Post-qualifying press conferences, Bristol

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE:

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA PARTS CHEVY MONTE CARLO (third):  "Well, the
car handled perfectly. I ran a .48 and it took a .47 to get the job done. A
hundredth of a second; I couldn¹t possibly tell you where that went. I did
everything I wanted to do. I didn¹t get overly aggressive and I think at
Bristol that¹s wise because if you overshoot the corner you¹re just wasting
time. I was able to roll in good, get on the gas hard. Again, we came up a
little short, but Junior¹s team and mine, they communicate really well. They
understand each other, they compare setups really good. But today we had
different setups. He had different springs all the way around his car than I
did and we took different setups and wound up in the same place. I¹m real
proud of my team for giving me a car that I could get out there and really
hammer on. I got big feet so I don¹t do very well when you gotta kind of do
a little bit of throttle. I only do good when you can do a lot."

"I think I have a mental block. I cannot run the second lap fast. I always
do my best on the first lap."

A LOT OF PEOPLE WIGGLING OUT THERE, IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT
OVERSHOOTING? "No, I was talking about getting in the throttle way quick and
that will cause that, but that¹s how you make a fast time. You roll out of
the gas a little early, get to the bottom and get the throttle down way in
the center. And then, like in Ryan¹s (Newman) case, he probably had a
perfectly handling car, but he had so much speed that finally the conditions
overtook the ability of the tires to stick to the road. He did everything
perfect and the car just like that much sticking for him to get back to the
start-finish line. If you drive down into the corner hard at Bristol then
you¹re just wasting tons of time waiting to get back to the gas. The best
thing to do is roll out early so you can get on it early and that¹s been my
experience. That¹s how I¹m able to run well here."

ON YESTERDAY¹S BUSCH CRASH; WAS IT DÉJÀ VU FOR YOU? "It was really wild for
me because as soon as it happened everybody came to me and said, ŒWhat¹s
that remind you of?¹ It was exactly my crash except for Johnny Sauter ran
into Mike (Harmon) after he hit the wall and made it worse and then I was a
little bit groggy and slow to get out of my car when I had the wreck that
day and I¹d be darned if Mike didn¹t just jump right out. He was standing
there. It was a whole lot alike in that respect and I just really was
thankful that I got to go to the infield care center and talk to Mike
because I




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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 7

WALTRIP cont¹d:

lived basically the same thing 12 years ago and so I told him, ŒGet ready
because you¹ll laugh about this the rest of your life,¹ because people come
up to me all the time and laugh about the deal at Bristol. I said I¹m just
so glad that you¹re able to laugh about it. When you talk about the incident
and it¹s over and it¹s fine and how wild it was, that¹s a laughing matter,
but when you turn to the subject of the gate not being shut then it turns
somber in a hurry. That¹s just a sad story; thankfully we have a happy
ending to it."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVY MONTE CARLO (second): TELL US
ABOUT THAT RUN:  "It was a good run. We¹re real happy. We were about 30th in
practice and we hadn¹t really had a great track record for qualifying here
and the car hasn¹t really been that comfortable before. We relied on some
stuff from Michael Waltrip¹s team and Steve¹s (Park) team and kind of put
together a setup about middle way through practice that made the car a lot
faster. It just drove better. When you can get your car to drive good you
can do a better job."

HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU GOING INTO QUALIFYING? "I thought that I didn¹t know
because the temperature went down in practice when we ran our fast lap and I
felt like that it wasn¹t a legitimate kind of benchmark, so to speak,
because of the cloud cover and whatnot that we got in practice when we ran
that fast lap; I felt like that helped us a little bit. I didn¹t know if we
had a good enough car for the pole. I was really surprised to beat Bill¹s
time and I just wanted to get in the top 10 or top 15, actually, (that) was
my goal, to just shoot inside the top 10 there."

ARE SHORT TRACKS BECOMING WHAT YOU AND THE TEAM WANT TO FOCUS ON AFTER YOUR
SUCCESS AT RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES? "I don¹t think it¹s really a result of
shifting focus. We just haven¹t been good at getting our cars to handle good
anywhere else. What it comes down to is just when you get into these places,
you¹ve got to come out of the trailer fast. And we did that last week for
qualifying at Michigan. That only happens to us maybe five times out of the
year, tops. And, with the way my and Tony Jr.¹s relationship has worked over
the past couple of years and the way they changed a lot of things, such as
the tire and whatnot, the aero, this, that and the other, some of the things
we banked on, the notes don¹t really help us out. We¹re really understanding
now that the communication is probably the most valuable thing that we have;
that overrides having great notes and a great setup from last year and all
that good stuff. We just really worked hard the last two weeks to talk to
each other about how the car¹s driving. It¹s really a lot harder I think
than I ever imagined as far as getting the cars to handle good and drive
good. It might look like we¹ve put a lot of emphasis on the plate races and
we overlooked these other tracks as unimportant or lesser of importance to
us, that¹s not the case. We¹re just so damned pissed off about how we run at
some of these places, we take it home with us and it wears us out.




