NASCAR Brickyard 400 Practice 1 - Chevy Driver Quotes, Aug. 2

Jeff Green, No. 30 AOL Chevrolet Monte Carlo (blew a motor after 7 laps of
practice) "If you blow a motor, you have to start at the back no matter
where you qualify. If you sit on the pole, you've got to go to the back.  So
wherever we qualify, we'll have to start at the back but we're not running
good enough to get the pole now anyway. We just have to figure out what's
wrong here. We ran really good here when we tested, but we're a second
slower than what we tested for some reason. We can't figure it out. This is
the same car we tested in and ran a .50 flat. Now we're running a .51 flat.
The other two (RCR) cars (No.29, Harvick and No. 31 Gordon) are where we
should be. But we're not for some reason.

"We know what we need. Not having more practice doesn't hurt. I feel like
we'll make the race by points, if we don't have a good enough (qualifying)
lap. But since we'll start at the back anyway, if we could qualify decent,
we'd get a better pit stall. Pit selection will help us a little bit on
Sunday. The main thing would just be helping our confidence. We need to get
out there and post a good lap. We know we can run as fast as we did here
testing, but we need to get our confidence back up.  But this just hurts us
a little bit. We could have had three or four more runs to get the car even
better and hopefully have a top 10 start instead of maybe a top 20 start.
But we'll be okay.

(On the importance of track position) "I think you can win from anywhere on
any racetrack. As long as these races are, you've got plenty of time for pit
strategy to get where you need to go. And as good as tires are nowadays, you
can get up front. But you just start out in the hole when you start in the
back. You put yourself in somebody else's predicament, maybe, too. The first
couple of laps, people take some chances and you can get yourself in trouble
that way, too.  But hopefully, that won't happen and we can get an easier
way up through there. But first of all, we've got to get our car fast enough
to where we can pass those guys no matter where we start."

Joe Nemechek, No. 25 UAW/Delphi Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "The car is not too
bad. Our UAW/Delphi Chevy is very decent. We thought we could get in the
49-second bracket there, and then some of those guys really pulled off some
fast laps.  I still think we're going to have a shot at hopefully qualifying
in the top 10. You've just got to be consistent. The car's driving awesome
right now and that's key. The track is a really hard racetrack to qualify on
because there are four corners and you've got twice as many chances of
messing up than you normally do. You've got to brake in all four and get on
the gas and turn. There's just a lot of things that can go wrong. The
problem here is that if
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager or Judy Stropus
Brickyard 400 Practice nmwager@aol.com or jstropus@earthlink.net
Friday, August 02, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (727) 784-8465 or (203) 438-0501
Page 6

you mess up in turn one, it hurts your whole lap. So you've got to make sure
you have a really good start. But I'm ready. I think it's cool to have
qualifying the first thing in the morning. It usually plays into my favor. I
wish a lot of tracks would do that - line them up when you get there and
qualify - no practice."


ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVY MONTE CARLO:  HOW ARE YOUR
ANKLES? "The last time I broke a bone was 20 years ago. They're sore.  But
we're pretty fast; that makes me happy, and it'll keep me motivated through
the weekend.  I think we'll have a good qualifying effort tomorrow.  We drew
a good number (ninth in the order) and if I can pick up two or three 10ths
we've got a shot at the pole.  I think we really can have a good weekend
this weekend."
DO YOU LIKE BEING BACK IN INDY? "I love coming to Indianapolis.  It's a lot
different coming here in a stock car.  It's a completely different line, how
you drive the race track (with a Winston Cup car) and how you drive it with
an Indy car.  The Brickyard is still the Brickyard.  The one thing I like
about coming to this race is the driver has a lot to do with it, because
you're off the gas, rolling through the center of the corner and carrying a
lot of momentum through the middle of the corner and that makes the
difference between the fast cars and the slow cars."
EXPLAIN AERO PUSH:  "If the car is going down the straightaway and the car
weighs 3400 pounds and it's got 2000 pounds pushing down on the rear two
tires, 1000 pounds per tire there, and it has 1500 pounds per tire in the
front, you lose about 500 pounds per tire of front grip.  Basically, you
lose that grip, the car starts pushing, probably starts washing toward the
wall.  Imagine it like a boat wave; it's an invisible boat wave, because you
can't see the air but it would be like riding behind a boat and when you're
behind that wake the water's choppy.  It's the same thing with aero push.
You get in that choppy air, lose that front downforce, and the front starts
washing out."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVY MONTE CARLO:  "We normally do well
here in qualifying.  The car always drove pretty decent here.  We just can't
really seal the deal at the end.  There ain't going to be no second groove,
I can promise you that.  We always have a comfortable car.  We always run
good.  We get beat by pit strategy.  Guys taking new tires, guys taking no
tires.  They've been beating us here a lot lately.  Beat us here the last
two years.  We've got nothing to lose, the way we see it.  We just go for
the win every week.  The Bud Chevy is really good, and we're real happy with
it.  There are cars that are quicker than us, but because of where we drew
for qualifying (third in the order) I think we might be able to grab a
pole."

ON COMING BACK TO INDY:  "I still have a special spot for Daytona, but
walking out on race morning and seeing all the people I really understand
the impact that this race has, and it does excite me."
ARE YOU STILL SORE FROM THE CRASH LAST WEEKEND?  "The only thing I can
complain about is the seat belt had caught me on angle on the side of my
neck; it was more like a burn than anything else."

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