Dodge Motorsports Big Weekend Results

 
LAS VEGAS (March 3, 2002) -- Sterling Marlin rolled the dice and cracked the
ice Sunday in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway.  Marlin and his Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Dodge
Intrepid R/T team decided to make wholesale changes to the car Sunday
morning. The gamble paid off, and Marlin rolled to a 1.163-second victory
over fellow Dodge driver Jeremy Mayfield. In the Pennzoil World of Outlaw
Series on Friday night at Las Vegas Speedway, Mark Kinser's Mopar-powered
Maxim led from flag-to-flag and captured the 25-lap Preliminary Feature in
the Silver State Shootout.         

NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES

Dating back to the last three races of 2001 and the first three races in
2002, UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 winner Sterling Marlin has recorded six
straight top 10 finishes. He has five top fives in those six events, three
runner-up finishes and a victory.

Marlin leads the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup standings by 75 points over Ryan
Newman. Marlin's win, Dodge's second victory of the season, gave Dodge a
24-21 advantage over Ford in the season-long manufacturers standings.

"All these guys did a great job today," Marlin said. "Everything worked good
for us today. We changed the car Sunday morning. We weren't real good in
Saturday's Happy Hour practice. We probably had a 10th-place car, so we
decided to go for the win.

"We changed it up and hit right on it. We changed some springs and shocks
and the car was flawless just about all day. Daytona was a heart breaker,
but the guys kept working real hard and we bounced back. When I saw that
last caution I said, 'oh no, not again.' but it worked out great this time."

Other Dodge Intrepid R/T finishers were:
    Bill Elliott, No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T, eighth
    Jimmy Spencer, No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T, 10th
    Ward Burton, No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T, 21st
    Buckshot Jones, No. 44 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid R/T, 23rd
    Hut Stricklin, No. 23 Hills Bros Coffee Dodge Intrepid R/T, 24th
    Kyle Petty, No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T, 30th
    John Andretti, No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T, 36th
    Casey Atwood, No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T, 41st
    Shawna Robinson, No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge Intrepid R/T, 42nd

Bob Wildberger, Senior Manager, NASCAR Operations -- Dodge Motorsports,
couldn't keep from smiling after Dodge captured its second victory in three
races this season.

"Sometimes you have to make your own luck," Wildberger said. "Sterling could
have won all three races this year, but he kept knocking on the door and he
got through it today. That last caution made me as nervous as a kitten. We
figured out about mid-last year and we started getting better on restarts
but you just don't know what's going to happen coming off a caution.

"It's a tribute to all the teams working together to be leading the
manufacturers standings. It says we've been very blessed with having some
very great racers. That's chemistry and depth of the program. When someone
is having a bad day, someone else is up front.

"I sure hope we give away that million dollar bonus. That would be the best
investment we've ever made. I understand Sterling is thinking about what
color (Viper) he wants. I think Ward has picked black. Sterling hasn't told
me yet. I think he'd be smart if he let his wife Paula pick out the color."
 
PENNZOIL WORLD OF OUTLAWS

Mark Kinser, a two-time Pennzoil World of Outlaws champion, led from flag to
flag Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and captured the 25-lap
Preliminary Feature in the Silver State Shootout.

Behind the wheel of the No. 5M Mopar Maxim, Kinser was the fastest qualifier
in the 37-car field, .017 seconds ahead of Sammy Swindell. Kinser was never
seriously challenged in the feature and rolled to a 1.9-second victory. He
also won the first O'Reilly Auto Parts Dash. Kinser finished third in his
first heat race.

"I'm a notoriously slow starter," Kinser said. "I think we went a month last
year before I won my first race. It's nice to get a win this early and get
my confidence and help the crew keep theirs up." 

Steve Kinser won the Saturday night A-feature at LVMS, and Mark Kinser
finished third.

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