Chevy Notes-First Day of Indy Testing

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
TWO-DAY NASCAR TESTING -- WINSTON CUP SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002

Testing didn't start until after 1 p.m. because of rain and was cut short by
another rainstorm at 5 p.m.

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  DO THE NEW SOFT WALLS
AFFECT THE LINE?  "Well, I haven't really noticed it, but I guess it has
taken a little bit of it away, a foot and a half or so away.  But, it's been
a year since we've been here so no one probably notices it."  ON THE NEW
GROOVING OF THE SURFACE:  "I didn't really notice that either.  These tires
are so hard you couldn't wear them out anyway, probably.  The tires seem to
be working fine.  If I wouldn't have known about the race track...It looks
different, that's the only thing.  It's not all one color.  That's the only
thing I noticed different about it, but I don't notice the way it grips, or
anything.  We haven't really run enough laps to tell the tire wear."  DO YOU
LIKE THIS TRACK?  "It's OK.  It's a fun track to race on and every place we
go to track position is very important and this one here is as important as
anywhere.  It seems like you need a really good car 'cause it's hard to get
to the front.  Track position is pretty important."  WHAT DO YOU LEARN AT
THESE TESTS?  "I thought we had a pretty good car here a year ago.  Our cars
are a lot better now.  We really came to try different stuff and so we'll
play with that for a little while before we go back to our basic stuff
tomorrow.  You don't have an opportunity to try a lot of things on a race
weekend, you just don't have time.  A test gives us a chance to try some
different things that we think might work, might not work, who knows?  It's
good for the other three (Hendrick Motorsports) teams that aren't here.
They'll know coming in next week; all the engineers are here.  They'll know
not to try what we've tried. If they learn something we'll come back with
that."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  "You know, I
didn't even notice the soft wall.  I guess probably 'cause I was here
driving the Indy car so I didn't notice it as being a difference.  The
biggest thing I see is probably the grooving gave us more grip.  It did with
the Indy cars and I believe it did with these cars as well." ON TESTING TWO
CARS: "Today we're not really track testing, we're testing different
configurations, different packages, and not really looking for speed here at
Indianapolis.  We have one car with a different package than the other car,
and we like that car a little better.  Hopefully this will give us a little
bit better direction.  I'm just starting to work with Kevin (Hamlin) and
these guys.  Every time we run together he learns what I like or don't like
more, and it's going to make us better."  DO YOU HAVE AN EDGE BECAUSE YOU
RACED HERE IN THE 500?  "I don't think so.  I don't think there's an edge
here.  They're such different cars.  You're talking about 2000 pounds
almost, 1800 pounds to be exact.  But there's a big difference between an
IRL car and a Winston Cup car.  They're both fun to race around here.  The
track's still a fun race track.  I know it's difficult to pass and that's
one thing we're going to have to work on tomorrow is getting a good enough,
and fast enough car that we can come out and qualify well (with)."  WHICH
CAR DO YOU LIKE BETTER?  "I have more experience around here in an Indy car,
but every time I run the Cup car here I start to like it more and more."

BOBBY HAMILTON, NO. 55 SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  "I forgot
all about the soft walls.  I didn't even notice them, so that shows how
different it is.  I forgot about it until you just mentioned it, so there's
nothing different on the race track."  ON THE GROOVING:  "That's the same;
it's just the same old place.  I run here one time a year.  We're just
shaking two cars down trying to figure out what we're going to do a full
blown test on.  We've been wide open, haven't done any kind of qualifying
stuff or anything."  DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK?  "Yes.  I have and I haven't
(done well here).  It's been up and down for everybody.  The third year here
I sat on the outside pole and led a lot, finished fifth or something like
that.  Another time we blew the tire.  It's been a sort of roller
coaster-type of race track.  It's a pretty neat race to come to."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  "It's hot.  The humidity
is so high, it's making us all sweat. We're not only working hard, we're
sweating hard too."  CHANGES TO THE TRACK?  "The groove seems to be the
same.  The soft walls for us stock cars you don't really notice it.  It's
not in the groove, it hasn't changed the groove for us.  Right now the race
track seems to be in good shape."  ON THE GROOVING:  "It just seems real
smooth, probably a lot smoother than it was, but the track always, for stock
cars, was smooth.  So I think you see it more in the Indy-type car because
of how low they are.  The big old stock cars are used to going over rough
surfaces."  DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK?  "Yeah, this track is really good.  It's
great to come here.  It was always a dream of mine to race at Indy and if
you don't do it in an Indy car, now we can do it in a stock car.  That's
fortunate for us 'cause I took the path coming up in NASCAR and developing
to be a Winston Cup driver and thought I'd never get a chance to run Indy
and all of a sudden we're at the Brickyard; that's pretty cool."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  DID YOU NOTICE
THE SOFT WALLS?  "No, I didn't even think about it.  I didn't even notice
that.  I'm glad they're there."  ON THE GROOVING?  "I didn't even notice
that."  HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK?  "I like it pretty good.  It's kind of
difficult to get your car to handle good going around here for some reason,
but we've run all right here the last couple of times.  We didn't finish
real great, but we've been up front all day."  SHORT DAY, WHAT CAN YOU GET
OUT OF A DAY LIKE THIS?  "Not a whole lot.  We tried a few things, but don't
know whether we really learned much from it.  Tomorrow will be a long, hard
day for us.  Probably be pretty warm.  It'll be kind of tough on us."
DAYTONA IS SAME LENGTH, BUT YOU HAVE TO TREAT THIS TRACK MORE LIKE A SHORT
TRACK:  "It's difficult as a driver to get around a flat corner, that's for
sure.  it takes a lot of finesse and ability and a good handling car."  WITH
RULES CHANGES, HOW DO YOU TRANSLATE OLD INFORMATION TO THIS YEAR?  "We went
and tested in Chicago, we kind of brought the same setup we gained from
there to here.  That's what we do.  A lot of tracks we (run on) do cross
over."


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