Auto Club 500 - Dodge Friday Quotes

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

NOTE: McMurray announced Friday morning at California Speedway a “Driving Autism Awareness” program that will contribute $42 for every lap McMurray leads this season to the Autism Society of America. McMurray will race the Driving Autism Awareness 2005 Dodge Charger at Bristol Motor Speedway in April.

“Bristol is a racetrack you battle at all day long, more so than other places. This is a battle we’re fighting and the two just kinda go together.”

COMMENT ON WHY YOU’RE SO PASSIONATE ABOUT RAISING MONEY FOR AUTISM “It hasn’t been near as hard on me as it’s been on my sister. I hate it when you get emotional, but it’s something I believe in and it’s hard not to. I remember when my niece (Lauren) was six months old she constantly cried. No one knew why, and it was very hard to talk to her and relate to her. When she became old enough they figured out something wasn’t right. It’s just hard because she would cry and she can’t explain to you why she’s crying. It’s something that’s very sad. Everyone loves kids. When you see something that’s so helpless, it’s sad.

“My sister, Trisha, will be 35 this year. I think a big misconception in America at least is when you think autism you think Rainman. That’s the first thing that came to my mind, ‘oh, she’s going to be able to count.’ There are so many different types. It’s different for everyone. When you see something that’s so small that’s so helpless, it’s just hard. Havoline has come up with the majority of these ideas. They want to be a big part of it because they know it’s something I really believe in. Who doesn’t want to be a part of something that’s such a good cause. Elliott Sadler has a niece that’s autistic. I think her name is Haley. It’s great because Elliott and I are probably two of the closer drivers in this series and we both have the same goals in mind with this. The biggest thing is people might see these puzzle pieces on the back of the car and might not know exactly what it is. We’re very fortunate we’re in the biggest form of racing in America and it’s something we can promote. It’s something that hits me personally. I think people pick charities sometimes and it’s something they don’t really believe in. This is something I really believe in. Havoline has come up with the $42 for every lap I lead, and everybody has been willing to chip in and do their part.

“My sister lives in Joplin, Mo. That’s where I was raised. I see her maybe eight times a year. She’s actually getting ready to move to North Carolina. She’s spent the last year trying to figure out where you can send Lauren to school. It’s been tough. You just don’t pick up and move like you do with regular children.”

COMMENT ON NEW QUALIFYING SCHEDULE “I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s going to work out. It’s going to be kinda odd tomorrow, qualifying the Busch car at 10 a.m. and then waiting until 3 to race. We don’t have to focus on qualifying now (in Cup). We can go out and work on our race run stuff, make a couple of changes and it’ll be easier on the teams. We won’t have to switch back and forth from qualifying to race trim.”

COMMENT ON RACING AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY “We didn’t get a very good test here and Vegas. We struggled. We never could get a good balance on the car, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the speedways where we can actually race. At Daytona you’re pretty much helpless what you can do as a driver. You’re pretty much dependent on horsepower and you car itself. This place puts a lot more driver into it. I know, along with the other 42 drivers here, we’re glad to get through Daytona.”

COMMENT ON NOT GOING TO ROCKINGHAM “It would be great to go to Rockingham this weekend. Rockingham is one of my favorite racetracks. It was always nice if you didn’t run well at Daytona to always go to a track where you did run well. They couldn’t sell enough seats, and this sport is definitely based on fans. That’s what makes it happen, so we’re here in L.A. It’s another great venue and another great track where I run well. I’m not going to dwell on the past. I think Rockingham is somewhat like Darlington. It’s a traditional racetrack. It’s somewhere they want for a long time, and it’s close to home for the teams. If they could put Rockingham here, they would sell it out because it’s one of the best racetracks we race on. I think everyone enjoyed going there.”

COMMENT ON NASCAR’S POPULARITY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA “I haven’t spent a lot of time in L.A. and people always want to talk about getting recognized out here. You don’t as much, but more this year than ever. We went to a couple of Hollywood parties, and I was overly impressed with the amount of celebrities that recognize you. Maybe you weren’t their favorite driver, but they come up and tell you who their favorite driver is. The sport is bigger than ever right now. It might take a little time to sell this out, but it’s a great venue for us.”

IS IT MORE IMPORTANT TO RACE WELL AT CALIFORNIA AFTER NOT GETTING THE RESULTS YOU WANTED AT DAYTONA? “We tested here and Vegas along with everyone else in the series and didn’t have the test we wanted. We brought back the same chassis but a completely different car, so we hope we’ve made the right adjustments.”

IS THIS A TOUGH TRACK TO GET A HANDLE ON? “I don’t think so. I’ve run third, fourth and 15th here. It’s been a really good racetrack for me and I love coming here. We almost won the race in 2003. I don’t know if we led the most laps, but we led a lot of laps and got beat at the end.”

