NASCAR Winston Cup Chevrolet Racing Quotes - Mike Skinner Teleconference, July 16

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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NASCAR Winston Cup teleconference with Mike Skinner, driver of the No. 4
Kodak MAX Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, and crew
chief, Chris Carrier.

Mike Skinner was the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion
(1995). He has collected 10 top 5's and 38 top 10's in his NASCAR Winston
Cup career. His best finishes so far this season have been a pair of 12ths
at Texas Motor Speedway and Infineon Raceway. As the series heads for New
Hampshire this weekend, Skinner currently ranks 29th in the point standings.

Highlights of the Q&A's with Mike Skinner:

(After being with Richard Childress Racing from 1997-'01 and moving to
Morgan-McClure Motorsports this year, do you have to learn everything from
scratch?) "I don't think you have to learn everything from scratch. It takes
some adjustments in personalities. The crew chief has to understand you and
you have to understand him. You have to get to know the sponsors and the PR
people and everybody that's involved. They play a major role in Winston Cup
racing and it's a little different everywhere you go. I'd say it's more of
an adjustment period.

"In this case, it's almost like we're rebuilding a race team. The
Morgan-McClure team was very strong a few years back. They won the Daytona
500. They won several races and all of a sudden went into somewhat of a
slump. So we're kind of rebuilding things. Hopefully we can get the thing
competitive again."

(When you first joined Morgan-McClure Motorsports, what were some of the
goals that you and Larry McClure talked about?) "Basically just turning
things around. I think that he felt like my aggressive driving style and my
experience behind the wheel and giving feedback would help. When you're
putting several different drivers in the car and nobody stays in it long
enough to establish that relationship it's easy to say that the motor won't
run or the car won't turn. There are a lot of reasons why we're not doing
good. You become a professional at making excuses. Instead of making
excuses, we need to try to find answers. That's what our goal was when we
started. I don't know if we've been real good at that, but I think we've
helped a bit."

(As a former participant in 'silly season', what's it like for those drivers
in the middle of making changes?  Does it get to them?) "I think so. There
are a couple of guys out there that are real secure at knowing they're going
to have a job and be in competitive equipment. There are some that are
rolling the dice a little bit. I've got to admire them because it's pretty
tough. You get accustomed to a lifestyle. We live a great life. Don't get me
wrong. What happens though is that you have two pilots and a coach
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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driver and secretaries and accountants and somebody who takes care of your
yard because you're never there. You have all these employees - people who
are depending on you for their living. When you just decide that your
situation isn't real good and you're going to pull yourself out of the mix
and resign or whatever and you don't have a guaranteed job, that puts a lot
of people in jeopardy. I admire their bravery that they're able to do that -
whether they're financially stable enough to do it, or whatever. But if it's
not working and you've given it two or three years and you know you can do
better behind the wheel and the communication isn't as good, then you've got
to make a move."

(Are you counting on the second half of the season to be better than the
first half?) "Absolutely.  We started out with Scott Eggleston and we got
along fine. We just didn't have great communication as far as the chassis
goes on the car. He always wanted to run different stuff than what I was
accustomed to running. I felt we needed to go back to what I was accustomed
to in the No. 31 car at the places we were competitive. A lot of times we
didn't do that. Then, Chris Carrier came along and Scott took the job as
manager and overseeing stuff and consulting with us. It only worked for two
weeks. We had a lot of success and the car ran up front and ran good. And
then Scott left us. Now we're basically starting over again. I'm working
with a crew chief I have a little bit of history with. We ran really
competitive in Andy Petree's Busch car when Chris was a crew chief on it and
I drove it some. Chris has brought some positive things to the table as far
as communication skills with me. Now we're going back to places again for
the first time together, so we're almost having to start all over. Man, it's
frustrating. It'd be nice to have some history and make our own notes
instead of going off of somebody else's notes. We need to be making our
own."

(On the growth of NASCAR Winston Cup and having it draw drivers from all
parts of the country) "It's really been a major contribution to the sport.
We go to so many different places; you'll have a natural fan base there when
you have drivers who come from there. You establish a fan base whether
you're the NASCAR Winston Cup champion or you're 30th in points. You still
have people who pull for you because of where you come from. We have a lot
of fans in California and Texas. I don't know what it is. But I think it's
great to have drivers and crew chiefs come from all over the place.

