NASCAR Cup

Sears Point: Jamie McMurray press conference

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) -- Finished Second "I hit every curve as hard as I can and jump when I got behind Jeff, it seems like the harder you try here the slower you go, so I thought I was going to just try to do what Jeff was ...

Edited: Jun 29, 2004, 2:30 AM

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JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) -- Finished Second

"I hit every curve as hard as I can and jump when I got behind Jeff, it seems like the harder you try here the slower you go, so I thought I was going to just try to do what Jeff was doing. I was going to try to miss the curves and just do what I can, and I just kept getting slower. So I started back hitting the curves and running out of control.

"Rusty got on the outside of Casey going into 3 or 3A. I'm not sure, but it was a left-hander. I knew that wasn't going to work. You can't pass there. At least I can't pass there. I knew it could have been big. He dropped a tire off and got sideways out of control. I just waited for him to kind of gather it up, and it was easy because he had lost all of his momentum.

"With 10 laps to go, I don't know what happened, but he (Chip Ganassi) said, 'don't give up. Got get him.' I thought, 'I don't know what the hell you think I've been doing.' I'd been trying for 108 laps. I just didn't give up all of a sudden. He wants to win just like I do, and at one point, I didn't think I could pass Jeff. Even if I caught him, just like Scott said, it's one thing to catch a guy it's another thing to pass a guy. I started 11th, and I could pass four or five cars getting into turn 11, but the closer to the front you get the better everybody is. I knew Jeff was going to have to run off the track or goof up, and typically he doesn't do that. I was just waiting on him to make a mistake, but I was driving as hard as I could. The harder you try here, it seems like the slower you go. We were just hanging on.

"Chip only calls you when things are bad. When things are going good, he doesn't call and pat you on the back. He's not that kind of car owner. When things go bad, he'll call and say don't worry about it, we'll get it fixed. I think that's a cool way to go about it. I don't have to worry about him calling me this week.

"I was very excited about getting to come here to test. My first year at Watkins Glen in the Busch car I didn't do very well, but I've always enjoyed getting to road race. I'm a big Formula One fan and watch it every Sunday. I'm a fan of road racing. I read a quote by Tony Stewart in Scene this week. He said if you come into this with a negative attitude typically you don't do very well. It seems like everyone who is a Nextel Cup champion can do well on a road course. They can win anywhere, a superspeedway or anywhere. I just kept a positive attitude, and when we didn't do very well here I still enjoyed it. I told everybody when we left Watkins Glen, because we didn't do very well, why don't you send me to school or whatever I need to to get better at this because I really want to do well. It's an easy way to gain points on somebody. A few of the guys, I don't know where they're at in points, but around me in points that don't run well here, so here and superspeedways are places if you can do well you can make up a lot of points. I just came back and everything clicked. We came here and tested. I like this better than Watkins Glen last year. I don't know it seems to me it's more finesse, more throttle control and just being smooth. It seems like you driver a lot harder at The Glen than you do at this place, so I was a little better at this place than the Glen.

"We have so many engineers at our place. I joke around because everybody makes fun of Sterling's accent, but about half the other people sound English or German on our team, so it's hard to understand anybody. We've got guys with road racing backgrounds. This is a little bit different car than we ran here last year. When we came back here all three of us were all really good off the truck. It's important for Chip to run well everywhere. He's been around road racing and he typically doesn't give a bunch of input. He's just a cheerleader and says what he feels. Today he actually gave some advice. I thought that was pretty cool. You can tell he's been around for awhile.

"I think it would be cool if they're going to do a (10-race run) for the championship to include everything. It wouldn't matter to me if it were here or Watkins Glen. I know we have one of those superspeedway races this year, and I wish we didn't because you can get eliminated from that and just be a victim. I think it would be cool to see one of everything, superspeedway, intermediate, short track, road course, one of everything so that everybody could show what they're good at."

-dodge-

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