Chevy Happy Hour Notes - Darlington, Aug. 31

TONY EURY JR., CREW CHIEF, NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (ON THE WET
WEATHER) "Well, you get tired of sitting around in the rain. But first
practice, we were pretty happy. We stayed pretty close to what we had here
in the spring. We're not that good on the practice sheet - as far as busting
off a lap - but on the long run, we stayed pretty consistent. We're not far
away from what we had in the spring and Dale Jr. is pretty happy with it.

"In the second practice, we tried some awkward stuff to just try and see
what kind of changes we can make during the race and see what happens. We're
going to go back to what we had in the first practice. It seemed like it was
the best and Jr. feels the most comfortable with it. It should be a good
day. Luckily we got all the practice in today and we'll just do our routine
deal and hope the showers stay away and we can go racing."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (ARE YOU GLAD YOU GOT HAPPY
HOUR PRACTICE IN TODAY?) "I'm real happy that we got today's practice in.
I'm surprised that we got it in. It was pretty important to get some time on
the track. I don't know if it would have been an advantage or a disadvantage
for us to not have practice because we've run real well the last couple
times we've been here. We're not far off of our set-ups that we've had here
in the past, but we feel like we did learn a few things. We're happy with
the adjustments we made and the car is running real good. So I guess I'm
happy that we had the practice."

(IS YOUR APPROACH TO PRACTICE DIFFERENT AT DARLINGTON THAN AT OTHER TRACKS?)
"No, I think you've got to take the Saturday morning practice seriously
every weekend and put a lot into them. That's your time to see how good you
are for the race and the race is the most important part of our weekend. So
I didn't approach it any differently than I normally do, other than making
sure we got out there and got time on the track."

(YOU WERE FASTER IN THE SECOND PRACTICE.  DID YOU FIND SOMETHING IN THE
SET-UP?) "You guys pay way too close attention to stuff. I never really
tried to go fast in the first practice. I was just out there just making
race runs. In the second practice, I pushed it a little harder. I wanted to
see how fast it could go on new tires. The car is really good."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Happy Hour Notes nmwager@aol.com
Saturday, August 31, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 2


(HOW IMPORTANT ARE PRACTICE TIMES AT DARLINGTON?) "When you fall off as much
as you do here -- and at Rockingham and certain other tracks -- you don't
put as much into it as you would at other places. It's nice to be able to go
out there and go fast for a lap or two, but we're able to pull up
everybody's lap times over the whole run and that's what we look at a lot
more than who goes fast."

(SO, WHY ISN'T IT AS IMPORTANT HERE?) "Because the tires fall off so much.
Somebody can run a .30 flat, but in five laps, they're running .31 flat and
it's not going to do that guy much good. So, you're looking at a guy who can
run fairly fast laps, but can hold on to it for a longer period of time.
That's the guy who's going to go fast. That's the guy you're going to have
to worry about tomorrow."

(ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE RAIN AND WHETHER OR NOT THE BUSCH CARS RUN
TODAY?) "Yeah, somewhat. We definitely want rubber on the track and to be in
the same conditions we have today, but what that means is that it'll just
start one way and it will eventually get back to the way it was when we had
rubber on the track. So, the conditions will change and we just have to be
conscious of that. Through our first run maybe under green flag conditions,
we just need to be patient and not over-react and think we have to make a
whole bunch of adjustments. You've just got to put yourself in the mindset
of holding onto track position the best you can and maybe wait until after
the second run on tires to see how the car acts before making adjustments."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The Pennzoil Chevrolet
ran decent in practice. It was pretty good for us. We weren't the fastest on
the speed chart, but longevity is what you shoot for at this track. We feel
that on a long run on tires is where the car is the best. If we get a long
run at the end of the race, we're going to be in good shape. You start off
pretty fast and after 10 laps, you're pretty slow. So you've got to make
sure your car is where it needs to be when it's got worn-out tires on it
because you spend most of your time on worn out tires. Jeff Burton is a guy
who runs good here and I don't think he's the fastest guys on the charts
here. You've got to look for consistency throughout the whole (practice) run
and that doesn't necessarily show how fast you can do on one lap."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Happy Hour Notes nmwager@aol.com
Saturday, August 31, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 8 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Practice was great. We
were in the top 10 in both sessions. We really started with the set-up we
finished 6th with in the spring and tried to improve on it. We feel that we
have. Looking at the long run stuff, we're probably 3rd on the long runs.
The No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) and the No. 40 (Sterling Marlin) are a little bit
better, but they have more experience than I do here so we'll just see what
happens."

(ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY VS. SPEED) "The tires fall off so fast
here at Darlington, you need to have some consistency. Some races have been
won here with (the help of) a lot of cautions. If you're good for 20 laps
and then fall off and the cautions keep playing out, it can work in your
favor. We were fast on new tires and didn't fall off too much. And it looks
like some guys are real fast on new tires, but fell off a lot. It seems like
we've landed in the middle somewhere."

(IF THE BUSCH RACE GETS RAINED OUT, WILL STARTING ON A GREEN TRACK AFFECT
YOUR GAMEPLAN FOR SUNDAY'S RACE?) "Luckily, we started Happy Hour practice
on a green track. So if that happens, we'll have a good idea where the track
is going to be when we start racing."

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