Chevys qualify 1-2-3 in Talladega

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
AARON¹S 499
ROUND 9 OF 36
2002 NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2002

CHEVY MONTE CARLOS QUALIFY 1-2-3

POST-QUALIFYING ­ Page 1

PAGE 3 ­ POST QUALIFYING ­ PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE¹S MONTE CARLO (on second pole of year):  "In
this race you really don¹t know what to expect.  In qualifying itself is
kind of a separate race.  It¹s one thing to go fast here for a couple of
laps, but to get the car to run well in the draft  and not get tight over
the long run on this track is real hard to do.  We¹ll work on it, keep after
it.  But we¹re very excited and proud of everything that¹s going on at
Hendrick Motorsports and to be a part of it.  This car was pretty much
destroyed, it looked like a short-track car, after the race in Daytona and
the guys cut everything off but the roof and started over.  Usually you get
to go to the wind tunnel or test the car to try to sort it out, but with our
hectic schedule and all the other tests that we¹ve done we weren¹t able to
work on the car or go test or do anything like that.  This morning when the
car came off the truck we didn¹t have any idea what to expect.  It¹s just a
really nice feeling to walk in, kind of scared a little bit and wonder
what¹s going to happen, and ending up driving out the same gate that
afternoon with the pole.  It¹s a pretty net accomplishment."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO (second):  "As far as the
qualifying run, it was pretty good.  Obviously, the team has a lot to do
with superspeedway restrictor-plate racing and they came prepared this time.
We tore this car up in Daytona and they were able to put it back together.
We qualified the same car sixth in Daytona and they were able to put it back
and put it in a position where we qualified second. You look at it and say
oh, man, where can I find four hundredths of a second, as the difference
between first and second.  The guys just done a great job this season.
Unfortunately, we haven¹t had the final result to show for it, but we¹ve
been qualifying good and it¹s important to qualify good here but the most
important thing is to be around the full 500 miles to have a shot for the
win."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA MONTE CARLO (third):  "My qualifying run was
good.  When  you travel 2.6 miles and you come up four hundredths short, and
even though it¹s a great effort and I¹m proud of my team it¹s a little
disappointing.  We qualified the same car in Daytona in eighth, and raced it
to a fifth place finish.  Slugger went to work on it and that¹s probably the
closest 1-2-3 qualifying that we¹ve seen at a restrictor plate race.  That
might not be correct. But I would almost venture to bet that it is.  Usually
you see guys stretch it out a little bit and win the pole by a big amount.
This was a real tight qualifying result and I¹m really proud that my boys
were able to tune up the NAPA Chevy to give me a chance to win the pole.
When you drive a lap around here for qualifying you just try to hit your
marks perfectly and don¹t try to input any steering at all, let the car kind
of roll through the corners itself and I did everything I wanted to do and I
was proud of the lap.  You can worry about where four hundredths were
forever, but they just weren¹t there for us today.  We¹ll be ready to race.
We came to Talladega solely with the thought of only a win would make us
happy and that¹s where we¹re at right now."

Page 4 ­ POST QUALIFYING

JIMMIE JOHNSON, continued:  HAVE YOU BEEN SURPRISED AT YOUR SUCCESS AS A
ROOKIE? "One thing I really try to do is live by the truth.  I had a solid
Busch career, won one race.  Didn¹t dominate by any means.  In ASA I was
strong I ran two years there, won two races.  In off-road stuff, where I
came from, we did dominate there and was very successful. But this has gone
and as this year was approaching, last year I didn¹t know what to expect.  I
was just as how everybody else feels and was wondering.  I knew I was going
to climb into great equipment and now that I¹m in that equipment and have a
full-time crew chief that relationship with Chad Knaus has really grown and
the cars that are being put underneath me are incredible, so I¹m very
surprised, to answer your question.  I¹m sure other people are, But as
success has been coming it¹s been building confidence in myself and in the
team that we know when we¹re on our game we¹re competitive.  I thought Texas
was a place where we legitimately had a shot to win.  Vegas was kind of a
surprise.  Atlanta I knew we were going to run well, finished third.  I was
really happy about that.  Then coming into Texas we had that momentum and
mindset where we came to win.  And I think that will be our mindset at most
of the mile and a halfs that we¹re going to be faced with this year and it¹s
been a surprise and a great feeling."

HOW MUCH MORE PREPARED ARE YOU TO RACE AT A PLATE RACE, MORE THAN AT
DAYTONA?  "I did a learn a lot and experience is the key especially at these
plate races.  I do feel I¹m at a disadvantage in that department and
unfortunately nowadays you can get anything you want as fast as you want it,
but experience doesn¹t come that way; I gotta wait years for that.  So I¹m
probably at a disadvantage come Sunday afternoon, but I did learn a lot, and
the biggest thing I really learned is how patient you need to be.  Racing as
hard as you can for a fraction of an inch so you didn¹t lose the draft and
you held your position really bit a lot of guys at Daytona.  You get
frustrated and you get shuffled out and you end up in a crash.  I realized
how long 500 miles realy is.  That was my first taste of it.  And I¹ve been
trying to adapt to that all season long.  A Busch race, man, that just seems
like only one segment of a Cup race.  That¹s over quick.  Learning a lot in
experience and patience."

