Chevy Racing Notes - Jimmie Johnson, July 19

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
New England 300 Advance Material nmwager@aol.com
Friday, July 19, 2002 GM Racing Communications
New Hampshire International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 1

Jimmie Johnson, Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender and driver of the No.
48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo, currently sits third in the NASCAR Winston
Cup point standings - 89 points behind point leader Sterling Marlin. Johnson
is the current point leader in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings
with a 29-point advantage over Ryan Newman (274 - 245).  He has been the
highest finishing rookie 11 times thus far in 2002. Highlights of Johnson's
participation in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year press conference follow:

(On the track): "I think the track is going to be different for everyone.
There are going to be a variety of different things to look at and options
and lines. Our races (Winston Cup) double the distances of the Busch races.
That, pretty much at every racetrack, makes a lot wider groove for us. The
Truck Series puts rubber down and widens the groove. Our Happy Hour and the
Busch North race will open up the groove and give us more options. Without a
speed on the track yet, it's hard to know what going to be the advantage -
the experience line or whether there will be a new line that's going to come
around. For myself, I'm not too sure. I'm going to spend the first portion
of practice running laps and getting used to this racetrack."

(Are you surprised by the rookie success you're having this season?) "I know
I am. We all watched Ryan (Newman) when he was running multiple series last
year and all the success he had, we all knew he was going to be a threat to
win races on the Winston Cup side. I had a decent Busch career.  I was
consistent and solid. But I had no idea we'd come in and be battling for
poles and race wins, and (that we would) be in the middle of the points
championship at this point in the season. We're real happy to be in this
position, but it wasn't a position that we anticipated being in."

(Have you talked to Jeff Gordon about being involved in the points
championship?) "In passing, we've had different conversations about it but
we haven't had a sit-down meeting where we're working out strategies.  We've
accomplished a lot early in our rookie season and we need to hang on to our
goals, which is to get experience and grow as a team for the future. We're
in a really neat situation right now, but we're trying to still have some
fun with it and not let the pressure sink in on you.

"I heard Mark Martin make a comment where racing for championships was a
pretty big aggravation for him and something he put a lot of weight on, but
that he's not doing that to himself now. (And that) he's in a lot different
position in his mind and he's up there in the points. So, I'm trying to look
around and see what some of the other veterans have done. Jeff is really
relaxed and laid back and gets all he can at every race. If the points
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
New England 300 Advance Material nmwager@aol.com
Friday, July 19, 2002 GM Racing Communications
New Hampshire International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

play in his favor, then they do. I've been trying to adapt that style. It's
easy now since this is our first year. Ten years down the road if I'm in
that situation, it might be different. But so far, we're just trying to stay
laid back."

(What's the fun part of being a rookie in Winston Cup?) "Obviously the thing
that got us here was putting on helmets and getting into racecars. To being
in these racecars, racing against guys you've watched on television as a kid
growing up - your heroes - that's the best part about it."

(On the test session at Indy) "To be at a track where you've seen so much of
it on television - the Indianapolis 500, and Brickyard 400 - it was very
neat to pull out on the racetrack and to experience the place. It looks a
lot different looking out the windshield than it does looking at a
television set. Qualifying trim was really fun. You're carrying a lot of
speed in four totally different turns. You're pretty busy. You've got a huge
long straightaway and you've got to get slowed down to make a 90-degree turn
in a short period of fun. So that was a lot of fun.

"On the race side, I don't think it's one of the better tracks for Winston
Cup cars to race at just because it's such a narrow groove and it's hard to
pass. But it's still a very fun track to drive. You're going to have to be
considerably faster to make any passes because of all the aero stuff that
everybody's been talking about. Flat tracks are hard for these big cars.
They just don't like to respond and have the grip level that the Indy cars
do. It's going to be a lot of work to get passes done and that's going to
make the hungry people show up and be at the front of the pack."

(On NHIS being a flat track) "It's hard on a flat track to use the second
and third groove unless there's some reason for you to go up there. These
cars don't have a lot of grip on a flat track, so the fastest line around
the racetrack is the shortest distance. When we get out on the track, I'm
real interested to see what can happen now. Now the shortest distance around
the track is flatter than the next groove. That's the stuff that promotes
side-by-side racing for our racecars. What the fans want to see and what we,
as drivers, want to see are more grooves so that we can race better."

(On the safe wall system at Indy and that NHIS hopes to get the safe wall
system) "We had a safety meeting at Indianapolis and got a better
understanding of why it's not in place at all the racetracks yet or being
made available because the radius of the corners of the walls might change
the strength level of the wall. But to be able to have something else out
there is good. We need to look in all areas. We spend a lot of time working
on
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
New England 300 Advance Material nmwager@aol.com
Friday, July 19, 2002 GM Racing Communications
New Hampshire International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

the cockpits of the cars and we've made huge improvements that we've all
been able to see. If we can adapt that to the walls and even build the
chassis to where they can take a little more in some way. These are all
positive steps. We climb in (the cars) as drivers - not thinking that
anything is going to happen to us but when it does, you need everything
working for you. We've all seen that. And unfortunately we've lost friends
and fellow competitors in some crazy crashes. The more we can do, the
better. We've seen a lot of growth in technology in learning and
understanding it. The next phase of it all being implemented and put on the
racetracks is right around the corner. And that's something that's going to
make us all feel better as drivers."

(Is it hard to be patient while waiting for those breakthroughs?) "Not
really. I guess I'm in a unique situation where we have our own safety
department now at Hendrick Motorsports. They have been working on cars and
cockpit areas. We've given cars to the program for them to run in these
tests to develop the wall. So we've been getting good information and I
think that information has been traveling to all the competitors before
these meetings have been taking place. We're all up to speed for the most
part. We understand it has to be put in at the right time in order not to
create another problem. Nothing seems like it can be done fast enough, but
at the same time we know there are a lot of people working hard."

(As a rookie, do you have an advantage with the new configuration of NHIS
just because you don't have any pre-conceived notions about it?) "We're just
going to have to get out there and make some laps and see what happens. It
looks like they've made steps to try to promote side-by-side racing and
that's hard to do on a flat track with a Winston Cup car. I'm really looking
forward to it, and hopefully we can have side-by-side racing for everybody."