Team Monte Carlo MBNA Race Notes

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA America 500 Race day Notes GM Racing Communications
Sunday, March 10, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Page 1

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson led the way for Team Monte Carlo by
finishing second and third in the MBNA 500 at Atlanta.  They were the best
finishing Chevrolets in the top 13 positions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo - finished 2nd:
"It was a little difficult (to catch Tony Stewart). They did a fine job of
adjusting our car all day. You'd see his car kind of go away and then come
back when they made adjustments and that's what we did too. We've been up
front at a lot of these races at Atlanta, we just haven't been there at the
end. Today was a good day for us to be able to race for the finish and just
be part of the action. We've always run real good here, we just haven't been
there at the end to be part of the show. We're real happy about the
adjustments we made during the pit stops today. That's what has bit us here
in the past. Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Jr. and the guys have got their heads
together and we got a good finish. We need some points and hopefully this
will move us up.

"It seems like we always need a shot in the arm. But hopefully we can get to
where we can run up front all the time. I love driving these cars and we
couldn't have a better sponsor than Budweiser, but we need to be up front
more often and we need to figure out how. We need to get off the trailer
fast and that's been a tough part for us."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo - finished 3rd, and was
highest finishing Reybestos Rookie of the Year candidate: "I thought at
times we had a shot at it. It just blows my mind that we're this competitive
and we can run with these guys. Last week we knew we were solid and we were
hoping to improve on it. We came here and finished third. At times we had a
chance to win it but it didn't play out in the end for us. But the guys on
this Lowe's team are really coming together strong."

Teresa Earnhardt Note:  For the first time in her capacity as a team owner,
and in her second race appearance of the 2002 season, Teresa Earnhardt
attended today's pre-race NASCAR Winston Cup Drivers & Crew Chiefs meeting.

Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet Monte Carlo - "We only ran a couple
hundred miles so I don't know if the one-engine rule has anything to do with
anything. It was not a good day for the NAPA Auto Parts team."

Jeff Green, No. 30 AOL Chevrolet Monte Carlo - "We just didn't have a good
day. The racing was pretty good. You could pass if you had a good handling
racecar and that's what we were doing. But we were just using all the
racetrack - all the way up against the wall in the corner and you could get
a good run off the corner.  That's where my car wanted to run."  (On the
one-engine rule) "I'm not an engineer, so I don't know. But we did put 174
laps on it in practice."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA America 500 Race day Notes GM Racing Communications
Sunday, March 10, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Page 2


Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Service Chevrolet Monte Carlo: --
Richard Childress comment:  "We ran about 130 or 140 miles yesterday and
we've got about 100 to go right now in the race.  Normally we don't break
engines and we broke two today. (Has the one-engine rule hurt you?) "Yes,
definitely it has. We just need practice engines."

Additional comments from the Media Center by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie
Johnson:

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo - this was his top
finish in five starts at AMS '-

(Did you think you might have something for Tony Stewart?) "No, my car was
real tight and his car was great. He drove a good line. I moved up a little
bit and it seemed to help my car and I thought I was going to be able to
catch him like that but then he moved up in that same line. He's a smart
racecar driver. His car was turning a little bit better than mine. We were
getting all we could."

(After some of the blown motors today, do you still think DEI should take
more chances with the engines?) "I think that if you're going to win
championships, you definitely don't want to be blowing up. But I like to run
up front and you push the envelope on everything and I believe you should
push it on the motors. I think that what we had last year - even some of the
qualifying motors were possible race motors.  Those guys, they're just
worried about their jobs and I can understand that. I'm worried about my job
all the time too.  It's tough to get those guys at DEI to try this and try
that when it's untested. So, like I said the other day, it will take a good
year to get it all sorted out to where we can start tuning on our motors and
running a leaner mixture to try to get more speed out of the car. But I
could tell a big difference in the race motors between this year and last
year. And that's got a lot to do with rules changes on a lot of the
components. But my motors just don't have the thump that they had last year.
I think we can gain it. I really do."

(On his pit stops today) "Well, my rear tire changer, Steve Wolfe, had a lug
nut jam in the wrench one time; and the second stop I didn't hear what
happened but he just said he was having a bad day. And he had it figured
out. I told him that we had run 390 laps and if it took him that long to
figure it out, we were going to have some decisions to make. But he had a
great stop the last pit stop that picked us up a few spots and got us in
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA America 500 Race day Notes GM Racing Communications
Sunday, March 10, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Page 3

position to race Tony for the win. Ryan Newman knew I beat him off pit road
and he was just kind of messing around. I don't really understand that, but
you can tell when you beat somebody off pit road unless it's just a-post to
a-post. That's how you tell. I could see his a-post out the driver's side of
my car. I got hot about it, but whatever."

(Was it a good day for the Chevrolets finally?) "I'm not one to complain or
speak out of turn about how our cars compare to everybody else's, but my car
pushed all day long. We tried to make some adjustments that would help, but
it was good to see some Chevrolets up front. This race track is better for
us than a flat race track. A race track with a high entry speed in the
corner doesn't really hurt you that bad when you don't have the front
downforce as someone else. But a slow-entry corner track like Las Vegas,
where you really ease off the gas getting in the corner, you need a lot of
downforce.  Just like when you race on road courses, you brake hard when
you're going the fastest. That's when you can really use the most brakes
without sliding the tire.

