NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GO BOWLING 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 6, 2016
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the schedule for 2017, how the new rules package is working, night races versus day races, his spotter, and more. Full Transcript:
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS COMING INTO KANSAS THIS WEEKEND? WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
“This is obviously a special track for me growing up. I grew up 180 miles south of here. When you come back to this part of the country, I think everyone has experienced that if you move away from home, it’s always nice to come back home and run into common restaurants, common roads, just kind of knowing your way around. And there’s a great feeling associated with that. So, every year when we get to come back to Kansas I always look forward to that part.”
LAST YEAR YOU MADE THE CHASE; WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT EXPERIENCE? HOW HAS THAT HELPED YOU THIS YEAR?
“When I look back at our Chase last year, I felt like every year that I had watched the Chase prior to that, that there were always guys that self-eliminated themselves from it. Sometimes it was from a pit road incident. It could have been an engine failure; sometimes, just getting caught up in an accident. Our plan going into that was to just be consistent and we did a really good job of that. I think we finished like 12th, 12th, and 4th; and I tied or missed it by one point of advancing to the next round. If you had given me those three finishes prior to it starting, I would have taken it. I just through that would have guaranteed you to make it through to the next round. So, I think going into this year and maybe just being a little more aggressive and trying to get a little more out of it; when I look back at those races, I don’t know that I could have done anything different. But yeah, just trying to maybe be a little more aggressive.”
WITH THE 2017 SCHEDULE COMING OUT YESTERDAY, DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON KANSAS BECOMING A CHASE CUTOFF RACE AND TALLADEGA BEING MOVED OUT OF THAT SPOT? AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT GOING FROM 3 OFF-WEEKS TO 2 OFF WEEKS NEXT YEAR?
“I didn’t even pay attention to the schedule. I saw that some guys vented about not having an extra off-weekend. I think we would all like to have more off-weekends, but it’s not part of our schedule. It doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t care. It is what it is.”
AFTER A NUMBER OF YEARS WHEN ALMOST EVERYBODY WANTED TO HAVE A NIGHT RACE, NOW WE’RE MOVING BACK TO AFTERNOON RACES. FROM A DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE, DOES THAT MATTER MUCH? AND, DOES IT MATTER TO THE OVERALL SPORT?
“Well, I think there’s an argument both ways of the day and night races. I like the day races as well. I feel like when there’s weather that’s ever an issue that the night races you’re kind of guaranteed that you’re going to go into the next day. With a day race, you have a little more of a chance of getting it in. I don’t know, I guess. We grew up racing at night and when they first started lighting Charlotte and all those tracks, it was so special for our sport at a track that big to get to race at night, that all the tracks have lights now, for the most part. There can’t be but three or four that don’t have lights. So, I don’t know that it’s that unique anymore. And ultimately, I assume that the tracks and NASCAR putting those back in the day are trying to help fans, whether it’s warmer weather or they just feel like they can put more people in the stands that way. Again, I don’t really care. But, I favor having more day races just because it gives you a little more time if weather is ever an issue.”
WHEN YOU’RE PRACTICING AND QUALIFYING IN THE DAY AND IT’S A NIGHT RACE, WHAT CAN YOU FOCUS ON TODAY THAT CAN MAKE YOU BETTER TOMORROW NIGHT?
“Yeah, it’s so weird to practice in the daytime and then race at night. I don’t really care for this type schedule where you have to do everything in one day. If you’re able to unload and be really close, it’s a great schedule because no one else really has time to work on their stuff. It’s really hard to utilize your tires the way that you need to. Ultimately we’d like to unload and do a couple of race runs and then switch over to qualifying like we typically do. You make a couple of qualifying runs so you have some scuff tires to then use for your race runs later on. It’s just really hard to do here. You typically always end in a qualifying run and then you don’t use that set of tires. I like the traditional Friday, Saturday, Sunday schedule with the exception of the speedway races. I would be okay if we did all that in one day or however they could work it out. To be there for three days doesn’t make any sense.”
CAN YOU EXPRESS WHERE YOU FEEL CHIP GANASSI IS COMPARED TO THE OTHER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE GARAGE RIGHT NOW? EVERYONE LOOKS AT THE TALENT THAT YOU AND KYLE LARSON HAVE AND THEY CAN’T BLAME IT ON THE DRIVERS. SO, WHERE DO YOU FEEL LIKE CHIP GANASSI IS MISSING IT?
“Well, if I knew the answer to that we would go fix it. If you knew where you were missing it, you would certainly address those problems and get it fixed and everything would be fine. I think that when you are off a little bit, it’s not in one area. It’s maybe a little bit of everywhere. This weekend will be a big weekend. We’ve made some really big steps, I feel like, heading into Kansas, set-up wise. They’ve learned quite a bit of stuff in the wind tunnel that we are going to apply this weekend that I think will make a big difference. And I’ve said this for the last couple of years and over the winter, that to me, if you can get your 1.5-mile program good, it carries you through the road course and the short tracks and the superspeedways are such a crap shoot and you have to be a little bit lucky there. It’s just so important to be good at the 1.5-mile tracks and we have not been good at those for the last couple of years. In 2014, Kyle’s first year, our 1.5-mile program was good. We had a legitimate shot to win four or five races; both cars had a chance to win. I won the All-Star race in 2014. So, it was really good then and it’s slowly got worse through 2015. We thought we made really big gains in the off-season and were looking forward to the new rules package, but we just have not had the speed, especially the long-run speed, that we have needed this year.”
