J. Gordon Wins Two in a Row - NASCAR Darlington

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Winner - Note: Gordon
went 31 races without a win, and has now taken two wins in a row - Bristol
last weekend and Darlington today. This was Gordon's 60th Winston Cup career
win and he moved into 2nd place in the point standings. This also marked the
29th win for Chevrolet at Darlington Raceway - more than any other
manufacturer.  "Oh, that was awesome.  What fun we're having right now.
These guys gave me an awfully good car - especially on new tires. These guys
have come alive.  We've heard it before. If these guys get a win, watch out.
We're coming up on some tracks that suit us. We didn't capitalize on Bristol
or Darlington the first time around, but we sure are making up for it now.

"What an awesome team. We got a little bit behind one time. The car wasn't
perfect in the beginning and it was real tight. In traffic, I was awful. On
new tires, I was unreal. I just blew by those guys on new tires. I just had
to keep the thing in clean air. My guys kept me in clean air and made great
adjustments. Robbie Loomis (crew chief) and all the guys were just
incredible. What a great day.

"We had a good car all day, but we were real tight in traffic. Robbie Loomis
mentioned something about getting into clean air and the guys busted off a
great pit stop there and got me up to third. The car was just unreal on new
tires. When the pressures were down, we could just really smoke around the
bottom of the racetrack. I got by (Ryan) Newman and got up there next to
Sterling (Marlin). I couldn't believe I was passing them because I saw how
strong he was all day. And then I just checked out from them. I thought I
was using up the equipment too much, but the DuPont Chevrolet was just
awesome all day. These guys made great adjustments. Once you got in clean
air, it was just adieus. On that last set of tires, Robbie (Loomis) made a
little bit of an adjustment and made it even better."

(WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE CAR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE?) "Well, that's
what happens when it rains. The track changes a lot throughout the day and
it just kept coming to us and coming to us. I was just so tight; I couldn't
even drive in the corner. I couldn't even get on the brakes or anything. I
just had to let off real early because the front of the car just wanted to
go straight in the wall. Once we got that thing freed up, it just started
coming to life. It took a while, because it still wasn't perfect in traffic.
But once we could see those guys and get a whiff of them, it was just watch
out."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

(ON WINNING 5 SOUTHERN 500's) "I'll tell you, that's awesome. It's just
incredible. We're just tickled. This is just such an historic racetrack.
It's just a special day for us. We couldn't believe we were in Victory Lane
last week and here we are here again today.

(ON MOVING INTO 2ND PLACE IN THE POINTS) "Wow. We're gaining on it. It's not
easy to gain on Sterling (Marlin). They run good at a lot of different
tracks. We're doing all we can do. We're leading laps and fighting hard. Two
wins, back-to-back, is going to do a world of good for us. I can't wait to
go to Richmond." - More press conference notes to follow --

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - finished 9th (ON THE
TIRE PROBLEM) "They dropped the jack and I was taking off. They were going
for the last lug nut and when the gun went in and the tire was rotating, the
valve core caught the gun and just ripped it right out of the wheel."

(DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS A PROBLEM?) "No, I found out when I got on the
backstretch and I was trying to accelerate. I thought I had punctured it
driving around on the apron. It was so dirty down there."

(DID IT COME CLOSE TO COMING AROUND ON YOU?) "Oh, yeah. When it came apart,
luckily I had made my way out onto the straightaway when it came apart. And
then we were real lucky to stay ahead of the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) and make
it back to the start/finish line and stay on the lead lap."

(HOW DO YOU HANDLE YOUR RECENT BAD LUCK AND HOW DO YOU BOUCE BACK?) "I
swear, as soon as we started worrying about points, the problems happened.
We were just up front (in the hauler) talking about everything and we
decided that we don't care what the points end up. All you do is lose sleep
over it and get frustrated. We're showing up to win races like we did at the
beginning of the season. That's what we did this weekend. Our set-up was way
out there and we were in good shape there until the (tire) mishap happened."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

(ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, ARE YOU HAPPY WITH A TOP 10?) "This is awesome. It's
just amazing to me to see how this team can rally back from things. It's
just amazing the glue we have and how everybody believes in one another.
It's the same on the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) team. There's just something at
Hendrick Motorsports and at our shop where when times are down, these guys
don't break down. They just dig deeper and work harder together."