"It's an ongoing debate and I don't care to be in the middle of it, myself.
But I know what I feel is right and wrong. Hopefully we'll get these cars in
the wind tunnel after Darlington, I believe, and just see.  We don't have a
worse car or an inferior racecar, we've just an unbalanced car. We've got
too much rear downforce. We've got more than we can handle for the front."

(What are your thoughts on the one-engine rule when you see somebody like
Matt Kenseth, who changed engines, go from the back to the front?) "His
racecar was good. He could do that. He's always run good here in the past. I
really don't understand what difference it makes if you're trying to make a
point about what motor he has or whatever. They changed motors and they went
to the back and that's the penalty. He had a good enough car to get back to
the front. I'd be pretty happy if I was him."

(Do you think the close, up-front action was because of the young guys up
there?) "In this race last year, we had five or six cars battling for the
lead at the end of the race. This track always has good racing with three or
four lanes in the corners you're able to move around and make some moves on
guys. You're not stuck behind them until they make a mistake. You can make
an attempt to pass a guy on almost every corner. I think that has a lot to
do with it. I love racing here and they can make more of these tracks."

(On Darlington) "Darlington is a tough racetrack for me. I almost had a good
finish there last year but we got involved in a wreck with about two laps to
go. That was when NASCAR was testing the waters with the red flag at the end
of the race. It's tough to go
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA America 500 Race day Notes GM Racing Communications
Sunday, March 10, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Page 4

 in there with a positive attitude for me. But you just know what you're
getting yourself into every time you go there. It's a struggle to keep the
car on the racetrack and it wears the tires out. I'm really inexperienced
compared to most of these guys I'm racing against when it comes to
Darlington and that really hurts me as far as having a good finish every
weekend. It's so easy to get fed up and give up on the racecar there and
that happens quite often with me."

(What caused you to move toward the back?) "That was pit stops. We had a
fifth place, or better, racecar all day long. I don't think we fell any
further back than fifth during our green flag pit stops and our racing. We
came out tenth one time and eighth another time. My car was really awesome
on new tires and I was able to pick off two or three spots in the first
three laps. That's when you've got to do it."

(There was a new record set with the number of lead changes today - was it
fun out there?) It's always fun racing here. We're always racing and passing
each other - more so here than other racetracks. I didn't know that there
was a record broken."

(Is your season on track?) "No, we just don't run good at Rockingham for
some reason. And it's the same at Darlington. I just seem to have trouble
getting it around the race track there. I take full credit for how we finish
there. We pushed all day at Vegas and couldn't get the car to turn. We're
not where we need to be in points. As far as the race team and how we do our
job, we're happy with that and feel like its championship material. But we
just can't seem to get off the trailer fast. We need to work on our set-ups
for these flat tracks."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo - a top finish in only
two starts at Atlanta - (Did you think you might have had more there at the
end?) "We were stronger in different segments. We ran second for a while
there and were running down Kurt Busch. I was a little bit more patient than
I needed to be at the start of a run, but it seemed to pay off at the end of
a run when I could work my way up through there. But all in all, it was a
solid effort. This is my second time here in a Winston Cup car. To have this
rookie team that we have, and come out of here with a third place finish is
great. We ran in the top five the majority of the day. That says a lot about
this young race team. We finished sixth in Vegas and we're going on to
Darlington. Hopefully we'll keep our momentum and continue to run up front."


TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA America 500 Race day Notes GM Racing Communications
Sunday, March 10, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Page 5

(Did you expect to become an asset or make a difference to the No. 24 team
this quickly?) "One key thing for me was our test in Las Vegas. I was able
to look at the No. 24 team's data and understand why and what he (Jeff
Gordon) was doing on the race
runs. I've applied that to the races - especially these mile and a half
tracks. And it's really helped me to not wear the tires out. I've been
overdriving the entry to the corner.  After looking at his data and trying
what he does, it instantly increased my speed and kept the tire life under
the car and the car stayed faster longer. So now that I'm driving like his
driving style, from Vegas the set-ups will be closer. Now from Atlanta, this
is more concrete evidence that he can use my set-ups and I can use his.

I still need to be a little more aggressive with qualifying, but we've met
our goal there and we'll just probably keep improving every week."

(You've been running well, and the No. 24 team seems to be struggling.  Any
theories?) "I don't think they're struggling. I know track position is very
important and Jeff was disappointed with his starting position. He knew he
was going to be fighting a battle all day long. And with these double-file
re-starts, you really get shuffled out of the mix. It's hard to get the
track position that you need to keep your car turning. Those guys are a
championship threat. Don't let the fact that they've not been dominating
these first few races. They'll be back and be strong and be contending for
their fifth Winston Cup title."

(How were your pit stops today and do you follow in the training tracks of
Jeff Gordon's crew?)  "At Hendrick Motorsports, we have a training coach
that trains all the teams. So all four teams have the same training. But
something that we did with the over-the-wall crew we brought the jackman
over from the No.24 team to bring us some experience. It seems to be working
real well."

(Are you relieved to have qualified for the first four races without any
problems?) "Definitely. We felt we would be able to qualify on our own right
and make the fields, but we were really praying that there wasn't going to
be any weather (rain). Luckily, nothing has affected us. It can hurt your
season. We're driving great equipment so I knew that as long as I didn't
make mistakes, we'd make the fields. That's been our philosophy for both the
qualifying and the racing and we'll continue to grow every week."





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