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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 8

DALE JR., cont¹d:

"We¹re just trying to kind of fabricate a system this year that will work
for us next year and we won¹t be so inconsistent."

HAS THIS SEASON REACHED A POINT OF AGGRAVATION? "Sure it has. Every driver
in the garage gets to that point some time in the season. But we just got
into a slump. We were fifth in the points, won Talladega, looked like we
were going to have a shot at putting ourselves up there all year, been in
the top five, top 10, and had that real bad crash, real hard hit in
California, and it took me as a driver about two or three weeks to get out
from under that. And the team never kind of recovered. It¹s kind of similar
to what Steve (Park) was going through this year as he¹s had kind of a crash
that took him out as a driver and he wasn¹t 100 percent. Now that he¹s
better and can do the job, the team isn¹t where it needs to be. And I¹m not
pointing fingers. That doesn¹t do us any favors. Didn¹t last year; didn¹t
the year before. You get to a point where you run seven, eight races with
not a good finish, not a good thing happening to you, you get to a point
where you either get up and work harder or you give up. I ain¹t giving up."

WHAT HAS MADE THE COMMUNICATION SO DIFFICULT? "I think the pressure that is
on us. If you walk up and down this garage and look behind everybody¹s pit
you won¹t see too many people standing anywhere but behind our pit. There¹s
30, 40 people always around our garage stall. There¹s reporters, there¹s
press, there¹s fans. We¹re just really kind of under a lot of pressure to
perform. I feel kind of so undeserving sometimes because we run like crap on
the race track and we still get all this attention; being the focal point of
the sport and we¹re going to lead the sport into the new millennium,
whatever. We can¹t do any of that if we can¹t run good on the race track.
You just get so frustrated sometimes because you don¹t do what you want to
do and what you think you can do. I feel like I can win five championships
in a row if my car drives great every week; I think anybody can. You get to
where you feel like you¹re wasting time sometimes. I just want to win, I
want to win championships, and nothing else really matters."

YOU¹VE ALWAYS HAD THAT MEDIA ATTENTION: "Yeah, we have. It has grown a lot.
In sheer numbers of people in the garage area, that¹s probably doubled or
tripled as far as over the past two, three years. It really puts a bind on
your relationship with your team when you¹ve got to kind of hide underneath
something all day long just to be able to concentrate on the car. That¹s
true, we have worked together for a long time. When you¹re winning nobody¹s
got any problems. All the problems are small and not even worth bothering
(about). And that¹s what we were doing in the Busch Series. We came out of
there best friends, great pals, been family all our life. Then we went into
the Cup Series, won a couple of races and had our rookie season to blame (or
have) as an excuse why we didn¹t do well.





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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 9

DALE JR., cont¹d:

"Then to finally feel like we had ourselves in position this year and come
out -- and it all looked that way up until California -- it really was a
letdown. It¹s nobody¹s fault. This year has just been one problem after
another as far as the kind of things that have been out of our hands, so to
speak. Not like it has in the past. In the past we beat ourselves. This year
we just can¹t seem to hit a stride like we did in the beginning of the
season and you get to a point to where you¹re not going to end the season on
that note. I¹m bound and determined myself and I think that¹s kind of
starting to rub off on a lot of the guys on the team -- that we get this
turned around and we get something out of the season."

IS THE PRESSURE OF ALL THE PEOPLE BEING AROUND PART OF THE PROBLEM? "There¹s
a place and a time for everything. I¹m definitely not the best person to try
to shut things out and being able to focus on one thing. We go to all these
appearances and all these people show up and I never get used to it. It¹s
never like something you expect. You come into Food City and places like it;
I never get used to it. It¹s good, it¹s fun, the excitement is great, but
sometimes it kind of makes you nervous. It makes me a little nervous
sometimes. Because I never get used to it; I wonder whether I ever will. My
Dad used to be able to walk through here. A lot of drivers can do that; walk
through here and blurt everything out and shut it all down and not be
bothered by it. Their focus seems to be able to stay 100 percent on the car
and stuff. If I walk from the car to the bus and back I¹ve done forgot
everything I just did. Because there are so many people hollering your
name."

