Q&A with Jamie McMurray

Jamie McMurray

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. Full Transcript:

HOW DO YOU CONSERVE FUEL?
"I think everyone kind of has their own way of going about it. Since fuel injection has come along and you have some data you can try to do a better job at that and actually see how you are doing. When we go to a test they typically will put the miles per gallon or the laps per gallon on the dash. If you are making a 50 lap run you can try different techniques. I think each track it’s maybe a little bit different at. For me normally what I do is try it three or four different ways, take notes and then when you go back for the race and you need to try to save gas then you kind of have a plan."

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO ESTABLISH A REPOIRE OR A TRUST WITH SOMEBODY DURING PLATE RACES?
"First off it’s typically the same people that work together at every plate race. So you kind of have guys that historically you have worked well with. But there are always one or two guys in each race that you develop a relationship with early in the race and they have a good car that weekend. Then you are willing to go with them at the end if they make a move. For me normally I just, you race and if it’s somebody that is new, Kyle Larson last year would be a good example. You race with them early in the race and if you think they have made good decisions early on and you have gained track position because of what they have done then later in the race you would make that decision to go with them. There are times you are with guys and you see them make a move and you don’t feel like that is what you would do so you don’t go with them. It takes a little time. It really just kind of happens race to race."

DO YEARS OF EXPERIENCE FACTOR INTO IT? OR IS IT THAT YOUNG GUYS COME IN AND THEY DON’T MAKE DUMB DECISIONS FOR A COUPLE OF CONSECUTIVE RACES?
"I don’t even know that is has to be for a couple of races. I think you can develop that in the race. Maybe it’s their first race that you are racing with them, but most of the time it would come off of years of racing together. And I think you look at restrictor plate races, typically the same guys run well at all of those. So everyone knows who those people are, so if you are with one of those guys you most likely will go with them."

IS THERE EVER ANY APOLOGY NEEDED AT THE END OF PLATE RACES IF YOU HAVE TO DUMP A GUY ON THE LAST LAP TO WIN?
"No, absolutely not. I remember being at Roush and everyone always talked about Jeff Burton because you would have four teammates which was more than any other group. Would say just don’t help me. I just want to get that out front don’t help me. If you do then that is great, but I don’t want you to because I don’t want to have to be committed to helping you at the end. Kyle (Larson) and I have talked about that. I tell him if you think that you need to make the best decision for you. If following me you think will benefit you the most then go with me. If you think it’s going to hurt you, but help me don’t. You are not going to be mad about that."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]DO YOU HAVE A GAME PLAN FOR QUALIFYING?
"No. I think it is probably most important here because it is the Daytona 500. This is the one time at a plate race that being first or second has some meaning. I don’t know that anyone has given it a tremendous amount of thought. The RCR cars that are with the ECR package those guys have done by far the best job of grouping up and making it through each round. You just have to be so lucky. There is not really any skill to it. It’s about being lucky, getting in the correct line and getting the best draft that you can. You just can’t time it out. There is not enough time anymore to do that. Even when there was time I think it was just about impossible to time that out anyway."

DID YOU SEE THE CHANGES THAT NASCAR PUT OUT AS FAR AS GOING WITH QUALIFYING AND IF THEY SEE PEOPLE KIND OF BLOCKING EACH OTHER AND IMPEDING PROGRESS?
"I haven’t. I did not."

DID YOU SEE ANYTHING THAT YOU THOUGHT WAS A LITTLE UNTOWARD LAST OCTOBER AT TALLADEGA OR PERHAPS IN JULY DURING THAT TIMED QUALIFYING THAT YOU WERE LIKE ‘WELL THIS IS MORE ANYTHING GOES’ RATHER THAN WITHIN WHAT WAS INTENDED?
"Well, to me when they first announced that we were going to do this format of qualifying at every track I think that most guys in the garage thought that the plate tracks were going to be the best for it because it was so boring to do the old style qualifying. But it is probably the worst at plate tracks and the best at some of the other places we go weather it’s a road course or a short track, 1.5-mile; you just have to be so lucky to advance. There was a guy that was in my group at the last Talladega race that his car was so slow that it wouldn’t keep up with the four or five pack that we had going. He lost the draft, fell back to the group behind us and he made it in and our group didn’t. So to me there is just not, that was lucky that he was able to do that and not skill."

