NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed race day routines, EFI, pack drafting, and other topics. Full transcript:
ON RACE DAY PREPARATION:
“My whole life is really structured. I do everything the same every single day. The whole race weekends are all the same. We do all of our appearances before the driver’s meeting, and then we used to have a team meeting 45 minutes before the driver’s meeting and as soon as that was over we would go to the driver’s meeting and then have some lunch afterwards and hang out in the motorhome until it is time to go. I didn’t realize it Christy (wife) pointed it out to me that I become weird a few hours before the race, I get real quiet and I never really noticed until she pointed it out and I realized that I do. I get very short with people a few hours before the race. I think it is because you are thinking about everything that is getting ready to happen and it is hard to go from signing autographs, telling stories at a hospitality tent to then racing a car immediately, so I think you have to have a little transition period.”
TELL ME THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOW YOU GET READY FOR THE RACES NOW COMPARED TO THE VERY FIRST TIME YOU CAME HERE, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THOSE TWO?
“Not much, probably very similar, I don’t know. I think you get a routine together and you just stick with that and that is what you are comfortable with. I know not every driver does the same thing. I see some guys, they go to their hauler to put their uniform on, I would not want to go to the hauler before the race to put my uniform on because there is a lot going on there, a lot of distractions. Everyone has their own routine and for me it has been the same since the start of my career. “
WERE YOU MORE EXCITED THE FIRST TIME YOU CAME HERE?
“No, I don’t think that has changed. I was excited to get down here yesterday. You couldn’t wait. I still have a hard time sleeping on Thursday nights before Friday practice when we go to a new track. It is still very exciting and just really excited about getting there.”
DOES LIFE CHANGE WHEN YOU WIN THE DAYTONA 500?
“Maybe, I think if you let it change you it could. For me, I think it would be different if the Daytona 500 was Homestead and vice versa, because you would have months of enjoyment and savoring it, but you have about thirty minutes to savor it and then they send you on a crazy media tour and by the time the media tour is over you are worn out and it is time to go to the next race. They latterly land you at the next race. It is hard to enjoy that and savor it.”
MAYBE IT WILL CHANGE WHEN YOU ARE A 65 YEAR OLD AND CONSIDERED A DAYTONA 500 WINNER?
“I think I view a lot of that, a title as being a winner of any race. I think you probably enjoy that more when you are retired than at the moment. For sure, I think so.”
OTHER THAN EVERY OTHER RACE OF THE YEAR, THIS IS THE ONE YOU HAVE THE MOST TIME TO PREPARE FOR, THAT IS HOW IT IS DIFFERENT:
“Yea, and this could be different to if it were at a typical race track for us, where when you look at the practice sheet on Friday when guys unload and the first four or five that are fastest, normally are the four or five that have the greatest chance to win the race. This place, the guy that leads at the white flag, most likely will not win the race. His odds are not that great that he will win, so it would be wonderful if you could know the results before you got here because you would probably enjoy everything leading up to it much more but there is so many unknowns leading up to it that you don’t have a clue how you are going to finish in the race.”
THIS YEAR THE FACT THAT YOU ARE GOING TO EFI, HOW MUCH WILL THAT CHANGE HOW THE RACE WILL HAPPEN AND HOW YOU ARE GOING TO FEEL IN THE CAR?
“I don’t think at plate tracks you are going to see much difference. I don’t think that driver’s are going to talk about much difference. I think when we get to Phoenix, and some of those other tracks, there are going to be some differences. NASCAR has a fairly open window as to what you can do to manipulate the fuel injection; the way the car drives, the way it slows down and I think you will see some difference there. You hear guys talk about it more.”
IF YOU GO ON A LONG RUN, USED TO YOU COULD CHANGE THE TIMING, YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT ANYMORE:
“Yea, but the difference of what they used to allow you to change, I never could feel it anyway. You could change between distributors or boxes. Now with fuel injection, it is a significant difference now, but you are committed to it for the whole race. You cannot change it throughout the run, I believe they lock that fuel injection box on Sunday morning, so whatever you choose, be good or bad, that is what you have. There is going to be some learning curves with all that. We came down here for speedweeks and no one talked about fuel injection and everyone talked about tandem drafting, but I think when we get to Phoenix, Vegas, that is going to be the story is how guys are using that to their advantage or the issues that come with it, because there is going to be some little issues for each team with engines shutting off, weather it is the struck throttle over ride that they have built in, there is a lot of stuff there and I would be shocked if there were no small issues with it.”
YOU MENTIONED THE TANDEM RACING, HOW MUCH OF THAT DO YOU THINK THERE IS GOING TO BE HERE?
“I don’t think anyone really knows yet, how much we are going to have. They changed the rules a little bit since we have been down here and a lot of it is going to depend on how that affects the cooling of the cars, when we were down here for the test, with one set up you literally could not push for a whole lap without overheating. With another configuration, the best configuration, it was maybe six laps was the most you could push before you would switch, and really only being able to push for two or three laps, I don’t think you will see guys doing much of that early in the race because when you go to make that exchange, when you are all by yourself at a test, it is one thing, when you try to make the exchange with thirty other cars on the race track, it is so much harder to do. I think the time difference that you will lose between that, I don’t know that it is going to be a big advantage.”
