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2010 Bud Shootout: Jamie McMurray NASCAR Sprint Cup Post-Race Press Conference - P3
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JAMIE McMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA
KERRY THARP: Let's hear from tonight's third place finisher, that is Jamie McMurray. He drives the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi. Congratulations, Jamie. A good run for you. Talk about your run.
JAMIE McMURRAY: We had a great night. It's a wonderful way to start my relationship back with Chip Ganassi and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. You never know when you start out if you're going to like the setups that they give you or the cars, if you're going to have to work on all of that.
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We unloaded pretty much with the setup that they built at the shop, and didn't change anything all night long. Pretty much the way we unloaded the car. We got caught up in that wreck. It kind of worked out to benefit us because the backup car drove a lot better than what the primary car did. Kevin explained to me after practice that they chose the third best car for the Shootout. Our backup car was the second best car. So it wasn't surprising to him.
But feels great to be back. It's just a really good way to start that relationship again.
KERRY THARP: We'll take questions
Q. Jamie, did you feel you had one of the fastest cars during the race? You mentioned Matt did as well. Who did you think was really capable of being up front much of the race?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I thought the 99 had one of the best cars because we ran the first 25 laps and nobody could really clear him. He could work both lanes. It looked to me like, whether it was Stewart or Harvick or me, or even Kasey, if you got to the lead, you could only hold it for a lap. Carl was able to hold onto it quite a while. I don't know exactly what happened to him.
But I thought that Carl and Matt had really good cars. And honestly I thought that we had one of the better cars tonight. You know, the ECR engines run really well. They did a really good job at making the car drive great. That's what Daytona is all about. You know, when you can drive in the corner and the car doesn't wash up, you can run wide open on the bottom with guys on your outside, it's really hard to do that. I could run pretty much flat out the whole night. The car was really loose, but you were able to hold it wide open. That's what you work for in practice, is to be able to do that.
I'm hoping I can make some Twitter page at this point, too, so you know. If you want to send the highlight out, I'd appreciate it (smiling).
Q. Tony made a pretty aggressive pass between y'all near the end of the that first segment. Is that more of the kind of passing we are likely to see next week? Are the cars able to make that move a little better now?
JAMIE McMURRAY: Like what he said, with the package they have right now, you get stalled out when you get two cars kind of side by side. You're just able to get huge run behind the guys. It's not necessarily because your car is handling better. It's like the cars in the front get stalled out. Whoever is behind him, Tony got a bunch of those tonight.
I think it's just kind of a product of the environment we have right now with the plate and the endplates and the wing.
Q. Jamie, you talked a little bit about the engines. Given how strong you've been on restrictor plates in the past, with this new package, what do you think your chances are for next Sunday?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I feel really good about it. I mean, every race I finished at Daytona and Talladega, I finished pretty good. Just have to stay out of the trouble. Honestly, we had a little bit of a debate before this race even started about riding around in the back to start because they wrecked twice in practice within 10 laps. You know, I told them, This will be wild tonight because everybody is going to be amped up and ready to go.
But we elected to just race all night. Glad we did because certainly nobody likes to ride around in the back. But I think I know our other car has a little more speed in it. I think the aero numbers are better even on downforce, so. They tell me that other car is going to drive as good, if not better. Obviously we have a good setup for this track. Yeah, I mean, I feel as good about this year as ever.
Q. There's a little bit of confusion. Might just be me. Did you think this race was supposed to end under green? Regardless, if you did or didn't, would you have liked to have seen it end under green?
JAMIE McMURRAY: On TV it said it must end under green. There wouldn't have been anything left. They would have just kept wrecking.
Q. Jamie, can you talk about the problems you had that forced you to drop back in the middle of the race.
JAMIE McMURRAY: They told me to save fuel. The easiest way to save fuel is to push the clutch in, turn the ignition off. So I did that. When I turned the ignition back on, there was no power. Lost everything. I don't know why.
I've never had that happen. At Roush we did not run the kill switch on the steering wheel. So I didn't know if I hit that. I didn't know how you even know if that's on or off because I spent four years of not having it. They came on the radio and said, Just turn the master switch off and turn it back on. As soon as I did, all the power came back on. It worked fine.
I told them, I'm like, I didn't know that was going to happen. They acted like they didn't either. I don't know if we had something broke or what happened. But that's definitely not normal because everybody does that at the road courses and stuff. I can't imagine they have to reset that every single time. Something wasn't right.
Q. Jamie, can you also talk about that slingshot move you pulled with eight laps left.
JAMIE McMURRAY: Slingshot? Pretty cool. I didn't know I did that.
You just are able to get really big runs. The racing is not dramatically different, but it is in that way because we never were able to get runs without having two guys hooked up, you were never able to get those runs before. I like the package they have. I think it's going to put on a great show Sunday. I tell you one thing nobody has brought up, that everybody writes about when it's bad. It rained really hard, and we haven't had any tire problems since we've been here. That's always been the story at Daytona the first few days in practice, that everybody has issues with tires. I think Goodyear should get their they're back. You know what I'm trying to say.
KERRY THARP: Pat on the back?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I think it's a really big deal they were able to bring us a tire. All the drivers like the way their cars drove. There weren't any tire issues at all. I haven't heard anybody even bring that up. And the cars are running faster. I know they were really worried. We're running about a second a lap faster than we have, so they've done a great job.
Q. DW keeps saying with the bigger plate you're able to get out of the throttle a little bit if you have to, modulate a little bit more than you used to be able to. Is that true?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I never let off the gas. I don't know about him, but I ran flat out. The only time I had to let off is if I had a huge run, and I knew pushing the guy in front of me that I was going to shove him through whoever he was behind. I for the most part I didn't let off the gas.
I will say that I think the huge runs that everybody is getting is because we have a bigger plate. I don't think that a smaller plate would benefit anything. I mean, I think that's great they keep opening that up. It seems to give the cars more acceleration. I think what he's referring to more than anything, with the old style cars and everything, it took a long time to get everything wound up. If you got out of the gas, it would slow down and take you like a lap to get wound back up. Where with this, it takes one straightaway and you're kind of back to where you were.
KERRY THARP: All right, great show out there tonight. We'll see you next week. Thank you.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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