Subway 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

Note: Jamie McMurray was the top Raybestos® Rookie in the Subway 500. Mc Murray finished eighth, his 12th top-10 finish of the season. He has more top-10 finishes than any other Raybestos® Rookie. McMurray took top Raybestos® Rookie honors for the 18th time this season and for the ninth consecutive race. He has been the top rookie in 11 of the past 12 Winston Cup races. The Martinsville race was his third consecutive top-10 finish and fifth in his last six races.

"We didn't have a very good car and it seemed like actually once we got wrecked the car was better. I don't know if the car got better or if I just got angry and started driving harder. We came from the back three or four times and drove all the way up there and then pit strategy worked our way. It was a pretty good day." HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO STAY FOCUSED AFTER THE PENALTY? "I saw the 97 spin out here last year and then he won the race. And that new rule, I'm not a big fan of everybody getting their lap back but I figured we'd get our lap back if the car was good enough. I just tried to stay on the lead lap and gosh, it seemed like we went from the back to front five or six times. I'm glad that's over with." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO RACE HARD HERE? "I honestly couldn't have driven any harder that what I did. I told them like on lap 150 that I wouldn't make it to the end because I was driving so hard and using the brakes so much (smiles). That was as hard as I can drive." HOW PHYSICAL IS THIS TRACK? "My brake foot hurts from pushing it so hard and so does your back from pushing on it so hard. The biggest thing is the fumes here. It's horrible. We're going to come back with that new filter, which I think Casey and Sterling have been running and I haven't been. I've got an upset stomach right now from those fumes." DID YOU HAVE THE CRUSH PANELS KNOCKED OUT? "No, hey, the jet dryers seemed worse than the racecars. Those jet dryers really got me nauseated. I just need to put that filter on there. We tried it earlier and it made me sneeze so I quite using it. But I'm going to put it back in. It's a carbon monoxide filter; it's like a charcoal filter. We made it and designed it here at our shop. I don't know how it works, I just know that it works." A GOOD RUN ON A DIFFICULT TRACK GIVES YOU MOMENTUM GOING INTO ATLANTA NEXT WEEK. "I don't know how many top-10s that is in a row, but that's really good. It just seems like every week it gets better. Hopefully we can start finishing in the top-five and maybe win a race before the year is over." YOU ADDED TO YOUR LEAD IN THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CHASE. "We just keep running better and it seems like Greg has problems each week. That's cool to have that big of a lead. It makes it easier toward the end of the year knowing that we can be so many points ahead. It would be nice if we can sew that up two or three races early." THE CAR DOESN'T LOOK SO PRETTY AFTER THE RACE. "We were actually running in the top-five here in the spring and the motor blew up. The car was mangled to death. The toe was knocked out and we kept adjusting on it. I amazed we finished that well with what we had today."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

Note: Casey Mears finished 17th at Martinsville, his second finish on the lead lap in the last three races. Mears finished 36th at Martinsville in April.

"I was pretty happy with it, really, to come home 17th at Martinsville. The last time I looked like I wasn't supposed to be here at all. I feel a lot better. We made big gains from last time to this time. That's what we need to do, is just keep making those gains and if we improve as much as we did this time, next time around we'll be in contention to run real well, in the top-10. Everybody on the pit crew did a great job. We gained spots in the pit every time. It was a good solid run and who would have thought that it would have been here at Martinsville. We've had so many good runs this year; things just happen, and here we come to one of the places where things are supposed to happen and everything works out. That's just how things work out sometimes and I'm glad they did. It was just a good race for us." DID YOU MAKE A LOT OF CHANGES TO THE CAR FROM PRACTICE TO THE RACE? 'We struggled a little bit in qualifying but we didn't make any qualifying runs. In practice we kind of messed up and ran out of time and didn't do a qualifying run. We would have been much better in qualifying. In happy hour we couldn't put in a fast lap. I felt like we had a decent car. We made a couple of changes before the race and they were a little better and I learned a lot today. That was the big thing. I picked up a couple of tenths and that's what we needed to do." HOW PHYSICAL IS THIS PLACE ON A DRIVER? "It's one of the most physical places, next to Bristol."

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

YOU'VE GOT TO BE PLEASED WITH THAT RUN. "We're happy with that, as much trouble as we had all day. We kind of got into a couple fender skirmishes there and the car really wasn't that good. The driver did a lot today. The guys did a good job. We kind of got that deal with NASCAR there where they held us and wasn't really supposed to. They did the right thing. They gave us our lap back so that was the right thing to do." WHAT HAPPENED? "They just imposed the wrong penalty. But it's just one of those deals that happens in the skirmish of it or whatever. They did the right thing." MCMURRAY WAS A LITTLE SICK AFTER THE RACE. "The fumes got to him just a little bit here today and that's something that we've got to work on. We've been working on our carbon monoxide deal and he don't like it yet. It's Martinsville. It's like that every time you come up here." WITH REGARD TO CARBON MONOXIDE, WHAT CAN YOU DO? "We've been working on a carbon monoxide filter. We tried it a couple of times with him and he really didn't like it that good. We're still working on that. We'll get that better for him and we'll test it some this winter and try to get it worked out where it works good." HOW BIG IS IT FOR THE TEAM FOR MCMURRAY TO STEP UP HERE TODAY? "It's a big deal for everybody. I mean the whole team did a good job with as much trouble as we had. We got the fenders down on the tires a couple of times and they got all that off and cut some sheet metal away. Everybody did a good job, not everybody here, but everybody back at the shop has been working hard giving us good racecars to race every week and that's what it takes."

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