Pennsylvania 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"I crashed in turn one." YOU WERE HAVING A GOOD DAY. "We thought it was going to be pretty good but there about halfway through the race we really lost the handling on the car. It was really, really loose and hard to keep underneath me. It would have taken a miracle, I think, to have a win but we could have had a solid finish. I came out of the pits and I was driving real hard trying to get up to speed and I just got real loose, lost it and got up in the fence. I feel bad for everybody involved, Target, and everybody involved with the team. They've really worked hard this weekend and I drove real hard, just made a mistake."

TONY RAINES IN THE NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT POCONO. RAINES TOOK TOP ROOKIE HONORS FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON. HE WAS THE HIGHEST FINISHING ROOKIE AT TALLADEGA AND RICHMOND.

"We had a good racecar. Something broke in the shifter early in the race and that kind of gave us some trouble but we worked around that. The car got a little tight at the end but we kept working on it and chasing it. All in all it wasn't bad. Track position kind of hurt us with that transmission problem. We drove to a 16th place, fought back with good pit stops and all that so that's a pretty good day." WHEN YOU HAD THE PROBLEM EARLY IN THE RACE, DID YOU THINK YOU WERE HAVING MORE BAD LUCK? "Yeah, because I knew we had a pretty good car and I thought 'Man, if we go out of this with a transmission it's not going to be good because it will probably be my fault.' We worked on it and came out with a decent finish." DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHIFTER? "Something in the spring, the gate broke and that's the first time that that's ever happened to me. I had all the gears but it was hard finding them." IS THIS A GOOD SIGN FOR NEXT WEEK AT INDIANAPOLIS? "I hope so, because a lot of what we learned there we used here. We ran better here than we did in the June race so hopefully we'll run well at Indy."

LARRY CARTER, CREW CHIEF, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"We had a good car. Tony doesn't have a lot of experience at this racetrack and today he had a good car. Our car could have been a little better but when we can start running like we ran today that gives us an opportunity to work on our cars and get them better. We can get some good feedback. We'll try to build on this and go to Indy and look for a good run there." DOES THIS RUN TODAY GIVE YOU GUYS A LOT TO LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT WEEK? "We had a good test at Indy. We ran pretty fast. We're looking to go back and do pretty well there. A lot of the stuff that we did learn at Indy we applied it here and helped our car so hopefully the stuff that we learned here, we'll just keep building on it." YOUR TEAM WAS PREPARED FOR THE WORST WITH THE SHIFTER PROBLEM. "We had a little mechanical problem in the shifter mechanism itself that didn't ever cause us a major problem so we were able to just keep going. We were fortunate and it worked out good. A lot of times when things are going bad they just keep going bad. You never think you are going to get over that bridge but if you just keep plugging away then some good finishes will start happening, too, so maybe things will start going in that direction now."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"It's really disappointing the way our day went. The Havoline Dodge was really good today but we broke a transmission early in the race and lost eight laps. But the guys on this team never gave up and we were able to make up three of those laps. While I'm disappointed with our finish, I'm really happy with the improvements we made this time at Pocono versus how we ran here in June. I really think we had a car that could have won the race. We're taking this car to Indy so I'm really excited about next weekend, too."

LARRY FOYT, NO. 50 HARRAH'S DODGE:

"We learned a lot. We've been working on these bodies just to try and figure out what they want and we've done some stuff but we weren't able to go to the wind tunnel and we actually made the car aero-tight. We were just freeing up all day. I can't believe I've never run that little amount of wedge in a car and we were still tight. We were learning and making it better. I wish we could have went to the wind tunnel and figured out what took us all day but I think we've got it figured out now." DID YOU LEARN SOME STUFF TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU AT INDY? "Definitely, because we'll probably take this car. You've got a lot of similar characteristics between here and Indy so I think we learned a lot that will carry over to there."

RAINES POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

"In June, we didn't qualify. We took a provisional and we didn't race very well. We came back with a different car, different motor. We qualified 30th and we were a little conservative doing that because we had a pretty decent car in practice. I think it speaks a lot for the team because we raced really well today. We had a little transmission problem on the first pit stop and we lost a bunch of time. Ryan was kind enough to help us get a lap back and from then on we raced back up to mid-pack, 15th, and I think we were running 10th on that last restart. I'm pretty excited to get up there and race with those guys and have a good day for myself and the team."

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