dodge nascar winston cup advance for sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

 <<...OLE_Obj...>> 



Saturday, April 6, 2002						Ray Cooper
Texas Motor Speedway						Golin/Harris
International
Samsung/RadioShack 500 Advance		803-466-9085


KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
	NOTE:  Petty will start 14th in Sunday's 43-car field. His best
starting spot this season was 11th at Las Vegas. Petty has finished 15th,
14th and 12th in the past three races and moved from 38th to 25th in the
NASCAR Winston Cup Standings. The 41-year-old driver from Level Cross, N.C.,
will make career start No. 616 on Sunday.

	"We've been pretty good a lot of places this year, not great any
place. Last year, we were junk a lot of places. It's a big step up, but
we're pretty decent. We've always been where if you qualify pretty good you
can race pretty good. That's the way we were  in Las Vegas. We qualified
good and we felt like we were racing pretty good and we had a gear go out.
That kind of messed us up, but even in other places where we didn't qualify
as good, we still raced good. We feel OK about it.
	"Texas is a big market for Sprint. This race is the
Samsung/RadioShack race. That's a big part of what Sprint is. If you look at
our car, they gave up the Sprint on the side of it. It says Samsung on the
side of it for this race, so that's a big deal. If you run like we ran last
year, you couldn't help anybody. It wasn't like this is going to be a big
race for us. They were all big races, but you just couldn't do anything.
This year we're a little bit better in that department.
	"You're pleased that things are working like they should be. Like I
said last year, some things we did last year we were right on target with.
Our performance on the race track, we weren't on target with. This year,
we're on target with our performance on the race track. We feel like we're
where we should be. Ultimately, we're not where we want to be, but we're
where we should be at this point in time. When you look at it like that,
only being 16 months into it, we're where we should be. At least we're
hitting our marks and hitting our targets. Last year we weren't as good at
that. We need some more consistency with the 43 and 44. We're not as
consistent as we want to be in the 45 by any stretch, but the 43 and 44 have
had incredibly bad luck. They've been at the wrong place at the wrong time,
and it's got nothing to do with how they run.
	"I think Sterling was a factor all last year. You've got to take
Sterling out of the Dodge equation this year. When you look at last year and
he finished third in points and won a couple of races, they were already
established. Where the Dodge teams have shown improvements this year, Ray
Evernham's team has won poles. They've run good the first six races. Jeremy
Mayfield has been a definitely plus for that program, and I think Bill
Elliott, just from being another year away from being a car owner and just
being a driver, he's better this year than he was last year. I think that
shows, too. I think that program is up.
	"I think Bill Davis' program with the 22 has stepped up, and the 23
is just going through some bad learning curves. That's part of it. You've
got to look at what they did. They started all over one year into the Dodge
program with a brand new team. You can't really go off that. You look at our
three teams and what we've been trying to do. We're a lot better than we
were last year. You look at the whole Dodge program, I think Sterling being
the flagship, I don't look at him running any better than he did last year
right now. I think he just picked up where he left off last year. I do think
the other three or four teams have made a big improvement over the winter.
You're still not where Sterling's at, but you're a lot closer to where the
lead cars are.
	"Any of our cars can win races. Having said that, we're back to the
Sterling issue. I think if you look at the 40 car, it can win week in and
week out. Can the 41 car win races? Yes, but I'm not sure the 41 can win
week in and week out. I'm not sure the 22 car can win week in and week out.
They're in a little bit better position than we are. We feel like we can win
a race. But we're going to be the kind of team right now that wins a race
and runs 12th the next week. You finish in the top five and the next week
you run 15th or 16th. That's kind of where we're at. We've not built to that
point. We're not a top five team like the 18 or 20 or 40 or 24. A lot of
teams out here can win races but only a few teams are going to win
consistently.
	"I'll be real surprised if it's not a single file race on Sunday. Go
back to the first year here. The race track was fast and everybody
complained about the race track because the transition into the corners was
too radical. There wasn't any taper to it. It was a single-file race and
Darrell wrecked everybody going into turn one. That's just a fact. That's
the way it was. After that, everybody got in line and the rest of the day it
was a single-file race. If you go to the front, you were good. It was all
about track position. That's kind of the way it's going to be tomorrow
unless the Busch race does something spectacular and they open up another
groove. This year it's going to be a single-file race. Next year, it'll be a
groove and a half and by the third year it'll be a good race track.
	"That's nothing against Texas or against this race track. Show me
any race track in the country like this, a Chicago or Kansas City or
California. If they pave it, it's going to go back to a single-groove race
track. Until the pavement wears out on the bottom and you've got to move up
and find new pavement, it's just going to be a single-groove track.
	"About the only place you're going to be able to pass is in the
pits. You're going to have to have really good pit stops. You're going to