TALK ABOUT CHASE ELLIOTT:
"I think that Chase is a great story. Everyone is a fan of Bill Elliott. So it’s really cool that he has been able to make it. I had heard a lot about Chase from Matt Kenseth because he raced with Ross (Kenseth) in late models and all the stuff that they were racing in the south. I remember Matt saying that Chase was really good and did a really good job. So that is cool that he was able to make it. He seems like a very well-mannered respectable good role model, just an all-around good kid. I think that is nice when you see someone come along and has the ability and gets the chance and makes the most of it."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE JEFF GORDON STORY?
"I don’t know. I would have to think about that to get a favorite Jeff Gordon story. I think my favorite memories of Jeff are the battles that he had, like I saw a highlight reel of when he and Jeff Burton got into it at Texas, the anger. The fights that he had with (Matt) Kenseth, I think they wrecked each other at Chicago and Bristol. I lived through those moments and I never really thought of a rivalry or what those guys had. Then you look back at a highlight reel and you realize they retaliated more than once on each other. That is fun. That is what our sport is about is kind of getting those little rivalries. First off I think it’s cool that you live through it, but I also think it’s cool that they are still friends."

WHAT DO YOU THINK JEFF GORDON HAS MEANT TO THE SPORT?
"Well Jeff Gordon to me is one of the two or three names when you think of NASCAR that you automatically think of. He is obviously really well known in mainstream media along with ours. But gosh when you think back pre Jeff Gordon and what we have now he was kind of a trendsetter and a guy that I think changed somewhat of the direction of our sport. And gave a lot of younger people the opportunity when he first came along, where I think we were at a time when there were a lot of guys that had been around for a long time. When Jeff came along it opened up eyes to drivers to kind of have developmental teams and bring along the next phase."

DO YOU FEEL WITH ALL THE YOUNG DRIVERS NOW THEY ARE TRYING TO RUN OUT THE OLDER GUYS?
"No, I don’t think so. I think it is just the way… when I first came along it was the end of Rusty (Wallace) and Terry (Labonte), Bill (Elliott), supposedly Mark Martin, but he hung on for like 10 more years. So I was the guy that kind of came along and watched a lot of those guys retire. So it just happens. It seems like it goes in little spirts two or three at a time and some new guys come along. It’s been awhile since we’ve really had a lot of fresh young new guys come along. With Kyle (Larson) and Austin Dillon and Chase (Elliott) now coming along it seems like in the last couple of years there have been a few."

DID YOU LIKE THE CHASE?
"Yeah, I thought the Chase was great. I thought that if I were a race fan watching it was super dramatic. We had some good drama and it also came down to the very last lap at Homestead when you saw the guy win the race to win the championship. I think that they will have a hard time making it that awesome again."

THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME PUSH BACK LATELY FROM SOME OF THE DRIVERS AND TEAMS ABOUT THE NEGATIVITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA. HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH PEOPLE WHO SAY NEGATIVE THINGS OR TRY TO PICK FIGHTS?

"Do you mean like fans?"

YEAH LIKE FANS SAYING THINGS AND BEING UGLY AND RUDE:
"That is hard to ignore because we are all human. We all have feeling even the ones that act like they don’t have feelings do. I have talked to a lot of other drivers about how you deal with the negativity side of that and quite honestly I try just not to read it. First off what you don’t know, it is one thing to have another driver say something, which they most likely would say it to your face. But you don’t know if the person that is saying that is 12 years old or if they are 40 years old and they live in their Mom’s basement. You just don’t know what you are dealing with. You have to just take that with a grain of salt and move on. Also, I mean I think it’s good that you see some of that because it means that people are passionate. I love when the Patriots got in trouble for the footballs being deflated. I loved reading the fans just ripping on them because that is what it’s about is people being passionate about a sport. It’s not that big of a deal. When it’s on you it stinks and it’s hard to deal with, but I try not to read it at that point."