ON THE RECENT INCIDENTS AND NASCAR¹S PENALTIES:  "I think it sends a message
to everybody.  Even what they did in the Busch race.  There were some people
taking each other out and retaliating there and they put their foot down.
I¹ve been real lucky, I haven¹t been in that situation yet.  I hope I don¹t
ever get faced with that situation. We all race so close to each other so
many times a year you¹re bound to get somebody upset.  My view on it (is)
you have to hold your own out there and if someone puts a tire mark on you
you need to fight back, whether you put one or two on them.  Where¹s the
line?  And everybody has their own feelings for it.  The stuff aater races
are over and some of the other stuff going on besides Kevin¹s incidentŠThese
guys work their butts to put these cars underneath you and you go 500 miles
and the car¹s in one piece and you run in the back of somebody and knock the
nose off it.  To me that just doesn¹t make a lot of sense.  I¹ve had to work
on these cars my whole life, no sense in making unneeded work, so everybody
has their own style and how they like to take care of things.  I¹m just real
fortunate that I haven¹t had to face that situation in my stock-car career
yet."

FOLLOWING THEIR QUALIFYING RUNS:

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (DNQ):  "It felt good
getting up to speed, then it just tightened up and went flat.  I came around
turn 4 to take the green and glanced down at the oil pressure.  It was zero,
so I shut the car off.  I knew it would not make it around for two laps.
This team cannot get a break.  It is unreal."

DALE EARNHARDT JR, NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO:  "We¹re real happy.  It¹s
half a second faster than we practiced.  We were pretty frustrated with the
car, we couldn¹t find any speed out of it, and Tony Jr. and Tony Sr.,
(Eury), my crew chief and my car chief, they both came together and got half
a second out of it, and that¹s huge, huge for us."  The Budweiser Chevrolet,
it normally runs real good on restrictor plates.  I think everybody knows
that.  We were just wanting to get to qualify up front and keep that string
of good runs and good qualifyings alive.  It¹s a good run for us; we¹re real
happy."

"We weren¹t getting the kind of laps in practice that we wanted, so we just
went back to a lot of basic stuff we¹ve been running in the past and it pays
off.  We got the car back up toward the front."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE MONTE CARLO:  "You got to get into the
show.  That Œs the main thing.  We wanted to run better.  We¹re
disappointed.  All the guys worked hard really hard every week.  We want to
be on the pole; we don¹t want to do any worse than that. We¹re not satisfied
with that, but we¹ll get there."

KENNY WALLACE, NO. 98 AARON¹S MONTE CARLO:  "Man, we¹re thrilled to death to
have DEI on our side.  We came here and this is a backup car that they had
done some testing with for NASCAR last year, but Aaron¹s, it¹s a dream week
for them.  They¹rs sponsoring both deals.  We¹re happy with the 52 flat.
It¹s a half of a second off little E, but still we were really slow in
practice.  I¹ve been lucky enough, I¹ve been dumb enough probably to leave
Andy Petree and lucky enough that everybody believes in my talent.  That
helps a lot."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE¹S MONTE CARLO:  "I¹m not surprised.  That¹s a
very good lap.  We were hoping we could get down into the threes with our
lap.  The thing that¹s amazing to me is that this is the car that we had in
Daytona and the body was knocked off of it.  The guys in the fab shop and on
the 24 and 48 team worked  real hard to get this thing back together.  We
had to borrow a motor from the engine department.  It¹s a total team effort
to come here and go this fast again.  We didn¹t have a chance to go to the
wind tunnel or take it testing.  My hat¹s off to the guys on the Lowe¹s
Monte Carlo.  They did an awesome job."  JIMMIE JOHNSON (continued):  YOU¹VE
RUN RESTRICTOR PLATES IN WINSTON CUP AND BUSCH:  "Luckily the aero packages
are close to the same.  I just have a lot to learn about the draft.  I
learned a lot in Daytona; hopefully I¹ll do a little better here Sunday
afternoon."

Page 2 ­ POST QUALIFYING

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL MONTE CARLO: "We¹re really happy with the
Pennzoil car.  DEI has a heck of a speedway program.  We were hoping to run
an .80.  To run a .70, we¹re pretty happy with that.  That¹s pretty cool."
YOU PICKED UP A BUNCH ON THE SECOND LAP:  "We just ran high on the first lap
to just get up enough speed in the Pennzoil car to get it down low and try
to pick up on the second lap.  That¹s what we did all day in practice and we
always felt the second lap would be faster and it was today.  We were trying
to run an .80, so my hat¹s off to the whole team for giving me a great race
car.  The whole Pennzoil team, they did their job." IS THIS NERVE WRACKING?
"I think so.  You can¹t beat the fans here in Talladega.  Just being able to
see them and being able to come back here and race and qualify good, it¹s
what we wanted to do.  We¹re happy for the whole Pennzoil team."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA MONTE CARLO:  "The only thing this team is
willing to accept this weekend is a victory.  We feel like we¹ve got the
fastest car and that we can do this job, and we plan on winning on Sunday,
and that¹s a great feeling to have a car that allows you to look at a race
that way."  DID YOU HAVE THE WINNING CAR IN DAYTONA?  "We felt like we did
all the way up Œtil the race got going on and we got too tight and you got
to be perfect to win.  People say a lot about restrictor plate racing, it¹s
just about where you¹re at.  You don¹t get where you¹re at if you don¹t have
a perfect car.  Our car pushed a little bit all day.  We had a shot to win
the Daytona 500 and this is the same car.  Slugger has had a little more
time to caress on it tweak on it.  It¹s faster than it was.  We qualified
eighth in Daytona and I don¹t think we¹re going to be that far back here.
We¹ve definitely got an improved car and we should be able to win this race
and that¹s what we¹re here to do."

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