McCumbee focused on task at hand with No. 45 team

LONG POND, Pa. -- On the outside, Chad McCumbee appears cool, calm and collected. But the 22-year-old from Supply, N.C., admits the nerves he feels right now may go away in time.

"Probably on the plane ride home, I guess," McCumbee said. "There's obviously some nervousness. I just want to finish, be solid and get us a good finish. If we can do that, I'll be happy."

Why wouldn't he be nervous? After all, McCumbee's making his Nextel Cup debut in Sunday's Pocono 500, driving a car for the legendary Petty Enterprises as Kyle Petty makes a temporary move into the broadcast booth for TNT.

Inside Halls of Petty

Chad McCumbee has been working toward this weekend since he was 10. That's why he says Sunday will be the most exciting day of his life.

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Welcome to the big time, Chad.

Still, McCumbee admits once he got over a little stargazing, this is just like any other race.

"We were right behind Jeff Gordon when he went out to qualify, so that was pretty cool," McCumbee said. "I really haven't had a whole lot of time to sit there and think about it.

"I feel the same here as I would at a Saturday night short-track race. We're just sitting here trying to figure out how to make the car better, make it go faster."

Like any other temp, McCumbee's No. 1 goal this weekend? Do the job you've been asked to do and don't bring attention to yourself by messing up.

If Friday's qualifying was any indication, so far, so good. McCumbee posted a time good enough to start 35th on the grid, quite a bit better than his practice times.

"That was good for us, and that was solid," McCumbee said. "That's what I wanted to do, I wanted to be solid. I knew we didn't have a chance at the pole and I knew we needed to pick up a lot from practice. That was a good, solid lap for us.

"Hopefully, that'll build some momentum if we can get this thing pretty good in race trim."

McCumbee was 33rd in both of Saturday's two practice sessions, running a best lap of 162.925 mph in the first session and 162.716 mph in Happy Hour.

He said once he got out on the track for the first time, much of his nervousness went away and he was able to get down to business.

"You've got to look at it as you were hired to do a job, as if you were hired to drive anything," McCumbee said. "It doesn't matter if it's bicycle racing. You've got to figure out how to make it better. I don't think it's been too big of a transition for me, really.

"When you get in the car, all you want to do is figure out how to tell these guys to make the car better and that's what I've been doing. I haven't even been paying attention to all that other stuff, trying to get tunnel vision."

If anything, McCumbee admits he's been so wrapped up in the job that he's not had that much of a chance to reflect on his whirlwind weekend.

"I've been so busy, it's been hard to think about anything," McCumbee said. "Obviously, I just want to finish. If we finish, we'll end up pretty good. If we can stay on the lead lap, we'll get us a solid finish. I just want to keep these guys solid in the points after we come out of here.

"I've got a lot of learning to do. There's a lot of things I'm not used to over here. There's only one way to learn and that's to start learning as soon as that green flag drops. Wherever we end up, we end up. I'm not looking at it real hard. If we're in the top 10 with 10 to go, that would be pretty cool."

McCumbee already has a vocal fan base, calling out his name as he walked out to pit road Friday.

"I've been very surprised at how big it's been already," he said. "Honestly, I'm feeling kind of bad because I missed about half of them because I was rushing to get in the car. That's the most important part of this sport and that's the reason why we're all here. Getting to drive racecars for a living is because of fans watching. That's No. 1."