"NASCAR has really changed in the past few years from the 'good ole' boys'
to 'rocket science'. The technology in these race cars and the education of
the people coming into the sport is way different than it used to be - even
five or ten years ago. Our sport has really gone to another level. Along
with that, the television audience has become bigger so the networks have
become more interested and willing to put more money into it to and get us
out there to every television set that we can get to across the United
States. I think it's been really good."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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(Do you think some of the fans long for the good ole' days and the 'good
ole' boys'?) "Absolutely. The hot thing right now is the young guns. There's
an air about this thing with all these young guys coming in. But we get a
lot of support for some of the old guys and the veterans by some of those
types of people (that long for the old days). The reason that we have a lot
of young drivers doing well is because they're stepping into equipment that
is superior. It used to be that if you were a rookie, you didn't start out
driving for Rick Hendrick or Richard Childress or Robert Yates. You had to
start out in some of the less-funded teams and you didn't get up there and
win two or three races your first year out. So this has happened with time."

(On his driving style in Winston Cup compared to Craftsman Truck) "The
biggest difference was that I was used to running up front almost every week
and winning a lot of races in the truck series. I think what happened to me
was that I came into the Winston Cup Series and didn't change anything. I'd
have to race that hard to run 25th. So then you start trying to make you car
do things that it's not capable of doing and you make rookie mistakes. You
put yourself in places that you shouldn't and you end up in trouble. The
level of competition in Winston Cup is the difference between playing high
school basketball and playing in the NBA."

(Can you beat, bang, and rub more in the Craftsman Truck Series than you can
in Winston Cup?) "One of the reasons (why) you can do that is the aero
package. If you knock the fender in on a Winston Cup car, it makes the car
push so bad that you go backwards immediately. So we're a lot more careful
about tearing the front end of our racecars up in Winston Cup. In the truck
series, it doesn't affect it nearly as bad. A couple of years back, we saw
Jay Sauter run really good at Texas with the right front fender tore
completely off the truck. If you tear the right front fender off a Winston
Cup car at Texas, you're not going to win the race or run up front. I can
promise. You're going to go backyards because the aerodynamics are so
important.

"The other thing is that the wheelbase is longer on the trucks. It's a
couple inches longer. They're a lot more forgiving. You can knock somebody
in the side and get them sideways and it's a lot easier to gather that thing
up and keep going than it is in a Winston Cup car."

(On adjusting to the sponsor demands and PR people and off-track
responsibilities in Winston Cup) "There's a lot of adjusting. Lisa Shealy is
our PR representative on the Morgan-McClure team for Kodak, and she and I
were friends for a long time. We had known each other since the truck
series. It was really different to (go from) being friends to working
together. We had a lot of adjusting to do to get to the point where she knew
what I wanted and I knew what she expected. We're still doing it. You almost
have to
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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just take the first year and a half and see if everyone's compatible. If
they are, you really concentrate on moving it to the next level."

(In addition to being a re-building year for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, is
this a re-building year for you?) "I think so. The frustrating part is that
I feel like I'm probably a better racecar driver and am probably in better
physical and mental shape than I've been in for a long time. We're having a
hard time making that show up because of not being more competitive. So yes.
In a sense it's a re-building period for me as well.

"We had the Atlanta crash and the two bad Texas crashes - all results of
tires blowing out or running over something or whatever.  I really don't
know. When you jump back in that racecar and you think you're 100 percent
but you're not, you really don't know why things aren't going that great.
And then, when you take some time off and actually go through the physical
therapy and have proper surgeries and have your knee rebuilt and get your
neck and back in good shape, you really realize how bad you were hurt. But I
was probably hurt a lot more than I ever expected to be."

Highlights of the Q&A's with Chris Carrier:

(On today's wind tunnel test) "I'm in Lansing, Michigan right now at the
General Motors wind tunnel laboratory and we've got a couple of cars up here
that we're doing some aerodynamic tests on. We're trying to make them better
and trying to make it where we can be more competitive on the racetrack."

(Have you learned anything so far?) "Yes. We've learned a couple of tidbits.
We're finishing up on one car and start on another car - it's actually the
one we think we're going to race at Indianapolis. So we're looking more for
that (test) to be more productive."

(When did you join Morgan-McClure Motorsports?) "I actually joined the team
the second week of March. I became the crew chief the week before the
Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte."

