Aaron’s 499 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

WHAT HAPPENED? "I don't know. I just talked to Ryan and he said that he blew out a left rear tire and it just started a chain reaction. We all tried to miss it and I went high and tried to miss it there. I tried not to hit Jamie and Rusty got into the back of me and a bunch of other guys got in it and couldn't do anything about it. It's always frustrating when you crash. ARE YOU OKAY? "I feel fine. It wasn't a real hard hit. It's too bad. We had a kind of had a rough start to the year. We had a good qualifying spot with the Target Dodge and felt pretty good about it. I'm just glad that it wasn't somebody that got into somebody that started that whole thing. I feel bad for Ryan and everybody else that got caught up in it. DID YOU HAVE ANY CHANCE OF MISSING THE ACCIDENT? "No, I mean it was right in front of me. I slowed down and then Rusty got into the back of me."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 0 NETZERO PONTIAC:

"I thought I was through it. I went kind of in the middle of the racetrack and saw one car come down. I got hit in the right side and put back in it. It's too bad. The NetZero Pontiac qualified good and it was running good. Three laps: not good. I tried to position myself to where I could miss it if I could. I couldn't miss it, I guess, or I would have missed it. But three laps. Not good. WHERE WERE YOU AT IN THE ACCIDENT? "I have no idea where I was at. I was at the bottom following Bobby Labonte and it all went crazy so I don't know." DID YOU HAVE ANY CHANCE AT ALL TO MISS IT? "I had it missed and then I got hit by one of the other ones that didn't have it missed."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO.42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"I think the 12 car cut a tire down or something. I didn't see it. I just saw him get up into the wall and then that was kind of it, just a wreck and smoke. DID YOU HAVE ANY CHANCE AT ALL OF MISSING IT? "I slowed down and got ran into which is the standard thing at the speedway deal. I've run into guys when I was behind them. When you are going that fast, it's just hard to race at a racetrack like this. There was a lot of smoke and a lot of parts flying around is all I saw. We're fortunate that our car is not tore up that bad. We're getting ready to go. WHAT WAS THE MAJOR DAMAGE TO THE CAR? "It bent a truck arm and they are going to do some little stuff on the front end but just the body over there but not bad at all."

TONY RAINES IN THE NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT TALLADEGA. RAINES FINISHED 16TH, HIS BEST CAREER WINSTON CUP FINISH. HE TOOK TOP FINISHING ROOKIE HONORS FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON. HE WAS THE ONLY RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE TO FINISH ON THE LEAD LAP. RAINES STARTED 43RD IN THE RACE. TALLADEGA WAS RAINES' 14TH CAREER WINSTON CUP START.

"The last two weeks have been hard on us. We had a pretty good car. We missed the big one there early and missed another close call with Michael Waltrip hitting the wall. We had a pretty good car and the last pit stop we got gas and had a little miscue, something took too long and we ended up losing the draft. We were in the draft all day and I learned a lot. I thought I'd be able to be up there to mix it up. All things considered this is a good shot in the arm. AFTER THE HUGE WRECK THE FIELD THINNED OUT. DID THAT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN HOW YOU RACED? "They'd be calm for about 10 or 12 laps and then they would get racy again. It was kind of weird. I could get up there and play, it's just with that yellow stripe on the back nobody would play with me. I was kind of like a man on an island by myself. I learned a lot today and the car is in one piece and we got us a 16th place finish. It could have been a lot worse." WHAT'S THE ONE THING THAT YOU LEARNED TODAY THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO DAYTONA IN JULY? "You've got to miss the big one. It's just pure luck. We were fortunate that we were at the back because of our poor qualifying otherwise we would have been right in the middle of that. Some things happen for a reason, I guess. Like I said, when it's all said and done we got a Raybestos® Rookie of the Race, got our first top-20, the car is still in one piece, and the motor didn't break. All is looking good right now." WAS TODAY A BUILDING STEP FOR YOU RACE TEAM? "I'm sure it is. That's something that we needed. We hadn't finished a race in two or three races so this is just an example of what we can do if things go our way a little bit." HOW CLOSE DID YOU GET TO THE BIG WRECK? "I don't know how I missed Michael Waltrip on the second wreck. The first one wasn't so bad because I saw it start early and I got it woaed down pretty good and still almost got in it with all the oil on the track. How I missed Michael Waltrip, I'll never know. It was really, really close. We just got luck that time." ANY DAMAGE TO THE CAR? "I think there is one little scratch on the lower valence on the right front where we ran over some debris in that first wreck. Everything is good and we'll go to Martinsville and see what we can do there." FEW PEOPLE CAN SMILE AFTER TALLADEGA. "Compared to what we've been doing, it's going to make us smile.

