Chevy Practice & Qualfiying Notes - Dover, Sept. 20

POST-PRACTICE COMMENTS FROM JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE
CARLO:
(ON THE NEW GOODYEAR TIRE) "It has a lot of grip. It's real fast. We were
struggling a little bit with balance today. But they feel really good."

(WILL THE NEW TIRES CHANGE THE WHOLE COMPLEXION OF THE RACE?) "It's going to
make qualifying faster. The best part of it that I'm looking forward to is
the fall off in the race. (In the past) guys just stayed out there on tires
and never come in to pit. It just takes a lot of pit strategy and
adjustments you can make in the pits out of it. So I'm hoping we see the
cars starting to fall off as the runs go on and the adjustments the teams
and drivers make during the race become more important. That's something
we've been missing over the past couple of years."

(ON HIS RACE CAR) "We have a brand new car this weekend. It drives good.
We're just not as fast as we'd like to be. But he last time we were here we
did the same thing. We were 20-something fast in practice and qualified in
the top 10. The track changes a lot when you qualify."

(ON REPRESENTING THE UNITED STATES IN THE MICHELIN RACE OF CHAMPIONS
NATIONS' CUP NOV. 29 - DEC. 1 IN GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN ALONG WITH JIMMIE
JOHNSON AND TRAVIS PASTRANA) "I'm really excited about it. I can't remember
exactly how it all worked out but Jimmie (Johnson) mentioned it to me and I
thought it sounded awesome to be able to get a chance to drive a Rally car
over in Europe and to be teamed up with Travis (Pastrana) and Jimmie. I
thought that (sounded like it) would be a lot of fun. That's really what its
all about is just doing something you don't get a chance to do everyday.
We're going to be representing the U.S. and trying to be competitive but
we're also going to have fun while we're there.

(ON JAPANESE DRIVER, HIDEO FUKUYAMA, COMMUNICATING WITH HIS CREW CHIEF VIA
INTERPRETER) "I can't communicate with my crew chief - especially the way
things are going right now - in English. We communicate fine. Trying to
figure out this place - and what it takes - the corners are so big and so
fast - Robbie asks me for information and it's everything I can do to give
him the right information. So I can't imagine what they're going through."

(ON THE TIGHT POINTS CHASE) "Yeah, it's really tight. Every time you
qualify, every time you race, and every position counts so much. We've had a
real tough time trying to back up good finishes and keep them coming and
keep them going. I hope that
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Advance nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

JEFF GORDON, Con't.
for the last nine races we can really start to do that. We put the pressure
on the guys there for a couple of weeks and that felt great. It really got
our confidence level up. And then the next two weeks, we weren't able to do
that. So we've got to get that back."

(IS THIS THE TOUGHEST POINTS RACE YOU'VE EVER BEEN IN?) "Well, I haven't
even felt like I've been in a points race really. I feel like all we've been
doing is focusing on our own program, trying to get better each week and
just being as good a team as we can possibly be. However the finishes come,
you've just got to live with them and go on to the next one. For some
reason, we've been able to stay in the top five for a good part of the
season, but we've never been able to really make that huge gain. But we're
closer now than we've been in a long time. We're in the thick of this thing,
bigtime. If we can get some spectacular things happening in the next five or
six weeks, I think we've got a really good shot at it."

(DOES EXPERIENCE HELP?) "Experience certainly helps but it's really about
being competitive. It's really about putting great race cars out there,
making smart calls in the pits, qualifying up front, and just being on top
of your game. It's like Ryan Newman right now. It that guy was in the top
four or five in points, I would say he'd had the advantage over everybody."

(WILL THE NEW TIRE AFFECT PIT STRATEGY?) "I hope it does. I'm looking
forward to having a tire that falls off so that you've got to come in and
get four tires and make adjustments. Just staying out until the fuel runs
out at a place like Dover is just ridiculous. That's what we've been doing
here for the past couple of years. I'm looking forward to getting back to
the way we used to race here. I think it brings the whole team and driver
and whole combination more and more into it when the tires start to go
away."

(HOW WILL THAT HELP YOU?) "I hope it helps us. We're going to work real hard
on the race set up and get a good balance on the car. In the past, when the
tires have fallen off is when we've been the best. That's when things have
been favorable for us."

(HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF HAVING EXTRA SECURITY TO HELP YOU MAKE IT THROUGH THE
FANS IN THE GARAGE AREA?) "No, I just fight my way through them and hope
that somebody sees it and helps us one day (laughs). You can't be mean; you
can't be rude. You've got to do the best that you can. You have to sign and
walk at the same time. There are some places that are much more crowed than
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Advance nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

JEFF GORDON, Con't.
others. I feel like I've got good people around me to get through it and
that's about all we can do right now. Our hands are tied. We don't have much
of a choice."

(DO YOU WORRY ABOUT GETTING HURT?) "No, we've got great fans. They're loyal.
I feel comfortable with that side of it. A lot of times, I'm more worried
about their safety than I am about my safety. Yeah, I've been stepped on and
things like that, but I've seen people fall really hard because they're in
such a group that is fighting so hard to get that autograph. I've seen
people fall and be injured. I worry more about that than myself."

(DO YOU THINK NASCAR SHOULD LIMIT THE NUMBER OF FANS ALLOWED INTO THE GARAGE
AREA?) "Obviously they're looking at it and talking about it. It's important
to keep the accessibility. That's a great part of our sport and we want to
continue that. But there's got to be a balance. They've got to find a way
that they can respect us and our time working in the garage, and we can
respect them and their loyalty to our sport and give them something back
also. It's really a hard balance. Right now, there's sometimes too many. You
can't take care of them all. They look at that one opportunity, that one
chance, and they go for it.  You're just not going to make everybody happy."

(WHY HAS THIS BECOME SUCH AN ISSUE NOW WHEN THE DRIVERS HAVE BEEN TALKING
ABOUT IT FOR QUITE SOME TIME?) "We've always talked about it. You don't want
to upset the fans and you don't want them to take it the wrong way. We're
not trying to say we don't want them in here, we're just trying to say that
we've got to find ways to work through the garage and work together. A lot
of us have talked to NASCAR about it for year. Every time we've talked to
them, we've never really found a solution that works for both of us. It's
not that they haven't thought about it or tried, and it's not that we
haven't, but it's just trying to find a solution."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Qualifying Notes nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 4

QUALIFYING NOTES:

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Tony Jr. (crew
chief) and the guys did a really good job of getting the car prepared today
and working on the car in practice. Really, the car drove so good that I
can't take a whole lot of credit for it. We went up on air pressure maybe
just a tick too high. So at least we know why the car handled like it did
and why we didn't get the pole. But it was a great lap."

(IS THIS THE SAME CAR YOU HAD HERE LAST YEAR?) "Yeah, this car has a lot of
good history. It holds the track record at Michigan and it's run here real
good here a couple of times." (Additional comments to follow)

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW/DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "That was a pretty
good lap. I've got to thank everybody back at the shop. We've got a lot of
good things going right now. We're going to have some new cars. This one
here is kind of halfway there. Next week at Kansas we'll have some better
stuff yet. I'm excited. The team is pumped up. We backed up when we ran in
practice. It's going to be a good time."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We finally backed up about
what we practiced - it was a little bit slower - but hopefully that'll get
us in the top 15 for a good starting place for this AOL Chevy. Every time a
car goes out, the track gets a little slower and gets more rubber on it. The
cars tend to slide around more. The key to Dover is getting wide open and
you can't get wide open if you're sliding around."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 55 SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Today started
out quite a bit slower than that. The guys worked really hard on the Square
D car. They got it quite a bit better. I can't say enough about the Andy
Petree team. It's kind of exciting working with a new crew chief and a new
group of guys and being able to come from so far back to being able to
qualify in the top 10. Hopefully we'll have a good run here in Dover and I'm
really looking forward to it."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I'm not real happy with
it. We've really been struggling all day just trying to get the car to grip
the way we want it to. That's the best we've run all day but it's still
slower than what we need to be. Hopefully we'll have a good race set-up and
race car and get it balanced and have some fun."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Qualifying Notes nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 5

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We've been working hard
to get this team turned around. I just want to thank all the Pennzoil guys.
This is a team that is capable of qualifying good. I want to thank Dale Jr.,
too. His whole team helped us with a last-minute air pressure adjustment
that definitely helped the Pennzoil car. That's what teammates are all
about. I'm just thankful to have him and his team helping us out. I want to
thank all the race fans too. Dover is like a homecoming for me."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH SERVICE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "This car
we've raced at Bristol and Richmond and every time we tape it up, it's just
terrible. It always races really good and we can't figure out why it won't
qualify good. So. We just have to hope that it races like it usually does
and go from there."

