#40 Coors Light Pocono pre-race report

CONTACT:  Nealie Hamilton, Chip Ganassi Racing, 704/662-9642,
nhamilton@ganassi.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2002

STERLING MARLIN
COORS CHIP GANASSI RACING with FELIX SABATES
#40 COORS LIGHT DODGE INTREPID R/T
PRE-RACE REPORT: POCONO

EVENT:			Pocono 500 (race #14 of 36)
			Pocono Raceway, 2.5-mile Superspeedway
			
DATES:			Qualifying: Friday, June 7 at 3:05 p.m. EDT
				Race: Sunday, June 9 at 1 p.m. EDT
			
BROADCAST:		Television: FOX pre-race show begins at 12:30 p.m.
EDT
			Radio: MRN race coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. EDT
			Race begins at 1 p.m. EDT

UPCOMING APPEARANCES
Sterling Marlin:
	*	June 7, 5:30pm to 8:30pm, Whistles, Scranton, PA

Coors Light Dodge show car: 
	*	June 7, 11am to 2pm, Brewski Beverage East Stroudsburg, PA,
(570) 421-1210
	*	June 7, 5pm to 7:30pm, Pocono Brewing Co., Swiftwater, PA,
(570) 839-3230
	*	June 8, 2pm to 4pm, Baily II, Mt. Pocono, PA, (570) 839-9678
	*	June 8, 4pm to 7:30pm, Mt. Pocono Beverage/Monroe Beverage,
Mt. Pocono, PA, (570) 839-7403

COORS LIGHT TEAM FACTS

*	Pocono Raceway: In 33 career starts at Pocono Raceway, Marlin has
scored four top-5 and 12 top-10 finishes.  He has won one pole at the track
(6/20/99).  His best finish is fourth and has happened three times -
6/17/01, 6/20/99, 6/11/95.
*	Car: The Coors Light team will take car #203 to Pocono.  #203 won at
Las Vegas and Darlington earlier this season.
*      Points Race: Marlin remains first in championship points for the
twelfth straight race (Rockingham to Dover).  He is the only driver to rank
in the top-10 in NASCAR Winston Cup championship points since the 2001
Daytona 500.  Marlin has finished 19th or better in every points race this
season.
QUOTES
Sterling Marlin:   "We went to Pocono for two days to test following the
Charlotte race but we pretty much got rained out.  We ran one day and we
weren't real good with the car we took so we've decided to take another for
the race.  We just couldn't get the car balanced right.  It's a handling
track, you need to handle good and have a lot of power too.  You either
shift once or shift twice during a lap.  I like shifting once because I'm
not that good at shifting.  But we were trying different shifting
combinations the first day of the test and different race setups mainly."

------Sterling Marlin career stats at Pocono attached--------

 <<40 Pocono prerace report.doc>> 

Nealie Hamilton
Media Relations
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
(704) 662-9642 x1130 / office
(704) 500-6068 / cell
nhamilton@ganassi.com