Cut tire sends McMurray into wall
LOOKS LIKE THE TIRE WENT DOWN BEFORE YOU WERE GOING INTO TURN 3. IS THAT CORRECT?
“Yeah, I actually felt it pop or go flat really early. I just couldn’t get slowed down. Every time I got on the brakes it wheel hopped. I felt like I was going to turn right. I was trying to get the car slowed down and I knew for a long time I just couldn’t get slowed down enough.
“We cut a left rear tire down. It’s the exact same thing that happened to the No. 42 car (Juan Pablo Montoya) the third lap of practice yesterday. It’s weird, because we had just put new tires on and actually added air to the left rear, trying to make it better. We hadn’t had a problem, but we were just trying to be safe. So it’s a little puzzling that it actually blew out now, when we were trying to be more conservative."
LOOKS LIKE THE CAR HAS QUITE A BIT OF DAMAGE. ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET IT FIXED, OR HAVE TO GO TO THE BACK-UP CAR?
“I don’t know. It’s torn up pretty good, but we qualified okay so I hope they tell me they can fix it, but I’m not real sure."
ARE YOU OKAY? YOU LOOKED A LITTLE GINGER WHEN YOU WERE GETTING OUT OF THE CAR?
“Oh no, I’m fine. It’s ironic that happened because we actually had added air to the left-rear tire to try to be safe. Then we had a tire go down, so I’m a little bit puzzled more than I am hurt."
HAS A DECISION BEEN MADE YET ABOUT WHETHER IT CAN BE FIXED OR IF YOU WILL HAVE TO GO TO A BACK-UP?
“So, we’re going to try to fix it because we qualified 11th and it’s really hard to pass here. And I thought our car was really good in practice; it’s definitely the best car I’ve had here at Loudon. So we want to race this car. It’s mainly cosmetic. So if they can get the panels out and get it where it’s presentable, I think we’re going to try to race this car tomorrow.
“it does look better now that they’ve pulled some of the bent pieces off. The right-rear quarter panel I think is going to be the most critical thing because it was tore up pretty good. But it looks much better than it did 20 minutes ago."
HOW WAS THE CAR BEFORE THIS HAPPENED?
“I honestly thought we had a Top 2 or 3 car after about 10 or 15 laps; our car was really fast. I feel good about it if they can get this car fixed."