NexCup QUOTES FROM DODGE FRIDAY AT TMS

Friday, April 2, 2004.
Texas Motor Speedway.
Dodge Notes, Quotes.

JAMIE McMURRAY  (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

COMMENT ON LAST WEEK AT BRISTOL

"I knew better. I've watched a lot of people do that and thought 'that
was an idiot. What was he thinking?' When you spend all day racing at
that place and somebody takes away from you in the last 100 feet or 200
feet you just want to get 'em back. I knew it wasn't going to do any
good, but it's the only thing you can do. You can't get out and fight.
Spencer got suspended for that, so I knew that wasn't the right thing to
do. You just want to do anything you can to get back at 'em. You don't
want somebody to think you're going to let 'em push you around, but it's
not even about that. Matt is not that kind of guy. Everybody knows he
wouldn't wreck you on purpose. He was just tired up like I was. We went
in the NASCAR trailer, and he was just as mad as I was about the whole
thing. That place will bring it out of you. I never get mad, but I was
mad. That's what Bristol does. I watched it on TV and you could hear the
people cheering when you do that. I don't know why, but people love to
see that. It's a cool place to race, but it can wear you out.

 

"It's over now. I talked to Kasey Kahne this week. I knew he was pretty
upset, so I went up and apologized to him and told him I'd be very
careful around him from here on out. We've never had a problem before.
We've raced a lot together and have never touched each other. We kinda
had the same situation at Rockingham this year, and I could have got
into him there, but I didn't. I wouldn't race him that way. Sometimes it
happens. I hate it for him his car got torn up, but I apologized to him
and told him I was sorry. I don't need to find Matt because we worked it
out at the racetrack.

 

"Kasey said what you're supposed to say. You're mad, and if his car had
got fixed he would have probably got me back before the race was over.
That's what you do. That's just part of human nature. You want to
retaliate on somebody as soon as you can. As far as the fine goes, they
told me they were going to give me the same fine they gave everybody
else, and that's fine. I knew I had it coming. You say things at the
time because you're fired up, but Kasey isn't that kind of person. I'm
not worried about that. It's happened to me before, and it'll happen
again. You get mad at people and the team and they had nothing to do
with it. I'm sure the 9 team is pretty fired up at me right now, but
that's just the way it is. There's a lot of emotions in this sport and
everybody wants to do well. When somebody ruins your day for no reason
it gets you mad.

 

"John Darby and Mike Helton said to Matt and I when we were in the
trailer that we were the two least likely guys we'd expect to see in
here it's you two, especially together. I think Matt and I realize that
and we'll go on. Martinsville is coming up and that's just as bad as
Bristol, so we'll see what happens."

 

 

 

 

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF JUNIOR'S SPIN?

"I can't believe a guy can spin out on his own and not get hit at
Bristol. That's pretty wild. I guess I just wouldn't brag about it next
time."

 

TALK ABOUT RACING AT TEXAS

"It's so smooth and so fast. We ran well here last year. I think we were
running second with 30 or 40 laps to go and we left a lugnut loose and
had to go back as the last car on the lead lap. It's hard to pass when
everybody has new tires on, but we brought the Homestead tire here and
hopefully it'll fall off a little bit. Talking to the guys who tested
here it doesn't, but it always changes when the race starts. It's a good
place to race. As far as fans go, it's probably one of the top two or
three tracks we go to. They pack people in for qualifying and the race.
Everything in Texas is big. Everything is, and it's a fun place to come
race."

 

HAVE YOU CHANGED THE SETUP TO ACCOMMODATE THE TIRES?

"We haven't changed hardly anything on the car. Maybe you adapt your
driving style a little bit. It's a little bit different to drive it, but
as far as far as making the car work for us, we're doing the same thing
we did last year."

 

ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT TOP 10 IN POINTS YET?

"Yeah, we talked about it last night. I feel very confident that we're
going to make the 400 points or either the top 10. We've run in the top
five and had a shot to win every race this year. Performance-wise, we've
run really well. We broke a motor at Atlanta and had some bad pit stops
at Darlington and left a lugnut loose and lost a lap because of that.
Donnie (crew chief Wingo) is worried because he said it's almost been
too easy for us to run in the top five. We've done well, and we look
forward to getting in the top 10. As well as we've run, we feel like
we've got a shot at the year-end deal."

 

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN  (No. 77 Kodak Easy Share Dodge)

HAS THERE BEEN A BIG ADJUSTMENT FOR YOU FROM TRUCKS TO CUP? "The aero is
different. The Craftsman Truck program was an old-fashioned Cup car that
we had to make have good aerodynamics. All it was was a car with bad
aero. It's almost easier to drive the cars sometimes. The biggest
adjustment is there is a little bit more horsepower, so you enter the
corners a little faster. You don't slow down as quickly. Other than that
we're racing against great racecar drivers that we've probably raced
against at some point in our lives. You go back to me and Jimmie
Johnson, Casey Mears, we've raced against each other a long time. I'm
just racing against the same guys some days at a different venue with a
lot more people watching and a lot more microphones in your face. I'm a
ham, and I enjoy that sort of stuff."

