Chevrolet Takes top 5 qualfiying Spots at MIS

Chevy's Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Bud Pole while DEI teammates Michael
Waltrip and Steve Park qualify 3rd and 4th (respectively). Richard Childress
Racing joins with Kevin Harvick 2nd and Robby Gordon 5th to give Team Monte
Carlo the top five starting spots.

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 1

BOBBY HAMILTON, NO. 55 SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  "I don't
think you can be satisfied with that time, but it's a lot better. We just
got behind. We're real appreciative of the rules change NASCAR gave us, but
it's unbalanced. It's just going to take us a little while to get that. It
feels pretty good untapped. When we tape it up, it's almost like we don't
have enough rear to match it. But we'll work through all that. I don't know
how this will end up, but it's a lot better than it was in practice."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW/DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It wasn't too bad.
I've got to thank this whole UAW/Delphi group. Rick Hendrick and all these
guys have been working hard trying to give me good racecars. This is the
same car we had here last time, but with a big improvement over what we did
last time (finished 29th) we were here. I'm looking forward to a good race
run and hopefully that will give us a decent starting spot."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was pretty good. I think
the track will change some as it cools off late, but we're happy with that."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "That was a pretty
good run for us. We picked up quite a bit from practice. Our car was pretty
loose in practice and we made some adjustments on it and it was a little bit
tight. So, we went the right way on it. (AS THE TEMPERATURE COOLS DOWN, WILL
THAT MAKE THE CARS TIGHT?) "I don't know. Hopefully it won't make a whole
lot of difference between now and the end. (DO YOU SEE ANY DIFFERENCE ON THE
NOSE CHANGE YET) "It's made my car loose. But hopefully it'll be better for
the race. But for qualifying, we can't run the set-up that we used to run,
which means we're going to go back and work on our chassis. It puts more on
the front, but we have it taped up too. But we're trying to make up for it
at a lot of by going back and look at our chassis set-ups. But for the race,
we will hopefully see some change in traffic."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I just drove it for all
it was worth and the Pennzoil Chevrolet was just great. I'm just really glad
to be here. I must have bee concentrating so much that I when I got out of
the car I was huffing and puffing and took a big breath. I know I can hold
my breath for 38 seconds. We didn't get a clean lap in practice, but the
guys made really good calls setting the car up for qualifying. It was still
a tick loose, but loose is fast here at Michigan.


TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

We just signed a contract for next year with the Pennzoil team and I think
that confidence really showed out there today. I can't thank the guys
enough. We know how to win and we're going to show that in the future. It
gives me confidence and it gives the team confidence. It's nice to be out of
the rumor mill.

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We stopped
pretty early in practice, but we thought we had a good car. My teammate (No.
30 Jeff Green) dropped some oil down there in turn 4 and we almost hit the
well (in practice). I think Jimmie Johnson got into it too. That one got my
attention and scared me a little bit. We decided that if we were going to
push the car that hard, we'd just do it one more time for qualifying. When I
saw (Bill) Elliott pick up a half a second, I thought if we could do that
we'd be right there as well. The car felt pretty good. I probably should
have pushed it a little harder on the first lap. On the second lap, I
overdrove the car."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We picked up a little
from practice, but it's not what we wanted and it's not where we need to be.
I think we'll be good on Sunday. We have a good car and that's the main
thing."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We've had some weird
things going on in qualifying. We broke a motor last week at Watkins Glen.
We crashed at Chicago. We crashed here in practice when we got in some oil
that the No. 30 car put down. But the best thing about it is that this
Lowe's team never gives up. We've (always) got a great hot rod waiting for
me in the trailer. I actually think we're going to be better off on Sunday
with this racecar, which is the one we had in Pocono. But the one we crashed
was the one I won with in California."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The car just pushed
down there in turns three and four. It didn't really slip; it just pushed. I
gave some gas to it and gave it everything I thought I should have as a
driver, but it just didn't quite stick in the front end. So I guess it
really did slip. The front slipped, not the back. I'm just a little
disappointed in that. But we've had five poles this year - and someone has
knocked us off of all five of them and I wound up second every time. We'll
have to see if that happens again."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK CHEVROLT MONTE CARLO: "I wasn't sure what happened
when I wrecked during practice. After researching it, we found out there was
oil on the track from one of the other competitors. We pulled out the
back-up car ad ran one lap. It drove good. The car was probably better than
I drove it today. I almost didn't go out to qualify. I am still a little
groggy from the crash. The team needs everything we can get right now, so I
knew I had to go. Chris (Carrier, crew chief) and the guys did a great job
of getting the car ready.  We don't have the same suspension package under
this car. This car is the car we tested at Indy. I liked it then, so maybe
we will race good on Sunday."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It wasn't
perfect. I got loose in (turns) three and four, but it was a really good lap
for the Bud team. I made a commitment this week to bear down this week and
do what I can to help this team. We're just trying to get ourselves back
into Victory Lane where we think we ought to be. This is just kind of one
step in that direction. (DID YOU HIT TURNS ONE AND TWO PRETTY GOOD?) "Yeah,
I nailed that corner. I thought I had three and four awful good, but the car
cooled down a little bit and got me a little free but it was still a great
lap. The late draw definitely didn't hurt as cool as it is now. It was a
great job by the Bud team and by DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.). All the cars up
front in the top five are Chevrolets. We've got a Childress car (No. 29,
Kevin Harvick) on the outside pole and they ain't bad company either.
(MICHAEL WALTRIP SAID HE REALLY WANTED THAT POLE) "We'll he's had five he's
lost this year. But that team is going to have lots of poles to celebrate in
the future, I can guarantee you."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It's pretty cool
to have a teammate and a couple of DEI cars up there. It's a good start to
the weekend for us. We unloaded good. Now we just have to try and finish it
off. (DID YOU WANT TO GO AFTER DALE JR?) "This track is pretty weather
sensitive. Luckily for the guys who drew up front, it wasn't hot today
because the later you go, the better off you're going to be. We had a good
draw today and well take it.  We'll take the good and roll along with it."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 4