have to put yourself in position to capitalize on green flag stops and
capitalize on having a good pit crew. We feel like we've got a good pit
crew. We'll find out tomorrow, just like everybody else. Everybody who
thinks they have a good pit crew will find out tomorrow just how good it
really is. I don't know about two tires with the new asphalt. We'll have to
wait and see about that.
	"I think the main thing that Robin Pemberton to the table is for the
guys at the shop and the guys on the race team. He gives them a lot of
confidence. He gives me a lot of confidence. He comes from an organization
where they were winning races and where they had shots for championships.
When you look at our team and the way we were last year, people begin to get
down. All of a sudden you bring in somebody like Robin and they suck it up
and work harder. I think everybody works a little harder for him. His
knowledge and what he says, well, when he says something, people listen.
There's a lot of credibility there. It's not like me saying something and
saying it's the right way.  A lot of people think they know the right way,
but he's proven over the last two or three years that what he knows works. I
think that's a big deal.
	"Robin and I have known each other a long time. He first went to
work at Petty Enterprises when we were teenagers. The two biggest changes
that have paid off for us quickest has been Robin and Mike Ege's racing
engines. Ege has been a huge plus for us. That was Robert Yates Engine Mfg.,
now it's Mike Ege's Racing Engines. You know they built engines for the 66
and 26 and 32 and guys like that that won races last year and sat on poles.
Now we've got an engine program that should be capable of sitting on poles
and winning races. That's been a big plus. Robin already had a relationship
with Ege when Ege worked with Penske four or five years ago. He just tied a
lot of stuff together. Robin is one common denominator that has worked with
everybody and knows how to make everything work.
	"I haven't made the race here the last two years. I didn't make the
race when Adam was here two years ago. I look back on it and I think about
it now. I'm glad I didn't make it. I got to stand on top of the truck and
watch him run his first Winston Cup race, and that was a big deal. I
couldn't have been more proud. He had trouble and fell out. Last year, I
don't think my head was in the game. That was my fault we didn't make the
race. It didn't have anything to do with the car. I just couldn't get my
head straight. This is always a pretty cool place for me to come to because
this is where Adam ran his only Winston Cup race. His accident happened May
12 that year.
	"The King comes to about 90 percent of the races. He still does a
bunch of stuff for STP and General Mills. He's still working. He says it's
working anyway. We're probably closer now because we don't do a lot of stuff
together. I don't mean that bad. It's not a competitive environment. We're
on the same side, working for the same thing. He gets in the middle of
everything and has a lot of input. We still listen to him. What he brings to
the table a lot of times is a real simplistic view of looking at them. This
sport has gotten so technical. There's so much computer stuff and so many
technical aspects of it. Sometimes it's better to wipe all that out and say,
'why is it doing this?' You look at it simple and don't try to analyze it.
You just go back to the seat of the pants stuff and find the answer. A lot
of times it's like talking to a kid when you've got a problem. He cuts right
to the heart of the matter and it cuts all the other part away. He brings
that to the 
table. "I still call him The King. That's just because I worked at the race
shop and that's what everybody there called him. I just grew up around the
race shop and everybody referred to him as The King. You pick up on it. I'm
probably the only child in this country who calls his father The King.
	"A decent year for the 45 team compared to the past would be where
we are right now. We're 25th in points and running consistent somewhere
between 10th and 20th. That's a huge step up for us from last year. When you
look at improving from 42nd to 25th, percentage wise that's a huge
percentage. A lot of teams out there would like to improve that big of a
percentage. Granted, we were at the bottom of the pack, but that's a big
jump and if we can stay there, that would be a good year for us. I think
that's what we look at. If we can come out of this year somewhere in the top
25 in points, that would be a good year for us. I think we're close to that.
Consistency is going to be big for us. Right here is where we need to be
now. Next year we need to be further up. We can't get lost in being first or
second or whatever. Then you lose sight of what you're doing.
	"The Dodge program was our long term goal, and our five-year plan is
always changing. I think I should refer to it as our long range plan. There
are marks we want to hit in the first five years. I don't know how much
longer I'll drive. If it's five years or 10 years, there are places I'd like
the company to be, and there are things I'd like to see our other two teams
do. Whether I'm part of it or not as a driver, it really doesn't play into
the equation. I don't have to be the driver of the 45 when it wins the
championship. John doesn't have to be the driver of the 43. John may be
driving the 45 and I might be driving the 43. For us to have our company
back in that position, that's where we need to be.
	"I'm probably more of a driver this year than I was last year. We're
still going through that transition with Robin. I don't know how much I'm a
driver. They never refer to me as an owner/driver. All I ever hear is how
much time I spend too much time working on the business side and not driving
the car. Then when you start talking about owner/drivers they never talk
about me."

###