(How was your test at Indianapolis last week?) "We were pretty pleased. We
took the same two cars that I've got in the wind tunnel today. One was the
won we raced at Michigan and Charlotte, and the other one we've put a whole
new body on. We're very pleased with them and satisfied with the way the
cars drove - both in qualifying and in race trim. We're here trying to find
a little bit more under the hood. We're looking forward to it (Brickyard
400). It's a pretty big race and the best paying race that we run all year
long. There's a lot of prestige there. We're pumped up. We think we can go
there and make a showing."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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(On the fines and point penalties that NASCAR has recently handed down) "I
think it's just a product of NASCAR's becoming more serious about deterring
cheating. They know we're all just trying to do our job and to push the
envelope and the gray area as much as we can to make our cars faster and
more competitive. But they've got a job also. Maybe some of the penalties
really didn't stop people and so now they're getting more serious. I think
they're going the right way when they start taking championship and car
owner points away. That's when it's going to start hurting. They've taken
some steps to penalize people that go beyond where they think the gray
limits should stop. And that means on the racetrack and in the shop and in
the garage area and in the race. They're just making the penalties hurt a
little bit more. When you start taking away championship points, that's when
sponsors and car owners are going to step in and say they can't stand that.
We're after that Winston Cup title and when we do something that knocks a
hole in that effort, we're going to have to look in a different direction."

(What's the secret to the set-up in New Hampshire?) "It's going to be the
same as a lot of the mile racetrack. It's a pretty flat racetrack. You're
going to have to find a good balance for your racecar. You're going to have
to take care of your tires and your brakes. It's important to keep your
fenders on. Even though we call New Hampshire a short track, aerodynamics
plays a big role there. We're looking forward to running in the quote 'new
configuration' at Loudon for the first time. The Busch Series has raced
there since they've widened the racetrack, but we haven't been there. From
what I could see from the Busch race, it's going to make it a little more
competitive with more racing room. It'll be better for the fans and that's
what it's all about."

(On adjusting to a new team mid-year) "The biggest adjustment -- no matter
what your job - is working with the people around you and finding out what
makes them mad or what makes them satisfied or whatever. It's the same thing
here. It's a lot different than it was. Years ago there were just three or
four people that you worked with on a race team. Well now, you've got 50 or
60 employees for a single car team. That's a lot of personalities. Each and
every one of them is there for a reason. Each is a productive part of the
machine. We all have to interact and communicate and be productive. We have
to learn to work together and with the other people around us. We (as
leaders on a team) have to learn their abilities, their limitations, their
hopes, and all that chemistry. It takes a while for everybody to figure out
all that stuff. I think we've done a good job of that. We've got good people
at Morgan-McClure. We get along very well.  I think we're making headway.
Mike (Skinner) and I worked together two years ago when I worked for Andy
Petree's race team and was crew chief for his Busch team and Mike drove a
handful of races for our Busch team. We kind of hit it off there. It seemed
like we thought alike in what we needed to do to the racecar to make it
drive good for him and that's a plus. That's a big key. We've multiplied
that this year. We're learning Winston Cup racecars together. We're learning
Morgan-McClure racecars and making changes to
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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them. In the past three or four weeks, we both feel like we've found a lot
of things we can do to our racecars that make him more comfortable in the
cars and that drive better for him. That's going to pay dividends down the
road.

"Without going into details that sound like excuses, we've had a lot of
things happen that have prevented us from having good finishes on the
racetrack. Some of those things might have been self-inflicted by the team.
A lot of them weren't. In some of them, we were victims. Daytona was a good
example of that in getting caught up in one of those restrictor-plate
crashes that involved a lot of people. It wasn't anything Mike or our
spotter could do anything about. We ended up on the rollback instead of
finishing probably in the top five or better.

"We're going to take the progress we make and build on it. We have a lot of
enthusiasm at our shop right now because the people on our race team know in
our hearts that we're making progress and we're surging forward. There's
going to be a time when we won't be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We
won't be in that wreck. We won't have things happening like flat tires or
bad parts during the race that keep us from having good finishes."

(Was Mike Skinner and the fact that you'd worked with him before one of the
reasons you went with Morgan-McClure?) "Yes, it was a factor. It was kind of
a timing thing. The Lord works in mysterious ways. The No. 33 team (Andy
Petree Racing) lost sponsorship and didn't really have a direction. There
was a lot of uncertainty there. There wasn't really anything anybody could
do about it. At the same time, Mike went to work for the Morgan-McClure
team. They wanted to bring somebody on that could help Mike along and get
the cars better and help with organization. All this was happening at the
same time. I was moving to an area where my family lives and I was already
familiar with. I felt like I was supposed to do this (make the move). I'm
very happy with what's happened. I feel very comfortable at Morgan-McClure.
We've made progress and there's a lot of progress to be made. We're still
looking to win a couple of races before the season is over."