COMMENT ON PIT ROAD SPEEDING “I’m glad they’re all getting caught. You watch it all the time. It’s something everyone does, but now that they’ve got this electronic timing it’s not going to happen any more. They’re going to penalize the guy. I’m really glad they stepped up. They’re going to catch me eventually, but it’s fair for everyone. You just have to be more cautious. I don’t think they’re going to penalize you for something small if it’s real close. If your rpm is supposed to be 4,000, they might go 5,000. I don’t know how much faster it is, but it’s a lot and it’s definitely frustrating when you see that happen.”

COMMENT ON GOING TO MEXICO “I’m very excited. I’m glad Havoline has stepped up and going to let me go. I wanted to run Rusty’s car, but Rusty said he was the car owner and this was his last year so he was going to go. Chip called and asked if I want to go and I said, ‘most definitely.’ I love Mexican food. My sister owned a Mexican restaurant for years. It’s some of my favorite. I’m going home after California, going to Mexico City and then straight to Las Vegas. We ran fourth at Vegas last year. It’s a fun town, and it’s a good environment to be in. I’ve never been to Mexico. I’ve been to Russia. I raced go-karts there in 1989. I was one of 10 Americans chosen to go there and race. I won one of the races. Russia was very poor. I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family at all, but that whole country when we were there, it was still a Communist country at the time, and I just couldn’t believe how grateful the Russians were just to get food. We’d go in the cafeteria and they would bring food. The American kids would joke around, and the Russian kids would sit down and eat as much as they could. Apparently they didn’t get to always eat like that. When we came home it made you think differently about your life.”

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

COMMENT ON PIT ROAD SPEEDING “The pace car has to be calibrated for sure. If not, who’s to say we didn’t run 3,900 rpm’s and the pace car was off. I’m sure they’ve looked into that, but it’s always something. When a rule comes out another rule has to come out and they have to adjust on it. As long as it’s right for everybody I’m cool about it.”

COMMENT ON SHORTER SPOILER “I think everybody is concerned about it. We’ll just have to wait and see. We tested here and had a great test. I don’t think it’s going to be a crap shoot. The only thing that’s going to be a crap shoot is you’ll see a lot of people trying a lot of different stuff. I think we’re as good as we can possibly be. You always want to be the ones to raise the bar, and hopefully we’ll be the ones with these new rules.”

DO YOU THINK IT’LL TAKE A FEW WEEKS TO GET THINGS SORTED OUT? “It might. You might see one car hit on it or a couple of teams. Who knows? Everybody might have it figured out, but I think there’s going to be a learning curve the next couple of weeks. We hope we’ve done enough work over the winter to have a handle on it.”

COMMENT ON BILL ELLIOTT “Bill’s a great guy. He’s pretty much Bill Elliott all the time. He’s always helpful, and I think he’s liking what he’s doing. He’s racing when he wants to and having a good time. He seems cool. He’s always been kinda relaxed. It’s hard to tell when he’s tense and when he’s relaxed. Every time I’ve been around him he’s cutting up and having a good time.”

COMMENT ON NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURE “Usually if you’re not good by now you’re not going to be anyway. We’re just going to do the best we can and get our stuff racing good. We kinda did that last year anyway. We practiced race setup and then threw in qualifying trim. It’s going to be weird not having Happy Hour on Saturday, but that’s all part of it. We’ve got today to get our race stuff right. It’ll be even for everybody.”

IS IT A RELIEF TO BE OUT OF DAYTONA? “I’m so happy right now. I want to race again. Last week was pretty crazy. I miss Rockingham, but it’s good to be here now that we’re here. I ran second at Rockingham a few times, but I’ve won here. I like this place. The track has changed a little since I won here. It’s a little slicker and the setups have changed. The main thing, it’s still the same track. We had a good run going here last year. It’s hard to win here, but I think we’ll be in good shape on Sunday. We’ll see how we stack up. I had a good test here, but it was real windy and hard to tell what you really had. We feel like we’ve got a better handle on it now than we did at the test.”

IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE A GOOD FINISH HERE? “It’s important everywhere, but we want to have a good finish here. We’re not going to let one week set us back. We overcame a lot of stuff at Daytona, so I’m happy about it. We just need to catch a break. We’ll keep getting up in the morning and thank God for what we’ve got. We want to win, but you can’t let that burning desire wear you down.”

BILL ELLIOTT (No.91 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger)

WHY DIDN’T YOU DO A FAREWELL TOUR? “I saw what it did to Richard (Petty) when he did all that mess. For me it wasn’t my style. I definitely don’t want to run all the races. When I made that decision it was perfectly clear. I still want to run some, but to sit down and run a full season, I was done with that. I’ve done it for 21 years and that’s enough. Ray needs to keep good sponsors around him. Right now we’re trying to attract a deal that can come in and be the next group that can take over.”

