Q. Jamie and Bobby, we’ll open it up for your comments. What are your thoughts on the new surface and how has the test gone for the first day and a half?
JAMIE McMURRAY: The track is really good. It’s going to be a different race than what we’ve had in the past in Daytona. The cars are going to stay bunched up a lot more. In the past as the tires would wear out, the pack would spread apart a little bit until you cycled through the pit stops, then gather back up. Typically by the end of the race, if the sun went down, you would run in a pack.
With the amount of grip that the track has, the way the tires are not falling off at all, it will be two- or three-wide, really hard on the drivers and spotters for 500 miles.
They did a really good job, not only on the racetrack, but widening pit road. It’s really nice to get that little bit of extra room on pit road. Pit road speeds are really fast when you come to plate tracks. Typically we have the smallest brakes on the car that we run all year long, so pit road is also trouble. So the fact they widened that 10 or 12 feet is really nice.
BOBBY LABONTE: Just to add to what Jamie said. A lot of the things he said I agree with because he’s right on. The spotter is going to be real important. Out there in the practice we were going with either 12 or 17 or 18 cars yesterday, today to yesterday, there’s still a difference between that and what we’re going to do when we come back in February, when you put 25 cars out there for practice, then 43 cars for the race.
So passing is going to be more difficult in a lot of ways because you have to figure out the line. The spotter is probably going to be more important than ever judging for you, helping, because you can’t see through the car. I was behind Jamie a while ago. He’s on the guy in front of him, but I couldn’t see that. I knew it, but I laid there on his bumper. That’s going to lend for different racing, like Jamie said.
Pit road is awesome. I always said this is one of the hardest pit roads we would come through at any race because it was too narrow, never any grip with the concrete pad. And then asphalt widening, that’s definitely a plus. Obviously, the racetrack has a lot of grip, smooth, has a couple little characters in it, but still Daytona.
Q. Since the tire test, could you address in some of the long runs you had yesterday, were you able to hold it wide open, what was the tire falloff like and what will new tires mean?
JAMIE McMURRAY: Tires, from what we’ve seen so far are not going to be an issue. It’s hard for me to explain the technical side of it to you guys and make it make sense.
The amount of steering wheel input required now versus what we had here six months ago is maybe half. You’re not really having to turn the steering wheel because the car has so much grip.
We joked around before getting on the track that the tires were just going to be screaming hot. We made our first 15-lap run. When I saw the tire sheet, I didn’t believe the tires were so cool, maybe close to 75 degrees less than what we expected. So I don’t think you’re going to see tires be an issue.
But every year we’ve been to Daytona, you come in December, January, you can run wide open most of the run, then you come back in February, it’s a little bit hotter, the 24-hour cars have been on the track and it gets slicker. Certainly with the surface, it’s got a lot of grip, so I think you’re going to be able to run wide open.
It’s going to be different than Talladega, though, because the cars, you can’t necessarily lock together the way you can at Talladega. You can lock together. It’s a little more different with this nose. I don’t know, the way the cowl sucks the air in, the cars are stalling out a little bit. But you can still get locked together. I just haven’t seen anybody push it and try to shove somebody all the way around the racetrack. Everybody is letting off when they get to the corner.
I think it’s good when it comes down to five laps to go, it will be a completely different story. Right now it’s different than Talladega, I don’t know, it seems just so much shorter around here and the track is so much narrower. At Talladega when you get locked together and you have a huge run, when the guys in front of you see that, they pull up to defend or to block, there’s room to go, right? So you either go high or low. Here the track is so much narrower, when that happens, you have to let off. It’s going to be different.
Honestly, from my first 15-lap run in the draft, it took a while to take it all in and understand what was happening because it’s different than anything for me than we’ve done before. But really today when we got out there, I don’t know, felt way more comfortable, you kind of learn little tricks and stuff.
BOBBY LABONTE: The only thing I can add to that technically for you, I’m not sure the correct term of the tire, what the little things that stick up, we call them titties, but the little things that stick up, we can run 20 laps and they’re still on the tire. When you ask about the tire, try to explain to you what the tire wear is, it’s cool yet at the same time they’re not wearing. Tires are not going to be an issue like Jamie said.