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE
CARLO: "We ran third, just a couple hundredths off of the pole and we're
real happy with it. We really didn't change the car much in practice. I was
really happy with the feel of the car. We're coming into this race with
pretty good expectations.

"We've got a new tire that might take us a bit in practice to understand.
But once we get it figured out, I feel like we'll have just as competitive
of a car as we always have here."

(AFTER WINNING HERE LAST FALL, WHAT IS YOUR LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE NOW?) "I
really like running on this race track. It's not necessarily a confidence
thing as much as it is pure enjoyment for having the success that we've had
here. No matter what position you're racing for - whether it's first or
35th - it's just a fun track to race on. I look forward to coming here. I
like the banking and the speeds that you carry into the corners. It's just a
unique track. We really don't have anything else quite like this on the rest
of the series.

 The concrete definitely makes it very interesting. It's a challenge for the
crew to get the car to handle. It's a driver's race track. A lot of times
you'll have a car that doesn't really handle, but you can still move around
and adjust your line where you need to run. You can run two and three wide
here. There are a lot of grooves in the corners once the race gets going. If
your car doesn't work on the bottom, you can go to the top or the middle of
the race track."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Qualifying Notes nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 6

DALE EARNHARDT JR., Con't.
(SINCE WHEN DO THE DRIVERS LIKE TO COME TO DOVER?) "I just enjoy the banking
and the entry to the corners and the speeds that you run. You come to the
track hoping to run well and to get a good finish for the team. I like the
track. There are certain challenges to it. I feel very capable of figuring
it out. Each race has something different to deal with. Right now we've got
the new tire. A lot of guys were real tight in practice and qualifying this
morning, which is rare. A lot of guys were loose. The cars were kind of
chattering and moving around a lot. They didn't really do that in practice.
We went up on air pressure a little too much and got my car bouncing a
little bit for my qualifying. But now we know that and we'll take that into
the race.

"I remember coming here with my father. A lot of people really didn't look
forward to coming here. The track itself has gotten a lot better. The
facility as a whole has gotten a lot better as far as getting more fans in
here with the extra grandstands they've continued to add every year. It's
become a more premiere race track on the circuit instead of just being stuck
in the middle of the other races."

(ON A TRACK LIKE THIS, IS IT POSSIBLE TO OVER-ADJUST THE CAR?) "If you can
understand what I was saying about being able to move around on the race
track and adjust your line to the way your car handles, (then you can
understand) if we over-adjust the car I can move around and get merely
competitive enough to not get lapped until we have a chance to improve the
set-up on the next pit stop. So, what that does to you is that it allows you
to be aggressive on your changes. It allows you to do more on a pit stop -
set-up wise and adjustment-wise that we would probably do on other race
tracks just because there's a lot of room here to move around and critique
the set-up on how the car drives each lap.

"So, yeah, you can get yourself out of the ballpark. But you're not as
nervous as you would be at other racetracks about making adjustments. You
can move around and get the car to run a good enough lap. They used to have
races here where you'd run half the race with only five cars on the lead
lap. You don't see that much anymore. It's always anybody's race."

(WITH THE POINTS RACE THE WAY IT IS, DO YOU THINK IT'S ANYBODY'S GAME?) "I
haven't really been following the points race much except for Sterling
Marlin's point lead itself. It seems like from second to sixth, it's
flip-flopping back and forth each week. Hopefully Sterling can maintain a
good pace to win the championship. Being in the sport and being a part of
the sport as long as he has, I think
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
MBNA All-American Heroes 400 Qualifying Notes nmwager@aol.com
Friday, September 20, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Dover International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 7

DALE EARNHARDT JR. Con't.
he deserves to win this year. I'm pulling for him. It's anybody's race and
hopefully the best man wins. Sterling's my pick."

(ARE YOU A TRADITIONALIST?) "I just appreciate that he's been after it for
so long and that he's still just as competitive as he is at this point in
his career. It's good to see him have the opportunity. I don't think many
people - including myself - five or six years ago would have ever given him
credit to be in this position. If he does, he'll enjoy himself and
appreciate the accomplishments he's made. It'll probably be one of the first
Winston Cup banquets in the last several years that nobody will want to
miss."