(ON THE BACK-TO-BACK WINS FOR THE JEFF GORDON AND THE NO. 24 TEAM) "I've
been saying all year long that when that light switch flips on, we're all in
trouble. I believe he's found the light switch."

(AS HIS FRIEND, WHAT IS IT LIKE WATCHING HIM SHAKE HIS LOSING STREAK AND WIN
TWO IN A ROW?) "He's honestly happy and excited about winning, but he's
still the same guy that he was through it all. He's never lost faith in his
ability or his team and the team hasn't lost faith in him. He's been excited
and happy that he's gotten that monkey off his back, but I haven't really
seen a big difference."

(CONSIDERING HOW MUCH GROUND YOU MADE UP AFTER THE TIRE INCIDENT AND IF THE
RACE WAS LONGER, HOW FAR COULD YOU HAVE GONE?) "I needed a caution bad. I
had used up everything. I was driving like an animal to keep (Jeff) Burton
behind me. That was as far as I was going to get at that point. If there was
a little bit more time or if there was a chance to put tires on, I think we
might have been able to get a top five."

RICHARD "SLUGGER" LABBE, CREW CHIEF FOR MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO.15 NAPA
CHEVROLET MONTE CARO - Comment on radio with 100 laps to go: "We're just a
little bit tight right now, but the biggest problem right now is that the
throttle linkage is staying stuck wide open and Michael is having to use the
kill switch on the steering wheel to get through the corners. Darlington is
hard enough, but Michael has his hands full with that. We're just hoping to
finish this day and maybe get a top 20 out of it."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH SERVICE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We got
in the oil (No. 43 blew a motor) and it just went straight up into the wall.
But the guys will get us back out there and we'll get some points,
hopefully. We've had a good run for the past two and a half, three months,
and we've made up a lot of points. That can happen sooner or later, but
we'll get back out there and get 'em at Richmond."

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (DID YOU GET INTO THE OIL
TOO?) "I hate to give you a typical interview, but I'll tell you that our
Kodak Max Films Chevrolet was running awesome today. We had a good car last
week and a great car today. If we keep doing that, we're going to have some
good runs here toward the end of the year. Everything was working good. We
got off a little bit on that last (pit) stop and the car was a little bit
tight. Jerry McClure is doing a great job of spotting and he saw a crash -
he didn't see a blown motor. I looked up there and I got it slowed down an
awful lot. I thought Kevin (Harvick) hit the wall. Didn't look like an oil
crash. It just looked like Kevin hit the wall - like a crash. I went up the
racetrack and that was the wrong place to be. It's a shame because these
guys worked their tails off and gave me a great race car today. We just need
a good finish to show how good the team has been."


TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 4

JEFF GORDON AND ROBBIE LOOMIS NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO -
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POST-RACE Q&A's:

GORDON: (ON TYING CALE YARBOROUGH WITH 5 WINS OF THE SOUTHERN 500 AND 60
WINSTON CUP CAREER WINS) "As overwhelming as these eight days have been,
Darlington has been an awesome place for us. Throughout the years of us
winning here, I've learned more and more about the history and the prestige
and the list of names that have won - especially like Cale Yarborough.
Anytime you ever saw an old race here, Cale was just wearing them out. To do
something that ties him for a record at a place like this where he was so
good, is just incredible. Before winning Bristol, I knew we had won 58
times, but I wondered how in the world how we won 58 times when we couldn't
even win one race. And now we've won back to back. So now I understand a
little bit more how we did that. The Southern 500 is very special."

(ON HIS SUCCESS AT DARLINGTON) "It's like any other place where you have the
right combination. The guys have always given me good cars. We normally
qualify well here. Starting up front today certainly helped. Robbie (Loomis)
and I communicated real well and made perfect adjustments - especially that
last one. I like Darlington. I like the two ends of the race track. I've
done a pretty good job of staying out of the wall here. It's not easy to do.
It's funny because it's changed over the years. The cars have changed. When
I first came here, the tires went away in three laps. You just held on real
tight and had to be real smooth. The smooth guy was usually the guy who rose
to the occasion.