JAMIE McMURRAY: It honestly seems like the threshold of the tire could run 25 miles an hour faster and we’d be comfortable in the car running that much faster. It wouldn’t put a better race on but it doesn’t feel like we’re having to push the tires to the limit.
Q. (No microphone.)
JAMIE McMURRAY: Right now probably not. My guess, talking to other drivers, and it will be different when we come back here in February, you’ll see fuel only. You’ll see two tires, four tires, and you might see somebody do fuel only.
Q. This track has had so much history with the bumps in the track, the grooves. Past years talking to more senior drivers, they thought they had an advantage over the younger guys because they knew where the bumps in the track were. Do you think the paving will take that away and bring power up more to where the younger guys will be able to compete a little quicker? Jamie, your dad missed the finish to the 500 last year. Have you and your dad had a chance to sit down and watch the race together?
BOBBY LABONTE: I think the first part of your question, the technology of the race team and the cars, I don’t know that you have to be here 20 years to say you know all the bumps because they change all the time. The technology of the race teams when you unload, you’re pretty much what you got.
As far as the paving goes, whether it’s going to bring parity up, of course it’s going to bring parity up. Everybody has more grip. There’s less you can do to the racecars and there’s less that the bumps will affect a car that’s got all the tools to work with at their shop. It’s going to affect them less than a guy that comes out here by the seat of the pants that says we have to change this and this. The parity will be better just because of that.
JAMIE McMURRAY: I think the advantage of being around for a while isn’t necessarily learning the bumps in the track but developing the relationships with the other drivers. Everybody has certain guys they work better with. Sometimes that happens throughout the course of a race. It might be somebody you haven’t necessarily drafted with but you work well together. There’s always cars that draft better together. For some reason, for me, I might get behind Bobby, my car really sucks up to his car, so you work with that guy all day long. There’s other cars, even though the cars are very similar, sometimes your car doesn’t suck up as well. I think for the most part being around for a while is just kind of developing those relationships.
And I have not watched the race with my dad. I’ve learned that my dad is a ‘Monday crew chief’ and that he typically tells me everything that we did wrong. So, no, I did not watch it with him.
Q. Jamie, following up on how much of a facsimile of Talladega Daytona might become, you’re saying it’s not exactly like it. In your comments, you were saying you couldn’t necessarily do the two-car breakaways as much. Will we see two abreast, 20 deep as opposed to three abreast?
JAMIE McMURRAY: I really believe that early on in the race it will be for sure two-wide. Three-wide is not going to be a huge issue.
When we unloaded, I felt like the car seemed really wide and the track seemed narrow. After running 15, 20 laps, we ran three-wide this morning, and it was not—it wasn’t that I don’t want to say scary, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.
I mean, it’s going to be a lot tighter packs than since I’ve been around Daytona than I’ve ever seen. So it’s going to be more Talladega-type, really close restrictor plate racing.
BOBBY LABONTE: I agree again, that’s what it’s going to be like, more like that, maybe less of the two-car breakaway like the last race when there’s two, two and two for the checkered flag. Be a lot of tight drafts, two-, three-wide. Before here at the tri-oval, if you run the inside, two cars on the outside, it would take your breath away because it would feel like you were about ready to spin out. Now there’s now issues in a lot of things like the track had before.
Q. Have you noticed any difference with the different plate on the car?
JAMIE McMURRAY: We didn’t know there was a different plate. Honestly, the difference in that is only six or ten horsepower. It’s really hard to feel that. If they were to change it run to run, you would know because rpm’s would be a little bit different with all the differences in the racetrack. When the racetrack gets real smooth, has a lot of grip, it doesn’t feel like you’re going real fast. It honestly feels like everything slows down.
I think like what Bobby said about before where it would take your breath away in the tri-oval, that’s when you feel like you’re going fast, when you feel you don’t have control. The cars are so secure right now, no, you can’t feel any difference in the speed.