(Does the bad luck that Mike Skinner had while driving for RCR motivate you
to be the crew chief to get him his first win?) "Oh, that would be huge.
Everybody at Morgan-McClure knows what Mike's capabilities are. We know how
good a driver he is. We know that he's got a lot of experience. He still has
that desire to win a race. Some guys kind of lose a little bit after they've
been there so long. He has a lot of knowledge about racing and about
racecars. Somewhere along the line, he missed the things that he deserves as
far as winning races and success. But he's been right there - knocking on
the door.

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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"Morgan-McClure is a good race team and has had a lot of success. The last
couple of years the team has not been where Larry wants it to be. Both
parties - the team and the driver - have a lot to prove. I think we're on
the verge of proving that. We don't have a lot of records to show for it and
a lot of people think we're having a bad year. But we know we're going
forward. I think you'll see some good finishes that last half of this
season."

(Is Mike Skinner one of the most hard-luck drivers out there?) "He's got to
be close to the top of the list. He has a lot more talent and ability than
his records and his stats show. I think Mike has a lot of time this season
and in his career to turn things around. Our goal is to win a couple of
races this year. We know it's a deal where you have to stair-step it. You
have to become a consistent top 15 team and then a top 10 team. When you get
to the point of being a top eight or a top six team, a win is right around
the corner. Pretty soon your day is going to come. We know that as long as
we work hard and move forward, we'll get to the point where we want to be."

(With NASCAR's recent crackdown on fines and penalties for rules
infractions, will a crew chief be afraid to use his creative mentality?) "I
don't know if that's exactly the way we look at it but there are all types
of rules, measurements, patterns, templates, restrictions (etc.) that have
numerical values and that have a 'go' or 'no-go' gauge (to them). There are
all types of limitations. There are still areas on a racecar that are
judgment calls by a NASCAR official. They still interpret the rules. You're
got to remember that they're human beings. Yes, they have a rulebook and I
think NASCAR has done an excellent job in the last few years of making that
rulebook more precise and more detailed yet easier to understand. They've
been able to draw clearer lines in the sand and make us see where the gray
stops and where it's red and where it's green.  Those (gray) areas are
getting fewer and smaller. This division is getting more and more
competitive. We have to look harder and harder at those (gray) areas.
Before, we could maybe push it an eighth of an inch but now we can only push
it a 16th of an inch. And we have to make sure that pushing that 16th of an
inch in the right direction and that we're doing it in the right area.

"We look at other teams and we see that maybe they're going about it in a
different way - especially in the aerodynamics -- and yet they still fit the
templates. They might move a section of the body up or down or around
something or square something, but it still makes the car legal as far as
NASCAR's interpretations but it still give them an aerodynamic advantage. So
we're still looking at all areas. We have to make our cars as competitive as
possible given the rules we have to live by. Sometimes those guidelines
change a little bit. They may get a little tighter or looser. We have to
roll with that. Our business is about change. We just don't build cars the
first year and load and unload every week. We keep on changing. That's why
I'm at the wind tunnel right now. We
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Winston Cup Teleconference GM Racing Communications
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
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have to look at ways to make these cars better and keep them within the
limitations that NASCAR sets. When you know that the guy next to you just
got a $20,000 fine for something that you're thinking about doing, you might
change your mind."

(Is that like how the empire reads the strike zone?  Do you know how a
particular NASCAR official might interpret something?) "I think so and I
don't think that's necessarily bad. NASCAR tries to move officials around to
check different areas of the car so they will have a broader knowledge of
the whole racecar instead of just concentrating on one area. I agree with
that. If I were the technical director, I'd rotate my people so that
everybody would know what the whole car is supposed to be like. But one
might look at a template or a measurement in a different way than the guy
next to them will. As long as it's fair for everybody, it's fair. Most crew
chiefs feel that is part of our business. If you're a pitcher on the mound
and you've got an umpire behind the plate that you know will call a strike
on a ball that goes across the outer black of the plate, and you know the
hitter ain't going to be able to hit that, you're pretty stupid if you don't
throw it there. But if you know that guy is going to call it a ball every
time, you've got to get it across the plate. That's how I look at it and I
think that's part of our job. Actually, I think it makes it more interesting
and makes it a little bit more fun."