Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Dodge Saturday Quotes

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline “Shine On” Dodge Charger)

NOTE: McMurray finished second in last year’s Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. McMurray finished 11th in the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Standings. He’s currently 11th in the standings after 15 races in 2005. McMurray is just four points behind 10th place and 105 out of fifth. He qualified 17th for Sunday’s race.

“We tested out here last year and had a real good test. We came back for the race and were good all weekend. We tested out here this year and had an average test and we started off with an average weekend. We’ve changed a lot of stuff, but in this race if you don’t have a fast car you just use pit strategy. I think people are going to be surprised how far we can go on fuel this weekend. All the Ganassi teams should get good fuel mileage.”

HOW CAN YOU BEAT JEFF GORDON? “He’s really good here. His car is really good. I really don’t know how we can beat him, but we’re sure going to try.”

DO YOU DO ANYTHING SPECIAL TO PREPARE FOR A ROAD RACE? “I enjoy road racing, but there’s really nothing you do special to prepare for it. I like both of the road courses we go to, but I run better here. You can pass here in turn 11 if your car is good, and you can pass in turn 7, but it’s hard. The easiest place to pass is on pit road. We’ve got a good pit crew. It’s tremendously better than last year, so we’re going to be counting on pit strategy to help us get to the front.”

HAVE YOU BEEN HAVING FUN IN CALIFORNIA? “I’ve been doing lots of appearances, playing lots of golf, tasting lots of wine. I like red wine. I don’t know if I know enough about wine to know which I like best, but I do enjoy it.”

WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY? “Well, we’re going to have a lot of guests here, and we need to have a good race. I think we’ve got about 350 guests from Chevron/Havoline so we need to put on a good show for ‘em. The road courses are some of my favorite tracks. If your car is good you can have a lot of fun here. I had a lot of fun in last year’s race and hopefully we can improve a little bit and have even more fun here this year.”

YOU’RE CLOSE TO THE TOP 10 WITH 11 RACES LEFT TO QUALIFY FOR THE CHASE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES OF A TOP 10 RANKING AFTER 26 RACES? “We haven’t been very consistent. We run great one weekend and bad the next. We’re just hanging on. We’re ranked above some guys who have won races this year, but we want to win. I think we can do well here. I’d really like to leave here with a top-five finish and that should put us in the top 10 in the standings heading to Daytona. I think good fuel mileage will work in our favor. We can probably go somewhere between 30-35 laps, and it’s a 110-lap race, so you’ve got to make three stops. We haven’t talked fuel strategy yet. Donnie (crew chief Wingo) and I will do that tomorrow. We’ve been working really hard on getting good fuel mileage, so we’ll see how it plays out. Hopefully we’ll be able to use it to our favor.”

DOES IT HELP TO HAVE A GUY LIKE SCOTT PRUETT AS A TEAMMATE HERE? “He might not help us when we get to the racetrack, but they take him and do a lot of brake testing and transmission stuff. He really helps in preparation. He’s got a really good feel for the car, and he gets our whole organization on the right track in getting prepared to come to the track, but once we get here, you’re pretty much on your own.”

WHAT’S YOUR ROAD RACING STYLE? “I think I’m pretty much a finesse guy. I think you need to be smooth here. A lot of it depends on how the car’s working. Sometimes you might have to manhandle it, but the smoother, the better, the faster.”