But today, I was as aggressive as I could possibly get. We were so good on
new tires. When they dropped that green flag and when I got the lead - when
I was sitting in third and passed those two guys - I was just hammering that
thing as hard as I could. Now, I certainly wore the tires out in the long
run. There at the end I had to be careful."

LOOMIS - (WHAT ADJUSTMENTS DID YOU MAKE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE RACE?)
"The car was really good in yesterday's practice. We started the race and I
guess with all the rain, the track changed quite a bit. We fell back. But
Jeff has the ability to tell us exactly what he needs in a race car. We were
kind of hit and miss with it the first half of the race. And then we started
making the right adjustments and feeling some things that Jeff really liked.
We went more and more in that direction and got us where we needed to be."



TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 5

GORDON - (IS YOUR SLUMP OVER, OR DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER STEP TO GO WHEN YOU GET
TO BIGGER, AERO RACE TRACKS?) "We won't know for a couple of weeks, anyway.
I'm looking forward to going to Richmond. This really is a handling race
track. If you knew the springs and shocks we have underneath this car
compared to mile-and-a-half race tracks that are smooth and not as abrasive,
they're quite a bit different when it comes to how soft we can run the car
and look for mechanical grip. Darlington is still a place that calls upon
that and I felt good about coming in here. We're working real hard for
Kansas City and places like that right now. We're doing some things in the
wind tunnel and these guys are just working their tails off to get our aero
package better at these bigger tracks. We've just got too much momentum and
too many great things going on. We've got these guys thinking about us for
the championship. We've moved up to second. We've got to keep the ball
rolling. Last year, we had a fire in our eye when we were going to that
championship, and we lost a little bit of that for a little while, but we
kept the faith in one another. Now, not only that, but we have the fire
back. That's pretty cool. It's awesome to go to the race track when you've
got that in your eye and you see it in the other guys."

(ARE YOU THE GUY TO BEAT?) "We've done everything to be a threat for the
championship except perform real well in certain places and take advantage
of the tracks that we had run real well at. We just hadn't gotten the wins.
When we were here last time, we had a top five car. We got caught up in a
wreck. All these places where we probably shoulda-coulda had wins, we
didn't. For whatever reason, the last two weeks it's happened for us. When
you look at what it takes to win a championship - finishing races, finishing
on the lead lap, and being consistent - we've been all those things. This to
me legitimizes our threat for the championship and legitimizes us in the
garage area with the other competitors. That doesn't mean they're just going
to stand down. We've still got a lot of work to do. We're still the same
team we were two or three weeks ago, but now we've got a little more
confidence, momentum, and fire in our eye. (YOUR CAR LOOKS PRETTY CLEAN -
DID YOU EVER HIT THE WALL?) "As far as the car, I did touch the wall right
here in the middle one time. It wasn't much. I don't even think I lost any
time. I just slid in there a little too hard. My guys put some nice door
bars over there. They don't stick the body out any more, but they stay
against the body to not let it collapse and flatten the side so you have to
come in and pull the fenders away.  For me, my car worked better without
going all the way to the wall. In the past here, I had to get right up next
to the wall. That was my fastest line around here. Today, for some reason,
if I got up there the car really wanted to push and it would get the front
end over to the wall - mainly in turns three and four. I think I got a
couple of little tire marks from racing with some guys, but it's a pretty
clean car for racing at Darlington."
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 6

(DO YOU ENJOY THE ROLE OF CHASING SOMEBODY DOWN FROM BEHIND - BEING THE
HUNTER?) "Oh, absolutely. I love that. You've got nothing to lose. There are
advantages to both sides. You've got the points lead, you start to conserve
and protect and it puts you in a different mindset. When you're the team
that needs points and needs to win, you go for broke. You take risks. That
can either pay off or bite you. Right now, we're enjoying the role we're in.
We're happy to be a threat at all."

