Subway 400 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

JAMIE MCMURRAY IN THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT ROCKINGHAM. MCMURRAY FINISHED FIFTH, HIS FIRST TOP-FIVE OF THE 2003 WINSTON CUP SEASON. THIS IS MCMURRAY'S BEST FINISH SINCE HE PLACED SEVENTH AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY LAST OCTOBER.

"That's a good run for us after what we did at Daytona. I felt like at Daytona we have better equipment than where we finished there. Man, I'm excited for all these guys. Donnie (Wingo, his crew chief) did a really good job today making calls. He did a couple of things that I had never really done before and I didn't know so we tried it and man, it just worked really well. They adjusted on the car all day and I felt like the racetrack changed and I felt like we kept up with it. The last 30 laps were pretty much half-throtte around here just trying to save fuel because we didn't figure we could make it. We were kind of gambling on that. We ran up front all day so I'm happy. I'm proud of everybody on the Havoline Dodge. We just had to conserve fuel at the end. We were really about three laps short of making it so I pretty much rode around half-throttle the whole time about the last 30 laps. The car handled so well I was able to maintain where we were at. I didn't really have a lot to gain by trying to pass the 32 for fourth versus what we would have lost if we had run out of fuel and had to make a pit stop. I'm excited. A brand new team and Donnie and the guys did a great job in the pits all day. The one thing that I think went wrong was that I stalled it on my first pit stop; the motor died. I'm glad to get this out of the way and head to Vegas where we tested also and hopefully have a good run."

HOW PROUD ARE YOU OF YOUR RUN TODAY?

"This is probably my favorite racetrack. Of course, Charlotte, I like that too. I don't think I've ever finished worse than 15th here. I've always really liked this place mainly just because you can race on it so much. It's pretty cool to do it here at Rockingham."

ARE 400 MILES HERE EASIER HERE IN THE WINSTON CUP CAR THAN 200 IN THE BUSCH CAR?

"I tell you what, this race last year was the longest race that I had ever run. I remember that we ran half of it and I thought it was over and they said 'Man, you've got 200 (miles) to go' and I thought there is no way I can make it."

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

"Everything worked good. We came up here and tested and the test went real well and plus he ran good up here last fall in the 40 car. A new team going to Rockingham finishing fifth having a good day, we stayed in the top-10 most of the day so everything went real good."

HOW NEW IS THIS TEAM?

"It's a brand new team. There's really only one guy that's on the road crew that goes with us each week that has been with Ganassi awhile (and) that helps out. He's really been a big plus, Mike Brill. He has really helped us out a lot getting acclimated with the organization and getting things going. Basically, everybody is new. One guy came over with me but most of the other guys, we've never worked together but everything so far has worked real well. Everybody jelled, gets along good, and does their job."

HOW HARD IS IT FOR A CREW CHIEF TO CALL A RACE AT ROCKINGHAM?

"If your call is pretty good like we were on that one long run, I might have stayed out a lap too early or too late, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't get a lap down then by pitting too soon. And the car was pretty good. We were really good on the long run and there at the end it just got a little bit too tight. We probably could have beaten Craven, maybe, but I didn't want to take a chance on half-throttling it, finishing the race. A new team, no points we just need to do the best we can to get some points these first few races."

YOU HAVE HAD GOOD CARS AT BOTH DAYTONA AND ROCKINGHAM. ARE YOU PUMPED UP ABOUT WHERE THIS TEAM STANDS?

"Most definitely, the whole team is. There's no reason why we can't win races and do everything that we need to do like these top teams do every week. I think we can be in the top-five every week if we get sorted out and things get going I think it's going to be great. We had a good test at Las Vegas and we're going to Atlanta and test this week. Everything has been going real well. I'm real pleased."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD, FINISHED 23RD.

"We didn't have any practice here. This was really tough on us because we didn't test here like a lot of the other teams did. I guess some of the rookies I should say. We hadn't raced Winston Cup here before. I drove a Dodge here at the fall race. I'm really thankful for that spot, that finish. It could have been worse. We worked hard on it all day. We made a lot of adjustments on the pit stops and cost us a lot of time on pit road working on the car every stop trying to make it better. We just didn't succeed, just couldn't get it better. That's just the way it goes. You rainout practice and we'll sometimes have to pay for stuff like that. My car kept getting worse and worse. We were trying to compensate for it throughout those runs and just could never get the handle right. I could have ended up spun out in the oil or something. We've got to be happy with what we've got."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 0 NETZERO PONTIAC, FINISHED 34TH.

"At least I could race with them. The Netzero Pontiac wasn't perfect but it was decent: a little loose in and tight in the center and a little loose off. It was a series of mistakes. I made some mistakes. Pit stops had mistakes. The car kept quitting on pit road and I couldn't keep it running. I slid through the pits once; just too many mistakes. At least we were race-able this time and we'll go to Vegas and see what we can do there."

WHAT HAPPENED WITH KENNY WALLACE?

"I was under him. I thought he knew it. Apparently his spotter didn't tell him that I was under him. By the time I realized that he didn't know I was under him it was too late and he came down and got into me. I hate that. I like Kenny a lot. I don't know why the spotter didn't tell him that I was under him."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 STAFF AMERICA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 37TH.

"I thought we had a tire go down there early in the race and we weren't running badly. We got loose getting into three and though the tire was flat and hit the wall pretty good but kept running. We came in and pitted under green and from there on our day just kind of went downhill. Without any practice, the rain and all that, we didn't test here; I mean I can give you all the reasons. We kind of knew this would happen. We concentrated real hard on getting into Daytona. We accomplished that and Rockingham kind of slipped through the cracks. We'll write this down as a really long test session and hopefully in the fall we'll run a heck of a lot better."

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