Monte Carlo Notes - Texas - J.Gordon & Qualifying, April 4

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo - was second-fast in round
1:

(Are you running at dangerous speeds out there?) "Everywhere we go is
dangerous if there is a failure or a problem. The track is extremely fast.
They've done an awesome job with it and that's why it's so fast. It's
smooth. The transitions are great. It's got a lot of grip. I don't have a
problem with the speeds; I've got a problem with the fact that it's not
going to be a very good race. Right now, I'm pushing extremely hard to
qualify good because I know it's going to be single file and there's not
going to be much passing at all. With a new surface like this, we'll be
running along the bottom of the track."

(Looking at the speeds of the Busch cars, why aren't the Winston Cup cars
faster?) "I think we finally got going a little bit there at the end.
Sometimes that happens because the Busch cars don't have as much horsepower
as we do and they've got a little bit shorter wheelbase. Sometimes they can
carry a little more corner speed. Right now, we've got so much power that
it's lifting the nose of the car. It's not allowing us to get through the
corner quite as fast as the Busch cars. I think you'll see the Winston Cup
pole faster today than the Busch pole was yesterday. That's not uncommon for
a new surface and a very fast, high-momentum race track like this."

(Is it too fast?) "It's too fast to put on a very good race. I look forward
to when the surface starts to wear off. Last year was a pretty decent race
where you could get side by side. Now, it's going to go back to one groove.
I'm glad we're running good because I'm going to put the best possible lap I
can out there for qualifying. I want to be up front because it's going to be
extremely hard to pass."

(Since Texas is one of the tracks you haven't won at, how exciting would it
be to win here?) "Oh, it would be awesome. But right now I just want to win.
I don't care where it is. We've run extremely well and our finishes have not
shown how well we've run. And that's unfortunate. I want to get that turned
around and start listing some good finishes up there on the board. We're
capable of it."

(With a couple of guys on probation now, do you race them any differently?)
"No, I don't race him any different.  Usually, he'll race me a little
different. We're all out there getting everything we can out of it and I
don't know that probation changes it a whole lot other than a guy might
think twice about sticking his nose in a hole where maybe there's not enough
room."


TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Samsung/RadioShack 500 Practice 1 nmwager@aol.com
Friday, April 05, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Texas Motor Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

(With this being your 300th start - and not even taking a provisional - what
does it mean to you?)  "That's pretty awesome. We've come close (to taking a
provisional) a couple of times. That says a lot about our race team and how
well we've qualified.  But 300 starts - I can't believe it. That seems like
a lot to me. It kind of snuck up on me.  I don't look at the starts as much
as I look at the finishes. I like those statistics more, but 300 is
special."

(Have you ever thought of writing your life story?) "Well, we've been
talking about just climbing the mountain to get back on top as far as racing
is concerned. I think I've got a whole lot more chapters in my life before I
can write things about it. But there's a great story about where this team
started, and what they've gone through for the last eight or nine years. We
all dropped down and then worked our way back to the top.  I think that's a
great story and I'd like to see it be told, and we have been pursuing that."

(And that would be a story on your team authorized by you?) "Yes."

(Is running consistently high rpm's in this race of concern to you with
regard to the one-engine rule?) "Yeah, that is definitely a concern. We've
had problems at places like Atlanta and Chicago last year, so coming to a
track like this is of definite concern. Randy Dorton and all the guys in the
engine shop have been working hard to make sure we can run here for long
periods of time in that rpm range. I think they've got a pretty good handle
on it."

(Could the track come back to another groove after the Busch race?) "No, it
won't. It's going to take three races, really. Atlanta (for example) just
started coming into it's own last year. And they redid that place five years
ago. So it will take a good two or three races. If there is a really harsh
summer and winter, it will come in faster. They need to find a way to repave
these racetracks with a weathered pavement so that it doesn't have so much
grip at the beginning. The more grip we have, the faster we go. But it's
also harder to pass."

(Will it be slippery?) "It will if you get out of the groove. There's so
much grip in the groove, that anything outside of that will seem slippery."