(WHEN YOU PASSED STERLING MARLIN, WAS IT ALMOST MORE OF A PSYCOLOGICAL
MOVE?) "I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I was just thinking that
he was the guy leading the points and that you certainly didn't need for him
to win today. I knew it was going to be hard to gain many points on him
anyway because he had a good car. At the beginning of the race, the car was
just so tight. By the end of the race, it seemed like the track came back to
the way it was yesterday in practice. We were really good in practice. We
freed it up and got better and the guys did great pit stops. Robbie made
some good calls. But we were good on new tires all day. I'm usually horrible
on good tires and good on old tires here at Darlington.

"My guys got me out third on that one stop. They dropped the green and I got
a great re-start. All three of us did, really (Marlin, Newman, & Gordon).
Newman poked his nose inside Sterling and my car stuck so good on the bottom
that I just drove in there underneath him. I drove down into (turn) three,
behind Sterling, and I thought, 'Wow. This thing is incredible on new
tires.' I hadn't been around Sterling all day, so I didn't know how good he
was on new tires. But I wanted the five bonus points and I wanted to get the
lead and get it out in clean air. I got a run off (turn) two and got by him.
I really was afraid that as hard as I was running that I would wear out
everything and he'd just come back and blow by me. But it just kept on
going. Once I got out in clean air, I realized why he had been out there all
day leading. What a difference it made to be in clean air."

LOOMIS - (CAN YOU DESCRIBE GORDON'S DEMEANER DURING THE FRUSTRATING TIMES?)
"We all know what a winner is and he's the one all along who kept us calm. A
lot of drivers have asked me what the difference is between Jeff Gordon and
other drivers. I think that having won four championships; Jeff has
confidence that runs way deep. Myself, and a lot of guys on the team, don't
have that confidence that runs that deep. But Jeff tells us everything is
going to be okay and to believe in one another and keep working together. We
had a little trouble today with a lug nut on one of the guns and he went
from like third to 11th. He got on the radio and he
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Mountain Dew Southern 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, September 01, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Darlington Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 7

gave the guys the confidence and said to just gather it up and get right for
the next one. The next stop, I think we went from 8th to third. He's under
total control when he keeps us calm that we can think about the things we
need to do. When he panics, I'm upside down myself."

GORDON - (HOW MUCH OF AN ADVANTAGE IS IT THAT YOU HAVE WON 4 CHAMPIONSHIPS
AND STERLING MARLIN HAS NONE?) "There is definitely some advantage because
we have a team of people that have been there and seen a lot. I have too. I
think it makes a difference. But Sterling has a strong team right now.
That's why they've been leading the points. When you come to Darlington and
run well and lead that many laps and come home with a top five, it tells you
a lot about your team. But we're certainly going to try to make them think
about some of their decisions and choices right now. We need to put pressure
on these guys. We haven't been putting any pressure on them. Nobody has.
We'd certainly like to do it and I hope we can keep some things going our
way and put some pressure on them. They're going to be in it all the way to
the end. I don't see them buckling under the pressure or anything like that
because they haven't won a championship. It's just really all about getting
the cars working and the pit stops - it's all about the chemistry of the
whole team. Right now, our chemistry is extremely high. In that sense, maybe
we have a little bit of an advantage on them right now."

LOOMIS - (IN A CHAMPIONSHIP RACE, DOES THE MOMENTUM CARRY ITSELF?) "The
momentum definitely goes along way. Jeff taught us this last year when we
had our pit road accident in Charlotte. When things are going good for you,
it's real easy to get over-confident and just expect it to happen. Now, we
were so beat up before Bristol, getting that win and now this one here at
Darlington, it put us at a level where we need to be. I think we can finish
out the year strong believing in one another."

GORDON - (ON JIMMIE JOHNSON'S RUN TODAY) "I was pretty proud of him. I knew
that he had gotten up to 3rd or 4th and that's when we were struggling a
little bit at the beginning of the race. We made a green flag stop and I
didn't see Jimmie. I thought maybe they had a bad stop and I looked up there
and he was leading. I thought that was awesome. It's hard to think of him or
Ryan (Newman) as rookies. They perform at a very high level and have very
good teams underneath them. The pressure or lack of experience doesn't ever
seem to be a real issue. We couldn't be more proud to have him as a driver
at Hendrick Motorsports."