Jamie McMurray

Eddie Wood

April 15, 2008 - The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will take the weekend off before resuming the following weekend at Talladega. Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, says he doesn’t have any special plans scheduled for this weekend – other than probably playing some golf.

JAMIE McMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – WITH AS MUCH TRAVEL AS YOU DO THROUGHOUT THE SEASON, WILL YOU STAY AT HOME THIS WEEKEND – OR ARE YOU LOOKING TO GET AWAY? “I’d go away, but you have to plan that out, and my girlfriend and I didn’t come up with a anything good to do, so we’re just going to stay at home. I’ll probably play golf; she’ll probably lay by the pool.”

WHEN THE SCHEDULE COMES OUT, DO YOU GENERALLY LOOK AHEAD AND CIRCLE THE OFF-WEEKENDS? “I’ve been more focused on getting our car back up in points than I have, really, paying attention when there’s going to be an off-week, so I haven’t really given it much thought.”

Eddie Wood, co-owner of the Wood Brothers No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion, says even though it’s an off-week on the schedule, it won’t be an off-week in the shop. There’s plenty of work to be done – including some testing – prior to the race at Talladega in a couple of weekends.

EDDIE WOOD – FOR A TEAM THAT WHICH EVERY POINT IS CRITICAL RIGHT NOW, DOES A WEEK OFF MEAN A WEEK OFF? “We’re going to do some testing. We’re going to get ready to test this coming week, the week going into Talladega we’re going to go to Iowa for a two-day test. It’s a three-quarter-mile track and that’ll apply to Richmond and some other places. And, I think we’ve got a shake-rig test one of the days next week. No, just because it’s week off doesn’t mean – you won’t be at the race track, obviously, on Sunday, you’re going to be working on your race cars. We are.”

DOES AN OFF-WEEK ALLOW YOU A GREATER OPPORTUNITY TO DO THOSE TYPES OF THINGS THAT YOU OTHERWISE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DO AND GO RACING THAT WEEKEND? “No. You will, but it wouldn’t really matter if we were racing somewhere next weekend, we’d still do the testing that we’re talking about doing because you can do just about anything you want to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and even Thursday, sometimes, as long as you can get where you need to get by Friday morning, which in this case, this past weekend, the track opened on Thursday. But, generally, it’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”

BECAUSE THE SEASON CAN BE SO GRUELING, DO YOU MAKE IT A POINT TO MAKE SURE THE CREW MEMBERS TAKE TIME OFF, OR IS THAT SOMETHING THAT GETS SPREAD OUT OVER THE SEASON? “They know the amount of work that’s got to be done and what they’ve got to do, and they’re pretty good about taking care of themselves as far as taking time off. It is a weekend off, so they do need to take the weekend off, for sure.”