FELIX SABATES SAID A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO THE TEAM GOT RID OF JOHN PROBST THIS KIND OF REMINDS ME OF ROUSH FENWAY RACING WHERE THEY FELT LIKE THEY HIT A ROAD BLOCK AND GOT RID OF CHRIS ANDREWS. IS THIS THE SAME KIND OF DEAL? ARE YOU TRYING TO EXPLORE OTHER AVENUES OR DO YOU JUST FEEL LIKE THERE ARE ENOUGH ENGINEERS IN THE KITCHEN THAT YOU DIDN’T REALLY NEED SOMEONE DIRECTING THE PROGRAM?
“I mean that is really a question more for Chip than what it would be for me. I obviously participate in all the competition meetings and am a part of all that, but that would be more something for you to ask him.”
THERE WERE A LOT OF CONCERNS EARLIER IN THE YEAR THAT TEAMS WOULD BE ABLE TO FIND DOWNFORCE AND ADD IT BACK TO THE CAR. HOW MUCH IF ANY DOWNFORCE DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN RE-ADDED SINCE ATLANTA?
“I don’t know. You would have to ask somebody higher up the ladder than me on that. I know that every weekend you find some. The interesting part about when they take downforce away and you find more is that it doesn’t always produce the lap time that you had before that. I don’t know how much they have found back.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEW RULES PACKAGE? WHY DO YOU THINK GIBBS CARS HAVE BEEN SO DOMINATE WITH THIS NEW SET-UP?
“When I look back, 2014, early 2015 the Gibbs cars were kind of in a struggling period and Denny (Hamlin) won the All-Star race last year and then Kyle (Busch) came back shortly after that. It just seems like since that point they have been the cars to beat. The No. 4 car (Kevin Harvick) has still been really quick. Maybe not quite as quick as he was last year, but he is still fairly quick, but the Gibbs cars just since last May have been the cars to beat. I don’t know. Our whole sport is a wave. I think a lot of times if you people are being completely honest and you went to Gibbs or the Hendrick or whatever team it is and ask why they are running so well they don’t always know. When things aren’t going well they don’t know either. If we knew that we would never have any fluctuation. You would just always know what to work on. Kind of like when Lee (Spencer, reporter) is asking me where the problem is. I don’t think it’s ever in just one area. When things are good it’s never just because of one area you just have your simulation is good, your tire data is good, the aero side, just everything is working it just kind of goes both ways.”
“So, the rules package to me has been a homerun. I hear rumors that there is talk that we could take more downforce off. Kind of going back to what that gentleman asked me about how much we have gained back, we took quite a bit away. I know that there has been quite a bit found back. I think the goal is to try to take the same step again or maybe even more. The difference on the track is when you get behind guys you still struggle, but it’s nothing like what we had last year. To me the big difference now is that you are able to kind of work someone over and pass them, where last year you didn’t even get the opportunity to try to pass. You could be two to three tenths quicker and you would get within that three or four car lengths and you didn’t really know what was going on. You just couldn’t get any closer. So, yeah, to me the rules package has been a homerun. I think the racing has been way better, not only for the leader, but for the guys even racing for 20th. There has just been more racing going on. Richmond was one… I think I finished 15th at Richmond and it was one of the funniest races I’ve run in a long time just because of the tire fall off. It reminded me of Rockingham and Darlington where there were some guys that could really take off and then after 20 or 30 laps they would start fading. I was on the other end of that. I couldn’t go, but I was really good at the end of a run. There was a lot of passing going on the whole time. The track got really wide as well, which is a lot of fun.”
YOU RECENTLY GOT A CHANCE TO GO BOWLING FOR YOU FOUNDATION?
“I didn’t bowl, but we did have a … I’ve been fortunate that McDonald’s has teamed up with the NFL draft and we have got to do some… last year we had Melvin Gordon he was actually a part of it again this year, but didn’t get to come, his family did. They bring in a lot of the guys that are going to be up for the draft on that Thursday, we’ve done the tournament on Tuesday night. It’s fun to meet these guys that are just guys and they are on the verge of signing these massive contracts, but they don’t know. It’s so interesting how the NFL draft works. You can be a guy that gets picked up and signs a million dollar contract or you might not get the phone call. It’s fun to see the pressure on them and then if their families are there to see how excited and nervous they are all together.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH YOUR SPOTTER TYLER GREEN?
“Tyler has done an amazing job. I feel like when we think about spotters we always think about Daytona and Talladega and how guys are going to do in the draft. He does a really good job there, but he also does a really good job today when we go out and practice. I think the line will be on the bottom, but he does a really good job of describing if the line has changed for qualifying or for the race like what line those guys are running. When I say he does a good job we all sit in the garage while they are working on the car and stare at these fan scans or the live feed. If I happen to be watching the No. 4 car and the line he is running, Tyler will come on the radio not knowing that I am watching this and he will be like ‘this is the line he is running.’ As he describes it he describes it the same way that I would. Even though I’m kind of verifying it off of a camera seeing it live, if I didn’t have that he still does a good enough job that you know what is going on. I think it’s hard. Everyone describes things differently and for him to describe it the way that I see it is really important. He’s done a good job. He won the ARCA race last weekend. I think he won the Xfinity race, but he got sixth or something or fourth. I don’t know how that worked out and then we ran really good on Sunday. He had a really good weekend last weekend.”
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