DALE EARNHARDT JR. AND MICHAEL WALTRIP VISIT WITH THE MEDIA IN THE TRACKSIDE
CONFERENCE ROOM.  HIGHLIGHTS OF THE Q&A'S FOLLOW:

EARNHARDT JR:
(ON HIS FOURTH TOP-10 START IN SIX MICHIGAN RACES) "As a race team, we've
just always qualified and run well here. It seems like all those tracks that
I ran in the Busch Series that you run again, I had a little more confidence
every time I return. The car drives real good - fast and competitive - right
off the trailer. We can't really say that at a lot of other places other
than Michigan and a few other tracks."

(ON ALL THREE DEI DRIVERS QUALIFYING IN THE TOP FIVE) "I'm real proud of the
entire top five with Richard Childress Racing and DEI taking all top five
positions. We have really worked hard to improve Michael's team (Waltrip)
and it's really starting to pay off. We just now buttoned up the deal with
Steve (Park) to improve that team as far as morale and whatnot and give them
some certainty on the future. I think that helps on the racetrack. It pays
dividends when it comes to performance when you have a secure future. With
our team, we were really disappointed with the fall out of the season. After
the crash at California, we never did really rebound. We've had a few decent
finishes and an opportunity to win at Daytona and whatnot, but nothing that
we didn't expect. We ran well at Bristol and Darlington and places we didn't
expect to. We kind of hoped that would be the rest of the season for us.
This is maybe another step in that direction."

(ON MAKING A SERIOUS COMMITMENT THIS WEEKEND) "Each week, you go into each
racetrack with a different attitude. The effort is always the same, it
seems. You can only drive as good as your car, your team, or how good a
driver you are. As far as ability and commitment, I'm right where I need to
be. But you have so many poor finishes and things happen to you. Last week
was purely my fault - spinning out and running 15th at Watkins Glen. We've
had opportunities to get good finishes at that racetrack, but it seems like
I'm always the culprit or the reason for what happens to us. It just seems
like there's a lot of mistakes I've made and a lot of things that the team
has made. You get to the point where you're just plum sick of it and you're
going to do everything you can to take yourself out of the equation as far
as what might be the reason for the struggles. I'm going to do everything I
can to take myself out of the equation."



TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 5


(HOW HAS THE AERO CHANGE FOR CHEVROLET AFFECTED QUALFIYING AND HOW WILL IT
AFFECT THE RACE?)
EARNHARDT JR: "I'm really sure that we're going to hear a lot about how it's
improved us with all five positions being Chevrolets. It's all part of
NASCAR and I really don't like changing things mid-stream. We qualified
third earlier this year. We've qualified great here every time, so I don't
think it's had a huge affect on us. Sunday is going to be a different day.
The track always gets tighter and it's always harder for us to get our cars
to turn. Hopefully that'll help us out. I don't think today's a true test.
These cars all qualify well at this track."

WALTRIP:
"Please, do not think that because we're (Chevrolets) one thru five that it
has anything to do with that (nose) extension. All these cars are taped off
solid in the front. We pull the fenders in. We have all the front downforce
we want for qualifying. I qualified second here a month ago. It doesn't have
anything to do with the rules change. So whoever leads their story tomorrow
with the title, 'Chevrolet gets rules change and sweeps qualifying', is not
very smart because you'll have to wait and see what happens on Sunday. If
the race is restarted with 10 (laps) to go, and we're able to put on new
tires and outrun those guys, then it was the tires. What you need to look at
is whether the Chevys are able to hang with the Dodges and the Fords 30 or
40 laps into a run. If they are, that's cool. Let's just be thankful that we
won't have to talk about anymore this next year. We'll all have cars that
are more matched as far as the handling goes."

(ARE YOU TIRED OF ALL THESE AERO CHANGES AND TALK ABOUT THEM?)
WALTRIP:  "It's just part of it. That's what they had to do. We're happy to
get it. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. They've got to keep the
competition level. I don't know how big you think next year's cars being
somewhat similar is, but it's huge. It's going to save us money. We're not
going to have to constantly add an inch and go to the wind tunnel, or take
off some spoiler and go to the wind tunnel. It's real big, what's coming
down the road.  The cool part is that the manufacturers and NASCAR have
worked so well together. The silhouettes of the cars are alike, but the
styling and identities of each brand are significantly different. They're
not going to look all the same, but the silhouette of the car will be close
enough that we won't have to go through all this again next year. It had to
end somewhere."


TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Pepsi 400 Qualifying  nmwager@aol.com
Friday, August 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 6


EARNHARDT JR:  "I agree with that. The changes for next year are real
popular in the garage and everybody is looking forward to it. It's kind of
like back in '81 when they went to the smaller cars. I think it's really
going to improve the racing. But back in those days, when some guy just went
out there and whopped somebody, he got the credit for it. When you go out
there and whoop people, you've got all sorts of variables that take the
credit instead of the driver and the team."

(DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET YOUR PEOPLE TO WORK AS GOOD AS YOUR PARTS ARE
WORKING?)
EARNHARDT JR.: "That's probably been the biggest struggle. As far as the No.
8 team goes, we've had people we've need to run well for a couple of years
back. We just beat ourselves or hit a wall or something happens. We've got
good people. With Michael (Waltrip) and Steve (Park), I think it's just (a
matter of) everybody believing in everybody. You've got to get people to
depend on you and believe on you. You can see the results in all three
teams."