Sirius at The Glen - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

NOTE: GREG BIFFLE IN NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD AND JAMIE MCMURRAY IN THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE EACH LED A LAP IN THE SIRIUS @ THE GLEN. PRIOR TO SUNDAY'S RACE, TED MUSGRAVE (1992) AND RYAN NEWMAN (2002) WERE THE ONLY RAYBESTOS® ROOKIES TO LEAD A LAP AT THE GLEN SINCE 1986.

MCMURRAY WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT WATKINS GLEN. HE HAS NOW BEEN RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE NINE TIMES THIS SEASON, MORE THAN ANY OTHER FIRST-YEAR DRIVER.

"Our car was pretty bad, to be honest with you. It just lifted the nose in the big esses and got real tight there. We never could fix it. It's the same car that we ran at Sonoma and it kind of did the same thing there. We'll go back and see if we can work on it. The 39 (Scott Pruett, his teammate) had a good day so we might have something to go off of with his car. It looked like some of the other Raybestos® Rookies made mistakes there at the end so we made up a little bit of ground (in the rookie standings). We didn't have a great car but we made the most of it." YOU DID LEAD A LAP. AT THAT POINT DID YOU THINK THINGS WERE GOING TO FALL YOUR WAY? "We knew we were going to have to pit. We stayed out to get five points. That was pretty much it. We just had really bad gas mileage. When you come to a place like this you race it in reverse. We're just really at a big disadvantage. We'll get the fuel mileage better and be better next year."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"I came to almost a complete stop to obey the penalty and then left again and lost four spots. That's not even close to gaining spots and they penalize me for it. They must have been mad at me spinning Jeff (Gordon) out on the first lap." WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE RACE WHEN YOU WERE BLACK FLAGGED? "The 2 car (Rusty Wallace) was taking everybody's groove away going into the chicane and there was going to be a wreck. I was having a hard time slowing up. I didn't anticipate him being there right when I needed to turn in. It was an accident waiting to happen so I avoided the accident, went straight, and then came almost to a complete stop, just the slowest roll, and then got going again. I lost five positions and they gave me a stop-and-go penalty for whatever the reason is. I don't know. I'll have to bring one of these (points to tape recorder) to the rookie meeting next time. YOU RAN WELL TODAY. "We kind of got hurt on that pit stop deal. I don't know how we got beat by all those guys on that deal. We probably had a top-five car or something like that."

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

"That's been the story of our year. We have a good day and we don't close the deal. It's unfortunate. We definitely had a top-five car and Casey did a go od job right up there to the end. Two little mistakes and next thing you know we're wherever we ended up, 25th or 30th, I don't know. It's tough. It's disheartening because it would be nice to capitalize on points and all that fun stuff but we'll just go home and go to Michigan." YOU DID A GOOD JOB KEEPING MEARS UP FRONT ALL DAY, PLAYING THE TRACK POSITION GAME. "Yeah, and that's the way it always ends up here. Track position is a key. You have to get on pit road first and you have to gamble a little bit and we did all that as best we could. It was going to work out fine but it just wasn't to be today for us. It was a fun race and I think Casey adapted well to the place for his first time here. We'll go to Michigan and go get them there." WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE WENT OFF THE COURSE NEAR THE END OF THE RACE? "He didn't get it down into first gear getting into one and when he got it into first gear he got wheel hopping and just got it off there. It's unfortunate, like I said, but we need to close the deal."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"I guess we can't be too disappointed we did run really well. I just feel really bad for the guys and everybody that put such a strong effort for us to do so well here because at the end it was my mistake. I went in too deep and didn't get her woaed down quite in time and got it in first gear, it was too late, and wheel hopped it and spun out. Fortunately we kept her going and didn't loose too many spots but we lost a lot." DID YOU RUN OUT OF GAS AT THE END OF THE RACE? "Yeah we did. That last lap we ran out so we probably would have lost positions there at the end anyway but it was a really good effort by the guys. They did an excellent job and I think we showed these guys that we can run with them today. It's just a matter of bringing one home. It kind of seems to be our theory this year. We run so well we just don't bring it home. But we're going to start doing that." WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT YOU COULD USE NEXT YEAR? "I learned a ton. I don't know anything in specific that I could say, but I definitely learned a ton that I can apply to next year. I'm really looking forward to coming back." HOW MUCH DID SCOTT PRUETT HELP YOU? "He helped me a whole lot in the test. He helped me a whole lot in the test and had some good pointers before the race." WHAT DID HE TELL YOU? "Just everything, from where he enters, where he exits, where he brakes, things to look out for on starts, where to be careful. From top to bottom he helped me out so I appreciate him being here today." DOES THIS GOOD RUN GIVE YOUR TEAM MOMENTUM GOING INTO NEXT WEEK? "Definitely. We can run good, we can run strong, and we can win races. We know we can. We keep falling short but we're not going to do that anymore."

Unofficial Raybestos Rookie points after the Glen:

Greg Biffle 219
Jamie McMurray 215
Casey Mears 177
Tony Raines 169
Jack Sprague 158
Larry Foyt 111
Hideo Fukuyama 21

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