POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S 41 ANY SIZE SOFT DRINK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND:
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by today’s runner‑up of the Geico 500 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and that is none other than Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing. Jamie, I know for somebody who is really not particularly fond of restrictor plate tracks, you really know how to navigate these. Talk about how you were able to get a runner‑up finish today.
JAMIE McMURRAY: I thought it was super hard to pass today. I don’t know how everybody else felt. But you would ‑‑ until the tires wore out and the cars started sliding around, it was just three wide, and there really wasn’t anywhere to go. I actually raced with Kyle in about 30th for quite a bit of the race because there was no holes. It seemed like as the tires wore out and it got down to two lanes that you could kind of make people three wide and make some passes.
Yeah, but overall, I’m glad everybody is okay. It looked like an extremely scary wreck on the backstretch. I’m glad that we were able to miss that. It’s super circumstantial on the track of who’s in front of you, who’s behind you. Like there’s times when you feel like you’re going to have a good run and you don’t, and then there’s other times that it happens. So it was a good overall day for us.
Q: Jamie, where you restarted and Kyle had such excellent restarts, how do you figure out who to go with and where to go and which lane is moving?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I’d like to give you a really sophisticated answer, but the reality is that those plans fall apart in Turn 1. I think at one point someone missed a shift, maybe the 78 or something, and so it just scatters everybody. Really through Turns 1 and 2, you’re not up to speed enough to really do a whole lot, and the 17 had a really fast car. He was able to make the very top work a couple of times. I just had to commit to the middle, and that’s where my car was the best. But I asked them when I restarted behind Kyle the next‑to‑last restart, I’m like, what’s happening because I haven’t been here today, and I felt like the bottom seemed to be the better lane for a lap or two, so I was trying to get some information, and no one really seemed to know.
But I don’t know, I mean, Kyle might bulls‑‑‑ you a little bit, but I don’t think anybody really knows what they’re going to do because you have to wait and kind of see what transpires on the restart.
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