New England 300 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"It just turned around on me. It's pretty unfortunate. It's so hard to pass here we finally kind of made it up by pit strategy deal there and got up front and could run kind of the same laps as the leaders. It's real unfortunate but that's the way it goes." ARE YOU OKAY? "Yeah, it hurt by lower back a little bit but really it looked a lot worse on TV that what it was. I hit the wall at Vegas earlier this year and it wasn't anything like that. I really don't know what happened." WHAT HAPPENED? "I thought I had a flat tire and I radioed in the lap before and said 'I think I've got a left front flat' and we were just going to ride it out. Then I about wrecked in turn three and then got to turn one and I did wreck, so I don't know. The tire still had air in it. It's just one of those deals. I ran so high in turns three and four I got a lot of buildup on my tires. I was just trying to get it off before I got down to turn one; that wasn't the problem (smiles). It was a pretty hard hit but it looked worse that what it felt like." YOU HAD A STRONG CAR. "It's so hard to pass here. We ran 30th almost all day long. We missed the setup pretty big today and they adjusted on it and really, once we got up front, the car was pretty good when we could get in some clean air. I felt like we could have put it together there. It was going to work out with pit strategy in our favor today."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE. THIS IS THE EIGHTH TIME IN 2003 HE HAS TAKEN HOME RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE HONORS.

"It was a good day for us. I tell you what the car was just terrible. We fought that thing all day. We were off a little bit in 'Happy Hour' and didn't realize it until we were done with "Happy Hour' and made a change and got it really, really tight and I couldn't drive it. I guess we just have to show up at the track better prepared." YOU WERE BEHIND AT THE BEGINNING BUT YOU GOT BETTER AS THE DAY WENT ON. "We kept adjusting on it and made an exta pit stop and did some stuff to it just because I had the time. I was already at the back. I took the opportunity. McMurray did the same thing, I think. We're all back there just trying to fight. Track position is so important here; we finally got some. We passed a lot of cars too so we're pretty happy, I guess." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO CORRECTLY RESTART WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO GET A LAP BACK? "What's worse is when a guys tells you if you will work with him he will give you the lap back so you let him go and then when the caution comes out he screws your ass. He got what he deserved."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"We had a good car all day. We had a good run going, we were top-25 most of the whole race. And then same old, same old. The motor falls out of the car and ruins our day. It's nothing new. DID THE CAR DRIVE WELL? "Yeah, we were handling good. I hurt us in the pits a couple of times but the end result is the motor killed us."

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

YOU GUYS HAD A GOOD DAY. "We finally did. We had a day where our car wasn't good in 'Happy Hour' and we were kind of concerned about it and really didn't expect to even run nowhere near that good. We made a lot of changes this morning and engineers and everybody did a good job on the fuel mileage. We made a plan and kind of stuck with it. It's a good way to get the second half started. We didn't feel like we'd run that good so that's even a bonus." HOW HARD IS IT TO GET TRACK POSITION? "You've seen Jamie, our teammate, he was mid-pack and stayed out and was a car that ran up front after that. I'm sure that if we'd have put this one out in clean air we could have run in the top-five too. It was a good day, a good way to get the second half of the season started and I'm looking forward to going back to these places for a second time." DOES FOUR TIRES MAKE A DIFFERENCE HERE? "No. We put four tires on one time just because we needed to make an adjustment on the left side and we put right sides on it all day. HOW WAS THE TRACK? "They fixed some of the track issues as far as the track coming apart and things like that happening but it's still not the greatest place to race. If you can run 30th all day and then stay out and lead the race then that's not that good. That's not fun. They've done a lot and they've made a lot of improvements but it's still Loudon."

UNOFFICIAL RAYBESTOS ROOKIE STANDINGS

Greg Biffle     207
Jamie McMurray  196
Casey Mears     168
Jack Sprague    152
Tony Raines     153
Larry Foyt       91
Hideo Fukuyama   17    

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