 

ARE YOU RACING PENSKE DODGES YET? "We still don't have a Penske car. All
our stuff is brand new chassis. We don't have any chassis left from what
they had before. They're all brand new Hopkins chassis at the moment.
The Penske fab shop is building our chassis and is getting them done,
but it isn't an overnight thing. That's why we're Penske-Jasper. We're
going to have that advantage. It's just going to take us awhile to get
that information in the door. We now have Dodge engineers sending us to
the wind tunnel. The Jasper team had four wind tunnel dates last year.
We now have had 11 already up to this point. Those are the advantages
being with Dodge and Penske, joining the Penske-Jasper deal. It's not
going to happen overnight It's taken us a little time, but now it's
starting to pay off. Bristol was one, and here at Texas we expect it to
be another. The Punisher car was actually the one we raced at
Rockingham, so that was the only repeat car we've had and look what
happens. I made this joke and Doug Bawel with Jasper loved this one. In
racing, this is the only business where brand new isn't necessarily the
best. It's kind of like a Jasper remanufactured engine. It's always
better the second time around. He loved that line."

 

ARE THE LONGER RACES IN CUP AN ADVANTAGE? "I'm in a lot better shape,
and I feel I have more of an athletic background. All of these drivers
are athletes, but with some of the athletic stuff I've done and some of
the gentleman I've had a chance to work with in my life, I've always
felt that the fourth quarter was an advantage for me. Buddy Baker is
making sure that's one of my advantages, keeping in shape. I'm going to
continue that trend so I can be ready for the end of the day."

 

DO YOU WISH YOU HAD THE PUNISHER AGAIN THIS WEEK? "You know, the paint
scheme was the coolest thing on the racetrack. Hanging out with Tom Jane
the movie star was really cool. Even though we don't have the same paint
scheme, I still think we've got the same guy behind the wheel. I'm going
to try to keep that nickname as 

long as possible, especially for as little respect as we were given
after running up front. Maybe I'll need to use that moniker and be a
little more aggressive some days. I didn't get pushed around last week.
I only got hit once. I'm watching guys give Jeff Gordon a spot, and Jeff
Gordon has earned a lot of respect in this business, but we were faster
than Jeff Gordon. We were faster than a lot of guys, and they wouldn't
give me the same respect they were giving other drivers. It was somewhat
disappointing. The Kodak team hasn't been running well, and we haven't
been hiding the fact that we haven't been running well, but we gave
everybody respect. We gave them the one spot they needed so they could
race clean. We worked hard on making sure we didn't get in the way. When
you give that respect you're supposed to be able to get something back
in return. Some days you have to go take it back."

 

ARE THEY ASKING YOU FOR ADVICE AT TEXAS? "They don't ask me for advice.
They know I'm too dumb to know how to get around this place anyway. We
didn't have that great a test at Vegas. We qualified eighth, but that
was a lot of pride involved with that qualifying run. The Penske-Jasper
guys we knew we were hoping to do better. This race track, we feel like
we're ready to do better. We had a lot better test here. We have a lot
more wind tunnel time from Dodge at this point. We feel we are a lot
more prepared to go fast here than we were at Vegas, so we don't have to
worry about the disappointment side. These are the type of tracks we
dominated last year with the Orleans Racing Team. We had a big lead at
Michigan. Vegas we won. Charlotte we ran second. Fontana second. We had
a flat tire or we would have won that day. We've always done well on big
tracks. I like big tracks. I don't know what Bruton Smith did to the
ground around here, but for some reason this is like hallowed ground for
me. My mom's ranch is about 40 miles southwest of here. My mom and
sister (Paula and Katie) are in town, and cowboys are what my family are
all about. My mom and sister own cutting horses. My dad owns bucking
horses and bucking bulls. We grew up on ranches and hanging around
rodeos and stuff like that. Maybe that's the difference here. I just
needed a few more cowboys around."

 

ARE YOU A COWBOY? "My dad always asks me before every race for the last
seven years. 'Tell me who's a cowboy?' I never rodeoed. Riding a bucking
bull or a bucking horse ain't difficult. Anybody can do it. Just try
getting off the dang thing. Rodeos and racing have been in my family for
a long time. We've got a ranch out here in Weatherford. Some days you
just need a few more cowboy hats around to make you feel good."


www.clearblue.biz <http://www.clearblue.biz/>