EA Sports 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

BEN HOLM, CREW CHIEF, NO. 14 HARRAH'S DODGE (LARRY FOYT):

WHAT DID LARRY SAY ON THE RADIO? "He didn't really say anything. The spotter asked him if he was okay. You could tell that he got the wind knocked out of him. He said that he would be okay and that's about all he said. There wasn't a whole lot of communication. The way it happened there was nothing that could have been done. I guess the 19 cut a tire down and shot straight up the track and clipped us and put Larry into the fence." HOW MUCH DAMAGE TO THE CAR? "It's a write off. We can start all over on a new one now."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"I haven't seen Sterling's yet but it's a similar problem. I'm not exactly sure what happened to be honest. It's a pressurized system and it built up a lot of pressure and it looked like it blew the radiator apart. It's too bad for the Target Dodge and the whole team. We've had a tough year and this looked like it would have been a pretty good race for us. Really, I was just trying to stay out of trouble mainly the whole race. Anytime we wanted to go toward the front we could. I was just kind of riding in the back, going up there every now and then to see how things were. But I'm real proud the guys back at the shop and Ernie Elliott engines. We had good motors and had a good car obviously. We qualified good. We just need a break." COMMENT ON THE NEW RULES FOR THIS RACE. "It's really kind of hard for me to say what the differences are because in the spring I got three laps in and Newman blew out the left rear and we got caught up in that crash so it's kind of hard to tell if it's much different. I mean it's fun. You can pull up on guys good and it's nice having a little bit more power. For me, I had a good time but whether it's better or not you'll have to ask one of these guys that have done it quite a bit." YOU DIDN'T EVEN PRACTICE IN HAPPY HOUR. WAS THE CAR THAT GOOD? "Definitely. At this place, you build your body and you have your motor and there are little slight changes that you can make here and there to try and make the thing a little bit better but usually it's what you've got and right away we were pretty good and we thought why risk it. Usually there's some crashes in happy hour and we didn't want to be a part of that so we sat out. And it was good for me because I stood up on the trailer and watched and kind of learned what some of these guys did. I'm glad I got to run more laps this time and learn. It's just too bad that we had a problem." THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST RUNS THAT YOU'VE HAD ALL SEASON. THAT MUST MAKE THIS EXTRA FRUSTRATING. "It's frustrating but I don't get too frustrated because nothing surprises me now. We've had so much bad luck this year and so many things go wrong that when something goes bad it's just another thing that went wrong. Obviously, it's very frustrating but at the end of the day I didn't have anything to do with this and I couldn't have stopped it and neither could have any of the guys. We just have to go to work back at the shop. We know we have a good thing here, like I've been saying all year long. We really do. We've got a great team. I'm learning by leaps and bounds and keep doing it every race. We've just got to put one together and now that I've got some experience I feeling a lot more comfortable behind the wheel. We'll step up and start getting things right. Jimmy Elledge and I, our communication is getting better and better all the time and he's starring to know what I want out of these cars. I'm really looking forward to Kansas because that's the car that we ran Chicago with and that was a good race for us. We'll see how it goes."

NOTE: At least one Raybestos® Rookie has now led a lap in each of the past FIVE EA Sports 500 races (fall events) at Talladega: Tony Stewart (1999), Mike Bliss, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Stacy Compton (2000), Jason Leffler (2001), Ryan Newman (2002) and Jamie McMurray (2003).

Jamie McMurray was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race at Talladega. He finished 16th and took top rookie honors for the 15th time this season. He has been the top Raybestos Rookie in each of the last six races.

JAMIE MCMURRAY IN THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"I led there a little bit there at the beginning. We just weren't fast when we needed to be. I'm pretty happy that we finished. We haven't finished one of these all year long. That's not great but we beat Greg (Biffle) again in the Raybestos® Rookie race." WHAT DAMAGED YOUR CAR? "The 01 car got into me a little bit and it knocked me into the 24 and just poked a hole in the nose. That really didn't hurt us. I mean we were pretty fast there at the end again. I just couldn't time it out right. I think I was up to about seventh on the next to last lap and lost all that. I thought I finished about fifth (laughs) the way it looked." ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE NEW RULES PACKAGE? "Yeah. I think they are probably going to go a little bit more from what I'm hearing. But my car drove well all day. I could pass and we had one of the fastest cars so I was pretty happy." AS WELL AS YOU RAN, ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH THE FINISH? "A little bit. We want to run in the top-10 each week and felt like we had a top-10 car but that's the way it goes." IS THIS AN IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR PLATE PROGRAM? "Yeah, it's the same car that we had at Daytona. We thought it was this good at Daytona we just didn't get a chance to show it. They went back and rebuilt it. I tell you what, our speedway program is incredible with me, Casey, and Sterling, all of our guys, the engine shop and the guys that hang the bodies, that's just amazing." WHAT DID YOU LEARN RACING AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA THAT YOU CAN APPLY NEXT SEASON? "The biggest thing is that the guys will play with me now where before they wouldn't (laughs). And now you can kind of make a move and guys will go with you. I don't know that I've learned anything, just more help." CAN YOU TELL THAT YOU ARE GETTING MORE RESPECT ON THE TRACK? "Oh yeah and I've had guys come over in the garage area and say stuff to me. Most definitely." HOW BIG IS THIS GOOD RUN, MOMENTUM WISE, AS WE HEAD TO RACES AT KANSAS AND CHARLOTTE? 'We'll have a shot to win Kansas and Charlotte. We tested at Charlotte and had an awesome test and I like Kansas. It's my hometown and we're running the Busch car so we're really looking forward to going there." HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT TO BE TO RUN WELL AT KANSAS? "A lot of family will be there and obviously a lot of friends, people that I grew up with so we hope to put on a good show for them."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"That's the way it is when you come to these places. You don't have a fast car, you don't have a fast car. I qualified 38th and two cars fell out so I didn't have to take a provisional." YOUR CAR HAS DAMAGE TO THE LEFT FRONT. DID THAT HAPPEN AFTER THE RACE? "I don't know what happened going into one down there. Everybody maybe tried to slow down too quick. I'm not sure. The 31 was completely sideways in front of me and that's all I saw."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

YOU WERE INVOLVED AN EARLY ACCIDENT. WERE YOU A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES? "Absolutely. The 19 car, I see his tire going down and I started checking-up. I was turning left and I about had him cleared and somebody clipped me. I was riding around in the back there for a little bit thinking 'You know, this is probably a good place to be for a while' and then I passed like three or four cars and that was a mistake. All hell broke loose but that's the way it goes."

Unofficial Raybestos Rookie standings

Jamie McMurray 260
Greg Biffle 239
Casey Mears 186
Tony Raines 186
Jack Sprague 158
Larry Foyt 134

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