SELECTED RAINES RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

"It was actually good and bad. We had a pretty good car in qualifying but something happened to the car on the second lap and we didn't actually get up to speed. I think we would have (qualified) 15th to 18th and so we got the last provisional. So it might have been a blessing. We missed that first big wreck and I think that obviously is the key to why you have a good finish. We were up in that lead pack throughout the whole race and then that last fuel stop we got hung up in the pits. Something happened and we ended up spending a lot more time in there that we should have and we lost the draft and finished 16th. I was a little disappointed about not being able to possibly get a better finish at the end. But all things considered, the way the last two weeks have went, a lead lap finish and the car is in one piece is what this team needed. TALK ABOUT MISSING THE ACCIDENT. "We started 43rd which is obviously the key. Going into one I saw the smoke and I've never stood on the brakes that hard in my life. I think I was almost stopped when I got to it. The spotter said 'Stay high, stay high' but when I got to where all the cars had wrecked the oil and all that on the track, I had the wheels turned to the right and the car just went straight down into the pile of cars. I finally got smart enough to let off the brake and it quit sliding. I steered right through it and came out and I thought "that's worth about 20 spots.' That's the best move of the season for us. Everybody seems to think that we're going to have a big wreck here and you either need to be first or last because anywhere in between is bad news."

RANDY GOSS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

HOW DID THE CAR RUN SO WELL WITH SO MUCH TAPE ON IT? "I'm not sure. I think we got up to second with that thing all taped up. My car chief said we need to take that thing to the wind tunnel (laughs). We work and work on them and we wreck them and tape them up and they run better. This is a great day for the Grainger guys. We got up to second with a wrecked race car. We went through a lot of things as a team, struggled hard, kept digging, and kept him on the lead lap. It was a huge learning curve for us, as far as this kind of stuff happening. If you ever do get in the point where you are a championship run, we're practicing." WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU TOOK THE CAR BEHIND THE WALL LATE IN THE RACE? "That initial wreck we hit something and bent the lower control arm or something major. So they reset the toe and put it back on, stayed on the lead lap that whole time and then finally something let go. A part; I'm going to look at it here in a little bit. A part let go. He said he was just getting into three and it just flung out. He was in the middle of the pack and he didn't know if it was a flat or what. It just rolled it over like you see them coming in steaming sometimes. Greg did a great job of driving all day. It was a good day for us. We'd been struggling this year as a beginner team. Everybody feels like 'Hey, he's a new rookie and the compare you to Jimmie Johnson' or whatever. But this team can't be prepared to Jimmie Johnson because we started from scratch. We didn't get anybody else's cars and we've been digging away. I'm just real proud of the Grainger guys today. ARE YOU BAFFLED WHY YOU STRUGGLED IN QUALIFYING BUT RAN SO WELL IN THE RACE? "I think some of the rule changes have even up some of stuff that was going on before and it's easier to stay in the big pack and then the rest is up to the driver once you get to the big pack. By ourselves, our car is not competitive. In a big pack with Greg driving it, we're pretty darn good." IS THIS A MOMENTUM BUILDER FOR THE TEAM OR ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED? "I'm not disappointed at all. I'm disappointed in the finish, you know, for what we had. It's a momentum builder for me, I'm sure it is for all the guys for as hard as they worked today. The results that we got, if we would have laid down or given up or did anything different, would have been way worse than what we ended up with. I feel like it's a momentum builder for the team. They learned a lot. We turned them into a Winston Cup team. WILL THIS CAR GO TO DAYTONA IN JULY? "Greg has been wanting us to build him a new car. We got a new car coming for California which we are pretty excited about. If we get time, yeah, I'd love to build him a new car but I don't see where we're going to have time."

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

"I wish we could have been there at the end to run with the lead pack because we had a pretty good car. I don't know if we were a little bit slow on our pit stop or what but we got behind and the race went green the rest of the way so we didn't get back up in there and fight it out. We had a good car. It was a good day for us." COULD YOU TELL THIS CAR WAS BETTER HERE AT TALLADEGA THAN AT DAYTONA? "It seemed to be better. We made some changes on the body. We put a different nose on it and some new front fenders. Our other speedway car has been in the wind tunnel and we did some things to improve this car. We felt like we could pass that along to this car and we did and it seemed to be better. I think we are gaining on it." HOW STRESSFUL IN A RACE HERE FOR A CREW CHIEF? "I guess it's as nerve racking as you want it to be. I don't really get nervous because there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. You just hope you can stick it in the truck when the day is over." IS THIS A BUILDING STEP TO TURN YOUR SEASON AROUND? "We've had good cars, decent cars, everywhere we're been. We just hadn't had the finishes. We've blown two motors and wrecked a couple of times. The ones we finished, we've finished fairly decent so I think if we can keep plugging away and doing what we've been doing, the finishes will come for us." HOW WAS THE MARTINSVILLE TEST EARLIER IN THE WEEK? "We tested pretty good. Tony hadn't been there in like a couple or three years, since he raced the truck there. He fell right back in and I thought he ran some pretty decent laps. I think we will be in pretty good shape when we go up there. We're going back to the wind tunnel next week and Kentucky the week after that and do some more testing so hopefully that will get our program going up." CAN YOU TELL YOU ARE MAKING PROGRESS BUILDING THE TEAM? "I think we are definitely making progress. We're kind of taking little tiny steps, not being able to take real big steps, but I think we're slowly making some progress."

UNOFFICIAL RAYBESTOS ROOKIE STANDINGS AFTER TALLADEGA:

Jamie McMurray 82
Greg Biffle 78
Casey Mears 72
Jack Sprague 68
Tony Raines 62
Larry Foyt 37
Hideo Fukuyama 7

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