Q. Jamie, with the new year right around the corner, you had such a phenomenal year in 2010, how do you even begin to think about topping that?
JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, gosh, we just had our little boy three weeks ago today I guess. It has been a very exciting year. Racing aside, just getting to experience the birth of a child, it’s something that everyone has explained to me over and over, but until you get to go through that yourself, you don’t get it. It’s been a really good year. We had a really good year on the racetrack.
Just look forward to getting back at it. I don’t know how it is for Bobby, but for me you’re ready to take a break at Homestead. You literally get that first weekend off and you’re ready to get back again. It’s really sick how we want to do this every single weekend, but that’s the way you feel.
Q. Bobby, obviously it’s kind of cold out there. Stands are empty. Can you talk about how important a job testing is, maybe how it benefits everybody from you guys to the teams to the race fans.
BOBBY LABONTE: It’s real important. They have a section open for the fans. They can come down here and see us drafting. I’m sure they’ve got their cameras out showing video to their buddies now on who knows where it’s all at. It’s the first time we’ve been to the new facility. That’s exciting.
I think there’s a lot for everybody here testing. I think it’s important for everybody. It’s all on different levels, too. Jamie, you’ve been with those guys once before, then you’re back. Like myself, I’m new with the JTG team and Toyota, so I have a lot of different faces, names to learn, a lot of different ways to look at our test.
Fortunately, we’ve already been testing. This is our third test I’ve had with these guys already. At least you gain that rapport with them and everything.
Not everybody has the same agenda when they get down here. Everybody gets to come, get their three laps. Mine is communication, more than ever, this and that. It’s a little difficult because sometimes you go out there and say, I don’t know if they changed anything, but it went three one-hundredths faster. I can’t tell you what it was. When we tested before, and this time here, you do have that rapport we get and that’s important for me at this point in time.
You take that into this, which I agree with Jamie, the first week afterwards, we are sick, we want to go back racing again. My wife is ready to get rid of me again. It’s already Christmas and we’re already testing.
It’s going to be here before you know it. We’re excited we’re able to do what we have been able to do, take a few weeks off and get going again in January.
Q. The big one, here, Talladega, everywhere. How does a newly paved track, specifically this one, lessen or increase the odds of mayhem on the track? You talk about cars will be able to run tighter together because of better grip. At the same time I assume there will be less turbulence. Does that sort of balance each other out and the odds will be the same as they always are or does it increase or lessen them?
BOBBY LABONTE: I would say it would increase them for the whole run. Before the first part of the run, it was 15 laps in, everybody starts to spread out a little bit. I’m not sure you’re going to see us spread out. Talladega, you see a lot of racing there in the past few years before they repaved there, two packs, guys lay back, you can catch up.
Like we said earlier, it’s going to be more like Talladega. Less like Talladega in the two-car breakaway. They might break away for the straightaway, but by the time they get to the corners they’re going to have to do a little something different. Going to lend to more pushing, shoving, things like that. It it’s going to lend to more things like that that can happen.
Nobody knows that. If you sat here on a Monday and ran a 500-mile race with 43 cars, did it again Wednesday and again on Friday, you’d have three different races probably. It’s not a recipe. It kind of folds out the way it folds out. Kind of like my recipe, you don’t know if it’s going to taste good or not. You don’t know, but it definitely lends to that.
JAMIE McMURRAY: My opinion is it will probably increase the chances. I think what fans don’t see in the plate races is that we wreck about everybody lap. Something happens every lap that makes you flinch, it makes you think, I need to take a breath. When you run really close together, it increases those chances.
I’m with him. I don’t believe you’re going to see—everyone is going to be really close and really tight. You just got to hope that you can make it to the end because the odds are going to be really good, I’d say.
Q. (No microphone.)
JAMIE McMURRAY: I think when you ran the bottom here off of two, off the bump, it would shove you to the outside lane if you pinched it down towards the end. The bumps aren’t going to be an issue. It’s running close together. It’s going to be just not running over the guy. That sounds real easy, but it’s really hard to do.
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