M.Waltrip first Chevy in Vegas qualifying

UAW-DAIMLER CHRYSLER 400
Contact: Judy Stropus
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Race No. 3 of 36                            GM
Racing Communications
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
203-438-0501
1.5-mile Banked Paved Speedway
 jstropus@earthlink.net
Friday, March 1, 2002
800-CHEVY-VM messages

203-788-5863 cell

POST-QUALIFYING -- WALTRIP'S CHEVY IN FIFTH; ONLY CHEVY IN TOP 10

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET (fifth, first Chevrolet): "It¹s a
really fun track to drive when you¹ve got your car right.  You just really
go.  We were trying (to be on the front row).  (Jimmy) Spencer and I have
really big feet and this is a track where if you¹ve got big feet and you get
your car working right, and get your crew get your car working right and lay
on the gas, what a great driving car.  We had a pretty good lap.  Anytime
you go out and do your job and you wind up that close to the front, you
can¹t complain.  I¹m happy.  I like this track and I¹m just looking forward
to racing here."  WHAT SIZE FOOT?  14.."  IS IT WINDY OUT THERE AND WHAT
EFFECT DOES IT HAVE?  "Our cars are big, I don¹t think the wind adversely
affected them at all.  The wind is not a factor here today."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET (12TH):  ŒTo get the car
through qualifying and get through our first day (is good).  This is the
toughest day.  A lot of things happen when you show up at a race track and
you have to qualify good.  I was a little conservative.  We¹ve been running
really good lately and I was just a little tiny bit conservative going into
turn 1 on the first lap.  Tires had a little more grip on the first lap.  We
scuffed our tires; that¹s something we did different than what we did in our
practice.  We should have stayed with stickers."  ON CHEVROLETS NOT DOING SO
WELL:  "I think maybe the way the rules should have worked, the spoilers
they got at Daytona they should have had to bring them to Rockingham and to
Vegas.  I think it would have evened up the field a little closer.  It looks
like the Fords are pretty strong right here.  We¹re working really hard with
our Chevy.  Richard Childress Racing has done a really good job.  We¹lll see
what happens as we get a little farther into the season."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET (13th):   YOU ALMOST HIT THE WALL:  "I
was just using up every bit of race track.  That¹s why they put those walls
there so we don¹t go over it.  The car was real well balanced.  We were
pretty good in practice.  I knew a lot of guys had caught up by the end of
practice so we¹re real happy with the lap.  It Œs a good, solid, clean lap,
the car was balanced well." GIVEN THIS IS YOUR RACE CAR FOR THE RACE
ITSELF., ARE YOU STICKING OUT YOUR NECK IN QUALIFYING BY GETTING SO CLOSE TO
THE WALL?  "You stick it out there.  I mean, just like these guys put
everything into the setup, everything into the engine to get as much out of
it as you possibly can.  I have to do the same.  They put a lot hard work
into it, I¹ve got to get everything I can out of it that I can.  Qualifying
is so important, especially at a place like Las Vegas.  You really need to
get a good solid run out there and get as good a starting position as you
can."

JERRY NADEAU, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHIA CHEVROLET (16th):  "Everybody wants to be
the fastest, but unfortunately the Chevrolets are a little bit behind.
We¹re not getting much help on that.  The guys did a good job.  We actually
got the car a lot better than what it was in practice.  In practice we were
somewhere around 35th."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE¹S CHEVROLET (25TH):  "We had a decent practice
session and a decent lap in qualifying."  IS THIS A DOWNER AFTER DAYTONA?:
"Daytona was one set of cricumstances.  Everybody knew, including myself,
that there¹s a lot more racing left this season, a lot of different kind of
racing left in the season, and I¹ve got a lot of learning to do .  We¹re
just taking it in stride.  Once we get past these first four races we¹ll be
breathing a lot easier during qualifying."  ON CHEVROLETS NOT RUNNING SO
WELL:  "There¹s a reason that those Dodges and Fords needed all that spoiler
cut off them in Daytona, because they were creating downforce.  So they
evened them up there and to let them compete and be fair I think they ought
to take those measurements back off their spoilers again and see how they
race out here on those other tracks."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH SERVICE CHEVROLET (28TH):  "It¹s just
too loose."

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK CHEVROLET (31st):  "I love this race track.  You
know, we¹ve really struggled with speed on our car.  The car¹s been driving
well, handling pretty well.  It was a little bit loose right there; that was
just all we had today. That¹s the fastest we¹ve been and it¹s not very
good..  Hopefully we can get our Kodak Max Films Monte Carlo a little closer
to the front on Sunday."  CHEVROLETS AREN¹T DOING SO WELL IN QUALIFYING:
"I¹m not so concerned about qualifying as I am the race.  Hopefully we will
run good on long runs.  It looks like the Dodges and the Fords are strong
right now.  The Pontiacs are strong.  We love our Monte Carlo and we¹re
going to make it the best we can and hopefully we¹ll race good with it."



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