JEFF GORDON TAKES POLE AT BRISTOL; DALE JR. SECOND; MICHAEL WALTRIP THIRD

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
FRIDAY, AUG. 23, 2002



POST-QUALIFYING:

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK FILMS CHEVY MONTE CARLO (16th): "It was the best
lap we ran with our car. We¹d really like to get a win in the Monte Carlo
before we leave this year to go to Pontiac next year. We¹ve been awfully
tight right in the middle of the corner, loose getting in. So we have a lot
of work to do on this Kodak car. Everybody is working as hard as we can, so
hopefully we can get this thing a little better in Happy Hour."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVY MONTE CARLO (second): "Really,
really good. I¹m really proud of my team. Tony (Eury) Jr. and all the guys
they worked real hard on the setup in practice and we found some things from
our other teammates Steve Park and Micheal Waltrip. All those people kind of
helped make this happen. Real happy. Good stuff is happening to us. We tried
to really turn it around the last two or three weeks and we¹re really
focusing on trying to build us a system that works for us really good next
year." HOW MUCH ON THE EDGE WERE YOU? "I wasn¹t on the edge at all. My car
was a little bit tight. The things that we did, changed a lot of springs and
some shocks and stuff really gives the car a lot of bite, a lot of grip,
just a little bit too tight."  ON THE TEAMS WORKING TOGETHER: "Really kind
of worked together really well the last two or three weeks. We¹re starting
to utilize a lot of resources with the other teams that we have. It¹s
starting to pay off.  We just want to try to take the last several races of
the season and try to fabricate a system that works really good for us,
because right now we¹re just too inconsistent with the way we¹re working."
ANYTHING SPECIFIC YOU HAVE DONE? "Me and Tony Jr. have really gotten down to
equal ground and we¹re working back and forth a lot better, instead of
letting our egos contemplate and dictate how the relationship is. We¹re
really just trying to work toward success together on a level field here and
it¹s starting to work out."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVY MONTE CARLO (pole position): "All I know is
it was a really good lap for us. We didn¹t make any adjustments to it
because it ran so good in practice. The car was a little bit tight there,
but I was able to get back on the gas and turn real late for me and got off
the corners down the straightaways real, real good. We needed a good solid
qualifying run. We¹ve been struggling in qualifying and I knew when we came
here to a short track, we¹d have a really good shot with the DuPont
Chevrolet. I¹m proud of these guys; they worked hard for this one today."
DID JUNIOR¹S LAP HELP GIVE YOU A BENCHMARK?  "We were pretty good all day.
It certainly doesn¹t hurt to know what you¹ve got to run; it kind of helped
us with what adjustments to make. Had Junior went out there and ran a low
.40 we probably would have made an adjustment. Since he didn¹t we kept the
car the same and so far it¹s good enough. I just wanted to get a solid
qualifying, but we¹ve been struggling in qualifying. It¹s uncharacteristic
of us and I knew that we were back to a short track, a place where I sat on
the pole earlier in the year, and hopefully we could back that up and I know
we¹ll have a good start position with that for sure." ON THE RACE: "We
always run good in the race. If I just don¹t spin out I think I¹ll be all
right. We were so strong here in the night race the last time we were here.
We were strong the last race here. It¹s Bristol. I love Bristol. We¹ve won
races here; we¹re very good here, but it is Bristol. A lot can happen,
you¹ve got to survive. We¹re just going to try to dot our i¹s and cross our
t¹s and see what we can come up with."