HOW DO YOU GO IN STRATEGIZING FOR THIS RACE?
“Well you don’t have a strategy, really the Shootout is going to set the tone for what you can do, but the other thing is, when it comes to the Daytona 500; when we were down here testing and you were pushing a guy, you would let the water temperature get out of control just to see what was going to happen. When you come down here for the Daytona 500, you will not take the chance early in the race of continuing to push the guy with the water temperature going up because it will ruin your race later on. Testing was testing and I think guys pushed the limits of the cars more than they will when we are here for the 500.”
IS EFI GOING TO CHANGE QUALIFYING NOW? BECAUSE SPEEDS ARE GOING DOWN FOR QUALIFYING:
“No, they are going to qualify quite a bit faster I think. The cars are going to qualify at 190 probably or something like that. Maybe a little faster than that, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with the fuel injection as much as it does the plate and spoiler that NASCAR has given us. I don’t know that for a fact, but I think speeds are going to be quite a bit faster than what they were, I think they will be over 190 for sure. We were down to 175, weren’t we?”
DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER THAT YOU WILL QUALIFY CLOSER TO RACE SPEEDS?
“No, it doesn’t make any difference. I think we could run around here at about 220 and still wide open with no problem. The track has so much grip that the difference between 175 and 200, other than the engines sounding terrible with the lower RMP’s you can’t tell a difference.”
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE CAR NAME FOR ONE OF YOUR CARS?
“We don’t name our cars”
DO YOU HAVE AN EXERCISE ROUTINE?
“Yes, every day I run forty minutes of cardio.”
WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRAVEL TO?
“Anywhere my wife would like to go, she likes the beach.”
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN OVERSEAS?
“Yes, I have been to Italy.”
INAUDIBLE:
“Here is what I will tell you, and my wife will laugh at me because we just had Valentine’s Day, well no, I think Valentine’s Day is the most overrated thing in the world, because I think you should be nice everyday not just one day. Right, you shouldn’t just pick one day to be nice.”
DID YOU USE THE OFF SEASON TO RECHARGE?
“Off season was really busy, but I really don’t like the off time. When we have time off, I am really ready to get back going again. It was really busy but it was good.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE CHANCES OF WINNING THE 500 AGAIN?
“I think that they are better than one in forty-three. I think anybody can win. I think that, I don’t know until we see if it is a large pack, I think I have a better chance of winning than the tandem drafting. I don’t know why but it just seems like for Juan (Montoya) and I, we run really well at the tandem races but something happens to one of us and it eliminates the other guy. It just seems like every race one of us gets caught up in a wreck, or a part will fail, we had an engine failure last year that eliminates you from the race then. I think if it is a big pack, for me I feel like that increases my chance.”
LET’S SAY IT’S A POSITION RACE, WHERE IT IS PACK RACING MOST OF THE TIME, DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WILL BE SCRAMBLING, MAYBE LIKE FIVE, TEN TO GO TO GET UP THERE AND THEN BREAK OFF?
“It will be before that, I think so, it will all depend on how the caution flags fall. I would say, people will say I am going to wait until ten to go, when you are in the car and there is fifty to go, it seems like it is over in ten seconds, so you get very antsy, and I have been the guy that says we are going to wait until twenty-five to go, so literally at fifth laps to go it is all you can do to stay back there. A lot of it will depend too on how far the pack gets, how large the pack is. It is hard, when it gets to the end of one of these races and they get three wide, there is nowhere to go, you cannot pass. When the track used to be worn out, you could, because of handling, the way it is now, handling doesn’t go away and it is harder than ever to pass.”
IS IT STILL A MATTER OF, LIKE IF IT IS GOING TO BE PACK RACING, WILL IT STILL BE A GAME OF WHERE YOU ARE TRYING TO GET THAT RUN LATE OR CAN YOU GET THAT POSITION, MAINTAIN UNTIL IT IS TIME TO GO?
“I don’t know, I remember Talladega, when I won at Talladega a few years ago. It was like everyone ran single file and we were in the very back and it was like they all raced for a second and then I ended up in the front and it went single file again and I don’t know why it worked out that way, but it just did. The fear probably for everyone here is that, and this is what I think NASCAR’s fear, is that if we do not have the tandem, all the driver’s and teams have educated themselves to know that if you race the pack, you percentages of finishing are very small. No one chooses to run single file but we all know that our chances of finishing are much greater if you do that. The fear is if they take that tandem all the way away that it will just be a single file race. I think they have a good compromise now, where you can push for two or three laps and if you can do that you will have a single file and see a couple of guys go up and take the lead. I think it will be a good compromise.”
IF YOU ARE GOING TO RIDE, IT WOULD BE IN SINGLE FILE?
“Yea, when you say ride in a pack, no one rides in a pack. No one just gets in that pack and says; oh I’ll just ride here, because that is a dangerous area to be in, you are trying to get to the front of the pack and then ride. That is the mentality, you do not want to be three rows back riding, and you are like I want to be the leader of this thing and then ride. It will be very interesting to see how that all plays out. I think people will be much more interested in that they will be in the tandem.”
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