(You don't want to be pushing at this track, do you?) "You don't want to be
pushing anywhere.  But being real tight can get you in trouble because this
place can build up the tire pressure in the right front so much that you're
just going to get tighter and tighter as time goes on."
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Samsung/RadioShack 500 Practice 1 nmwager@aol.com
Friday, April 05, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Texas Motor Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

(If you can't pass, how can you make this a better race?) "The number one
thing is to qualify really good so you can get in clean air and have a good
spot on pit road. You just try to keep yourself up in good track position
all day long. So, we'll have to look at the tire wear and look at the type
of pit strategy we can play. But track position is going to be so critical
that it will be the main focus. Whatever I can do as a driver to protect the
bottom is going to be real important.  When it's hard to pass and you've got
to protect the bottom, if somebody gets greedy and wants to stick his nose
in there, then you'll have problems."

(With the increased speeds, is there almost a Talladega atmosphere in the
garage?) "We are going extremely fast.  The dangerous side is not when we're
out there just riding around at those speeds. That's not a big deal. It's
when you have a failure - like blowing a right front tire. When you have
something go wrong or break, that's when it becomes a big issue. You try to
put that out of your mind because you've got to go out there and race hard.
You've got to be out there pushing the car every single lap and not be
thinking about that. But it's hard when you've hit the wall pretty hard here
before.  Goodyear has done a really good job of changing the tire for this
track. They knew it was going to be fast. They knew it was going to be hard
on tires. From what I've heard, everybody is real happy with it. We've got
to be sure we don't get to aggressive with the air pressure being low in the
camber and we're not. We feel real good about that.

"I think we always have to respect the speeds at every track. You can hit
the wall at Bristol just as hard as you can here. This is one of those
places where it's going to be tough to pass. If a guy gets a run inside you,
and you don't want to give him that spot - you want to shut the door on him
because there's going to be a wreck - that happens everywhere we go that you
can't pass. This is a very fast track. We're going to have to give and take
and approach it like we do at Talladega where you can't try to put a guy in
the grass just because he gets a fender inside you. You've got to respect
that."

(Do you have any real sensation of how fast you're going at this track?)
"It's pretty fast and it's very smooth. Normally we don't know how fast
we're going until we hit something. I just hope that doesn't happen because
I don't want to find out just how fast we're going. It's fast, but it's real
comfortable because it's smooth. I'm happy."





TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Samsung/RadioShack 500 Qualifying Notes nmwager@aol.com
Friday, April 05, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Texas Motor Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 4

Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "Well, if somebody goes
out there and blows us both away (he and Ricky Rudd), it won't matter.  What
I'm the proudest of is that this is our first full-blown test of the year.
We came to Texas and brought a bunch of engineering staff from DEI (Dale
Earnhardt Inc.). I'm real pleased with our performance.  However it works,
you just have to grade yourself on what you know and how you performed under
the circumstances."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "We chose to go out on
sticker tires and the car was a little slower. I don't know if the track is
dirty from going out early or if that set of stickers didn't work out.  A
lot of guys are on scuffs, so I don't know.  Maybe it's a combination of
both. The stickers worked great for us in practice, so that's what we chose.
The No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) is on scuffs. We'll have to see how it all plays
out.

(Did you swap any information with the No. 24 team this morning?) "Yeah, a
little bit set-up wise, but more driver-wise. I even got some advice from
him (Jeff Gordon) about how to enter the corners and it helped me a lot."

Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "This is a great racecar.
We didn't come off the truck that good. The guys really worked hard to get
the car to qualify as well as it did.  It's real easy to go fast here at
Texas. Just try to hold it wide open, but your foot is quivering on that gas
pedal a little bit. I just want to thank Chevrolet for giving us a good
racecar and Pennzoil for sticking by me."

(Does the quiver mean you lifted, or did you flatfoot it?) "I flat-footed it
in practice, and I ended up losing too much.  I was lifting a little bit to
get the car to turn, and then also to run wide open.  So it's a balancing
act out there."

Robby Gordon, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet Monte Carlo -- Scraped the
wall in practice (cosmetic damage) and crashed his primary car in turn 4
during qualifying.  He will go to a back-up car: "I don't have a smile on my
face, but unfortunately at times like this you have to smile a little bit
and look on the bright side. We just struggled today. We went out in the
first session and we weren't very good. Gil Martin (crew chief) kept working
on it all day and I thought I could handle it being a little bit freer and
they gave me what I asked for. At these mile and a half high-speed
racetracks, your qualifying position is so important. You can see how close
the field is. We were trying to get in the same position we had at Bristol
(front row) and we gave that one away. We went for it and it just didn't
stick."