ANY PLANS SET FOR BUSCH RACES THIS YEAR? “I’ve got a few things I’m planning on. It might happen and it might not. It’s like when I go run my dirt car. I’ll decide Friday morning if I want to go run it Friday night and then I’ll show up. I hear Kasay and a lot of these guys now. I’ve been here 30 years. I’ve lived this stuff. I know what it’s all about. For me to go and have a big hassle, I don’t want it and I don’t need it. For me there’s more important things. I love to race, but I ain’t going through the hassle. Just like if I go to a dirt show and it takes all night to run the race, I’ll load up and go home. It ain’t because I get mad. It’s because I’ve got more important things to do. I want to race. I want it to be more of a pleasurable situation rather than a hassle. When it becomes a hassle it becomes no fun. Then why are we here? I’ve been fortunate enough to race through my lifetime and have a good time at it. Now there’s another point in my life. What am I going to do the next 5, 10 15 years? I don’t see anyone else in here much older than me that’s still running all the races. I get more fun out of watching him (9-year-old son Chase) race than anything else in the world. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like talking to Kasey Kahne and some of the guys Ray’s got. You tell ‘em, but they’ve got to live it.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Mears, a 26-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., native, was 13th fastest in the first practice session Friday. Mears will make his 74th career start on Sunday.

DID YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES FOR THE FINAL PRACTICE? “Yeah, we’re looking for more front grip. I think the rear is going to feel bad no matter what you do to it because of the spoiler change. We just need to get it turning a little bit better coming off one and two. This big cloud that just came over will help out a lot because the sun was beating down real bad in one and two. Three and four wasn’t too bad. Everybody I talked to was concerned about one and two. If we can get it turning a little bit better I think we’ll be in good shape.”

DIDN’T TURNS THREE AND FOUR GIVE YOU PROBLEMS DURING THE TEST HERE EARLIER THIS MONTH? “The wind was blowing across the nose and getting the cars real tight. One and two was easy because it had a bunch of downforce going in. The sun was beating down in one and two today harder than it was in three and four. We had a little problem with our test motors. It was hard to tell if we needed to get more out of the cars or more out of the motor. We came back with a good race motor and the guys did a good job. We’re right in the hunt.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURE? “I think it’s cool. It gets you thinking. Everybody wants to qualify good, but it puts more emphasis on racing. Right now, with everybody getting the cars to travel as much as they possibly can, and running the softest springs they possibly can, it changes the way you qualify. I think everybody is basically going to be unhappy in qualifying trim. It’s not going to feel good. You’re going to be hanging on. It’s pretty much going to be race trim, but they’re allowing you to put some rounds in it to get a little bit more bite. You can adjust your tire pressures. You can get it to where it’s a little bit too tight, but it’s going to be a much finer line of not bottoming out. You travel a lot further when you pick up speed, but it’s only for two laps. You’ve got to make sure you’re good for the race first and foremost.”

COMMENT ON PIT ROAD SPEEDING “I had a misunderstanding of how it’s always been. To be honest, I didn’t do anything different at Daytona than I’ve done in the last three years. The last pit box is where almost everybody got caught. I envisioned pit road speed being where the camera was on the end of pit road. On down where the cones are there’s a pit road speed line. Everybody, until they got this new electronic system, when they got to the end of pit road they would gas and take off. That’s what I did, and I think that’s what most everybody else did that got caught. I’ve got a pretty good idea now. Now that things are more accurate you’ve got to be more critical getting in and getting off. When you’re going down pit road it’s easy because you can look at your tach, but there’s got to be some leniency there. Now they have something that’s very accurate. What we have in our cars is not very accurate. They could vary 200-300 rpm. I’m glad they have an accurate system now, but if they’re going to get strict about it, they need to give us something more accurate, too.”

ANY GOOD CALIFORNIA HOME COOKIN’ STORIES TO TELL? “Jamie and I went to do The Best Damn Sports Show and we hung out in Hollywood a couple of days. We didn’t do anything too crazy. We went to some nice restaurants, did some shopping and kind of relaxed for a couple of days.

“We went to a party waiting to get in and Ashton Kutcher walked in. We met him the week before in Daytona. He had recommended a place for us to stay down there and we stayed there. It was funny because we ran into him in the front. He told Jamie and I how we ran at Daytona and where we finished. He helped us getting a better seat at the party, so that was pretty cool.

“The off weekends are stacked together at the beginning of the year, and you feel guilty taking so much time, but you’ve got to take it when you can get it. I haven’t been to Bakersfield in a couple of years now so I’m going to take a trip down and stay down there a couple of days after the race. I’m coming back to Southern California and relax at the beach with some friends in San Diego and then go to Vegas a little bit early.”