day of some bummers. The guys did good to keep us out there running. It was a tough day for the Harrah's car but we'll see what we can do next week."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 STAFF AMERICA CHEVROLET:

"It wasn't bad. We didn't think the car was really that good yesterday in 'Happy Hour' but the guys worked a bunch of stuff on it, really tuned on it this morning. It was really a good car. I think probably driver inexperience getting off the track and into the pits and plus us being a new team and being a little rusty and nervous maybe we lost a little bit of time there. I think we were 20th, 21st most of the race it seemed like. A lot o guys that beat us, beat us in the pits. The car was awesome on the long run. I just wish we could have had more gas in the tank and run longer because on old tires I was a really good car. A top-25 is what we were looking for and we snuck in there 24th. I would consider today and improvement overall and that's the direction that we need to be going. If we continue, more of them will show up. It (the track) didn't really change a whole lot, I don't think. My car was really loose at the beginning of a run and then it would come in really good and we were working on that. At one point during the race we got it too tight early in the run and it got tighter at the end of the run so we went back to what we started with and the car came along there pretty good. Like I say, on the long run I could run down and pass some really good cars. It's just unfortunate that we got down a lap in the pits with out time on and off the track. I'll be working on that, just like everybody is working on everything else. I had a good time today."

JIMMY ELLEDGE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"It was a great day. Everybody did an awesome job. Casey (Mears) impresses me every day, more and more. I'm proud of all the Target guys. They did a super job. The 40 and 42 helped contribute. We all tested out here and that's a lot of the reason that we ran as good as we did today. We got real good there about the second run; we were good the second and third run and then we kind of got messed up and we were questioning whether it was tires or whether the track was going in that direction because it was doing something different. By the time that had happened, we had given up some track position and we lost a lap but right there at the end we made an adjustment on the thing and got the thing back good again. He finished 15th his first time here. I think he's very impressive."

FOR A CREW CHIEF, IS IT HARD TO KEEP UP WITH THE TRACK HERE AT LAS VEGAS? "the track continually gets tighter all day long, especially with the limited runs we've had on it and as much rain and stuff as we've had. You've got to keep after it but then you've got to be careful not to get too loose getting in because you can't get loose getting in but you have to be able to turn all day long. That's what threw me because we were tight getting in and we hadn't been that. We made adjustments there and got it back right towards the end and like I said I'm really happy with what he's doing. Every day he just amazes me."

THIS GOOD RUN TODAY MUST GIVE YOUR TEAM MOMENTUM GOING INTO ATLANTA NEXT WEEK. "If you look at the finishes, we haven't had good finishes but every race we've had a good car. We've been very confident that sooner or later things are going to click and we're going to be good and at the same token we didn't want to be made a big deal out of. We wanted to be quite and be kind of mellow and just kind of sneak in there because we didn't want a lot of expectations put on us. We don't want a bunch of hype. We want to slowly but surely just work our way in there and when the teams click and we're all just jelled perfectly we can handle those kind of things together. But when you are trying to mold a team and get your chemistry and stuff right you don't need that added pressure."

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

"We can't figure out exactly what happened after a pit stop there. We came in and changed tires and made just a little small adjustment to it and it was loose that whole run until he spun. We still haven't found out what's wrong with it. It was so loose he couldn't drive it, just like something happened under the bottom, the rear end, truck arms, or something. We don't know. We'll just have to survey when we get back to the shop. It's just one of those racing deals, I guess. We tried everything in the world. We actually changed one of the shocks on the rear, thinking it might have been a shock and then we just tried to stay out there as much as we could and finish as best we could."

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