New walls at Loudon will be a welcome sight

Richmond didn't turn out as well for us as we had hoped. We struggled with the handling on our Havoline Dodge, and were able to salvage a 19th-place finish, but it definitely was not the night we had hoped for.

	Jamie McMurray

We struggled with the car from the time we unloaded it, and wound up qualifying 29th for the race. We spent the final practice session making changes, but just never hit on anything.

I've run well in the past at Richmond in the Busch cars, but we just didn't find our groove last weekend. But we were still able to move up one spot in the points, and we were the highest finishing rookie, so we gained some points on Greg Biffle in the Raybestos Rookie standings.

It's been a pretty slow week around here for me. I've done some media calls, but other than that, I've had some down time to rest and relax. I bought some new four-wheelers, so Cielo (girlfriend) and I have spent some of our time on my land just riding around.

We're taking the same car we ran third with at Bristol a few weeks back to Loudon this weekend. We were running decent at Loudon back in July, but cut a tire down and I hit the wall pretty hard and our day was over.

They've put the new soft walls up at Loudon, and that's definitely a step in the right direction. You carry so much speed into the turns there that it's good to see the soft walls go up.

I'll think our Havoline Dodge will be pretty good this weekend.

Now, on to some questions...

I read where you're only going to run a couple more Busch races this season. What made you decide not to finish? --Ashley Routhier

Ashley, that's be the plan since the start of the season. I was never slated to run the complete Busch Series this season in the No. 1 car. I've been splitting that with David Stremme, who's done a great job in the car. David's going to be driving the car full-time next year in the Busch Series, so I'm only going to race two more times this season in the car so David can get as much experience as he can before next year.

Do you think you're going to win Rookie-of-the-Year and how would you feel winning it? --Kelly

Kelly, yeah, we definitely think we can win Rookie-of-the-Year. Both Greg (Biffle) and I have swapped the lead in rookie points for most of the season. Our main focus remains to win a race before the season is over and run consistent each week. I think Greg's won the rookie title in the Trucks and Busch Series, so yeah, it'd be nice to win it. It'd also be neat for my sponsor Havoline, since both of the rookie drivers that they had in the car in the past won the rookie title (Davey Allison ?1987; Kenny Irwin ? 1998).

Do you feel any extra pressure to perform with a veteran driver on your team? --Viola

No, I don't feel any pressure because I have Sterling Marlin as a teammate. I don't think anyone could put more pressure on me than what I already put on myself. It's great to have a teammate like Sterling who you can go to for advice on tracks that you're struggling out. There's definitely no competition between Sterling and myself.

Jamie McMurray drives the No. 42 Texaco Havoline Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. His diary appears weekly on SI.com.