CHIP GANASSI’S COLLECTION OF DRIVERS IN STOCK CARS, SPORTSCAR, INDYCAR THERE ARE A LOT OF TROPHIES IN THAT GROUP. WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING A PART OF THAT GROUP? WHAT ARE THESE MEETINGS, SHOOTING THE BREEZE LIKE? WHAT DO YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT?
"You mean for the Rolex race?"

YEAH OR WHEREVER YOU GUYS MIGHT CROSS PATHS:
"A lot of times when I get around the IndyCar guys I ask IndyCar questions about a race that I watched when something has happened that as a fan you maybe don’t get the whole story. It’s always nice to get kind of the inside scoop. They do the same thing with us if we have something go on that they feel like there might be more to the story. We talk about that, but for the most part honestly we talk about our families and our kids. Like how is your family doing and it’s kind of just normal I guess the same thing that you talk about to your neighbor. We just ask how you are doing."

DOES THAT GROUP HAVE A COLLECTIVE CHARACTER OR IS THERE A CUT UP OR A SERIOUS ONE?
"Everyone has kind of their own personality and you would know this as well as I do, everyone is kind of real on TV and what you see is what you get. It is when we get to have the Rolex dinner with Chip (Ganassi) the Friday night of the test it is really cool to sit at that table with seven other guys that have won Indy 500’s. Scott Pruett has won six I think Rolex 24 races. It is cool to sit with that group of guys and think about how much racing history is sitting there and that you are all just kind of hanging out and talking. To me those dinners I have some of the best stories and things that you guys might not be into, I have a lot of memories from that. I look forward to that every single year."

IS BRAD KESELOWSKI GOOD FOR THIS SPORT?
"I think so. I think that when the racing community looks at Brad he is a little goofy and so to be a villain and be goofy is kind of hard to put those together. I like Brad. I like that … some of the stuff he says all of us shrug our shoulders close our eyes and are like ‘I wouldn’t have said that’. But there is normally a little bit of truth in it as well. He obviously likes attention or he wouldn’t say things like that. It takes all types and Brad is unique. I don’t know that we have had anything like him before, but I think that is fine. If that is the role he wants to play then have at it."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500 WATCHING AS A FAN?
"I don’t. No, I was probably seven or eight and as far as my rookie year I don’t remember. I remember at that point you are trying to qualify in because I didn’t have points. I really don’t remember a lot about it."

HOW DID WINNING HERE CHANGE YOUR LIFE?
"Winning here does not change your life no. It is not a life changing moment. It is a race though that after you win the thing that sticks out in my mind is that you don’t realize how big of a race this is until you win it and you do all the media. Every time you are announced at driver intros at a sponsor function, anything you do you are introduced before they say your name as a Daytona 500 champion. That is a really cool title to get to have."

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT ACCOMPLISHING SO MANY BIG WINS? DAYTONA 500, ROLEX 24, BRICKYARD 400?
"I have not. I think the coolest part after winning this recent race (Rolex 24) is that I got to have a… they did this really neat photo of AJ (Foyt), Mario (Andretti) and I of the only three guys that have won the 500 and the Rolex 24 and that was mindboggling to see that and it be real. Not something you made at the carnival. That was really cool and it was really special to be in that group. I don’t know. I think those are things that you think about when you stop racing and you look back. I look at five years ago I wouldn’t have thought I would be here. So who knows where you are going to go."

HOW WILL RACING BE DIFFERENT AT ATLANTA FOR A FAN WITH THE NEW RULES CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR?
"I don’t know. I think that what we all hope is that the racing is better, but I think that Atlanta already produced really good racing. It’s so frustrating for all of the drivers that we don’t sell more tickets there especially being in that big of a city with so many people in the area. To me it should be one of the best tracks we have as far as people showing up. It puts on a great race every time. The rules package didn’t need to make the racing better there it is already a really good place."

WHAT ABOUT GOING FORWARD DOWN THE ROAD? HOW BIG OF A DIFFERENCE ARE THE NEW RULES GOING TO MAKE?
"I don’t know. I mean I think until we get to race honestly to me when we look back at the racing we had last year it was already really good. So, if they can make any improvement on that I think it will be great."