IS THERE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF CONFUSION THAT KEEPS YOU FROM BEING AS FOCUSED
IN QUALIFYING? "Sometimes your brain gets a little frayed out a little bit.
What I didn¹t do personally and what I was talking about last week, taking
myself out of the equation, what I didn¹t do was buckle down harder. When
things got tougher I didn¹t try harder. And I felt like Œall right, I¹m
going to pace myself and I¹m going to keep this pace as far as my workload
(is concerned), my work ethic all year long,¹ and you can¹t. And this
stretch of 20 races, when a lot of people get burned out and the relentless
activities at the track and whatnot that you¹ve got to deal with, they don¹t
change. You¹ve just got to work harder. And I didn¹t try to work harder. I
thought (that) how I was and how I felt about my job and I was doing my part
was the right attitude, when apparently it wasn¹t. These guys, they step up.
I feel like I didn¹t step up until about last week."







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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 10

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVY MONTE CARLO (Polesitter; won pole here in
the spring): "It seems like it¹s been 10 years since I¹ve been in here. This
is great; what a great way to start the weekend off. We were really psyched
about coming here to Bristol because it has been a great track for us. We
sat on the pole the last time we were here. And qualifying just has not been
our thing here lately. Coming to a short track where you don¹t have to worry
about aerodynamics and some of the other stuff, I think that just really
made us focus on getting the car working good through the corners and
getting a good, solid lap out there. We drew a good number, so that was
certainly on our side. Some guys put some good numbers up there; we didn¹t
know if we could do it or not, but it turned out."

IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME: "Too long."

THE LAST SIX RACES, NOT QUALIFYING WELL, NOT COMING OFF THE TRUCK WELL, IS
THAT PART OF THE MENTAL THING? "Yeah. It definitely affects you. We¹re a
team that has done a great job of qualifying for so long that when you
qualify good pretty much every weekend like we have in the past, you learn
how you run your races from that position. When you don¹t qualify well you
kind of have to rethink your approach to the race, and the strategy and your
adjustments. And really how you set the car up, because, especially at these
big fast tracks you¹ve got to set the car up a lot looser to run through
traffic so that you can pass cars. But once you get out in front of cars you
lose. There's just so many things that you¹re fighting against and that¹s
just something that we¹re not used to or haven¹t been in the past that we¹ve
had to try to work through this year. Qualifying up front is really, really
important. I think it might be more important to our team than it is to most
teams out there. This is why this is a good shot in the arm for us. We
needed a good solid run. In some ways I wish it wasn¹t at a short track,
because I think that -- we run good on the short tracks -- but I still worry
about us struggling in qualifying when we get to some of the bigger tracks."

"It¹s just a track where the chassis and what I¹m feeling is what matters.
And the way those guys adjust it. Like Junior said, you get the car driving
right. You get to a place like Michigan, Pocono and Indy and stuff and it¹s
not necessarily about getting the car driving right; it¹s about putting as
much downforce in the car as possible and horsepower and all these other
things that we just haven¹t seemed to do a great job with."

YOU WIN THE POLE, AND EVEN IF YOU WIN THE RACE TOMORROW YOU DON¹T FEEL YOUR
TEAM IS OUT OF THE WOODS YET? "I think it doesn¹t matter to me where we win.
I¹d like to win anywhere and as much as you guys like to write about me not
winning I think you¹d rather like to write about me winning A race, anyway.
I¹m saying that the majority of the races that we go to are not short
tracks. They¹re the mile and a half, high-speed, high-downforce tracks and
those are the ones that we¹ve kind of fought, especially in qualifying.
That¹s what I¹m saying when I¹m saying that. I¹m glad to have a pole and I¹m
glad it¹s here at Bristol. We¹ve qualified fairly well at short tracks this
whole year, but I¹d like to continue this when we leave here, to be able to
qualify good some other places too."



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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 11

JEFF GORDON, cont¹d:

COMFORT ZONE. DOES THIS GO BACK TO YOU YOUR ROOTS? DOES THIS FIT IN TO HOW
YOU DRIVE? "Maybe. I¹ve always liked Bristol. I¹ve always run well here.
Yeah, I was kind of thinking of that today. I was sitting on pit road and
going... I guess I kind of did grow up on Winchester and Salem and some of
these high-speedŠI¹ve always liked the high-speed, high-banked, half-mile or
quarter-mile, whatever they were -- for me back then were big tracks. Just
the fast tracks, the corner speeds. I love that. Maybe that brings a little
bit back. Being in a stock car versus a sprint car and stuff is completely
different. You just take all the politics out of the stuff when you come to
a place like this. It doesn¹t matter if the nose is kicked out; it doesn¹t
matter if you¹re down 20, 30 horsepower. You just go out there and go as
fast as you can through the corner and that¹s what matters most."

WHY DO YOU FEEL IT¹S IMPORTANT TO GO OUT LATE IN QUALIFYING? "I don¹t think
it¹s a must. We were pretty good all day today. I like it because I get to
pay attention to what the other guys are doing, watch a few cars, hear their
comments, see what I¹ve got to run. Like in practice I ran a .42; I knew
exactly what the car did in practice and we were sitting there waiting
whether or not we should make adjustments to qualify. And when Junior ran
like a .48ŠHad he run a .42 or better we would have made adjustments. Since
he ran a .48 I said, Guys, let¹s not make an adjustment, let¹s just leave
it. I¹d rather the car be a little too tight than get loose on me. It was
tight. Had Rusty come after me and put a heck of a lap down and run in the
mid .40s I¹d be kicking myself. It all turned out good with the adjustments
that we made. We kind of went the safe route and just tried to put a good,
solid, hard lap out there. And I think that¹s what helps when you go a
little bit later, you can evaluate all those things."

WHAT CARRIES OVER FROM TODAY TO TOMORROW? CONFIDENCE, KNOWLEDGE? "I think
one of the things that we have been lacking a lot of places this year is
just when you don¹t qualify good it just kind of..whether it would be a
little bit of confidence or just knowing that you¹re going to start middle
of the pack and have to overcome a lot of positions and possibly do some
different pit strategy. We all know what track position¹s all about these
days; when the cars get in clean air they just run so much better. And it
just makes your day go by a lot easier if you can keep that track position,
keep that car in clean air. Even though we¹re at a short track it still
makes a difference. That doesn¹t mean because we¹re starting on the pole
that we¹re going to be able to maintain that all day, but it certainly makes
it a little bit easier for us to try to maintain it. I think it also adds
confidence to the team. We haven¹t had a whole lot to get excited about
lately, I can tell you that. And something like this definitely put a smile
on those guys¹ faces to know that we¹re still hungry, we want it, and we¹re
not going to give up until we get to victory lane and until the last race of
the season."





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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Page 12


HAS YOUR NON-WINNING STREAK BOTHERED YOU AS MUCH AS IT BOTHERS EVERYONE
ELSE? "I tell you, it bothers me. I like to win. People have asked me for
many years what is it about racing that you love the most. And I said,
getting to victory lane and experiencing what that¹s like. And when you
don¹t get there then you¹re not having as much fun. Even though I still know
how fortunate I am to be able to get behind the wheel of a race car and do
that for a living. And that I¹ve got a great team. It¹s certainly not as
much fun when you¹re not battling for wins. I didn¹t realize that it bothers
you guys. But I¹m glad to know that it does. I thought it just was
interesting to you so that you could write about it. I certainly don¹t make
as much of it as you guys do. We as a team just try to keep the glue
together, try to stay focused, try not to let what you guys write, not that
it¹s bad, it¹s talking about us not winning, affect us, and know that we
just got to go to the next race and work just as hard. If we can do
everything right, and these days that¹s qualifying right, practice good and
do everything good and right on race day. You can¹t make a mistake anywhere
or you¹re going to get behind. This certainly helps to start things off on
the right foot."

YOU¹VE SAID BEFORE THAT YOUR FOCUS IS 100 PERCENT ON THIS RACE TEAM. AND YET
IS YOUR PERSONAL LIFE BECOMING A DISTRACTION? "I¹ve never said it wasn¹t a
distraction, but it doesn¹t take my focus off this race team and what I¹m
doing. It¹s nothing that I want to be going through, but I don¹t have that
choice, and I¹m making the best of it. I can¹t say that our performance at
the race track has anything to do with that. I honestly don¹t think that. I
feel like our focus there and what¹s happening to us week in and week out
has nothing to do with that."

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE KICK OUT IN THE NOSE ON THE MONTE CARLO?  "I¹ve
got to be careful here because I want the kickout but I don¹t think it does
diddly squat, but I¹ll take it anyway. If you look at us compared to Ford or
Dodge we need it from the top of the windshield to the bumper, not from the
bumper below. The air doesn¹t even see the bottom of the bumper until you¹re
out front leading the race. I don¹t think it did much good. We went into the
wind tunnel; it didn¹t really do much. What we¹re working on for next year
and what we would like to have probably isn¹t available. It¹s really that
whole front downforce all the way from the windshield from the cowl and the
nose and the hood and all the way it slopes all the way down to the bumper.
I think that¹s far more effective in getting front downforce, especially in
traffic, than from the bottom of the bumper to the race track. But if that¹s
all we¹re going to get, then I¹ll take it."

NEW HAMPSHIRE IS IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK; THEY¹RE SAYING THERE WASN¹T MUCH
WRONG WITH THE TRACK: "I love Bob Baer; he¹s my favorite track owner out
there, but they¹ve got a real problem up there. And if they¹re denying that
then that¹s a shame. They¹ve done so much to help us up there and try to
make things right that this is not characteristic of him. If we go back
there and it¹s the same, I¹m going to voice my opinion about it. I don¹t
know if they need to do anything. That pavement might cure itself. It might
cure and it might not tear up when we go back there."

MORE TO FOLLOW.....