Q&A w. DEI's Steve Hmiel at Talladega

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
EA SPORTS 500
TALLADEGA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
NO. 30 OF 36, NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA, AL.
FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 2002   Contact:  Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

NASCAR has ruled that a smaller fuel cell will be used for this weekend¹s EA
Sports 500 at Talladega Motor Speedway. The fuel cell capacity is reduced to
12.5 gallons from 22 gallons.

We talked to Steve Hmiel, Director of Motorsports and Technical Operations
at Dale Earnhardt Inc., which campaigns Chevrolet Monte Carlos for Dale
Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Budweiser Chevy), Michael Waltrip (No. 15 NAPA Parts
Chevy) and Steve Park (No. 1 Pennzoil Chevy). This weekend, Kerry Earnhardt
joins the group in a fourth DEI car (No. 83 Racing USA Chevy).

… Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted two victories and an eighth-place finish in the
last three races at Talladega.
… Dale Earnhardt Jr. has assumed the restrictor-plate crown from his dad
Dale Earnhardt, winning three of the six restrictor-plate races since his
father¹s death.
… Earnhardt Jr. led 229 of the 736 restrictor-plate laps raced in 2001 and
was the only driver to score four restrictor-plate top-10s in 2001.
… Five of the last seven races at Talladega and Daytona have been won by
Chevy Monte Carlo drivers employed by Dale Earnhardt Inc. Michael Waltrip
won the 2001 Daytona 500 and the 2002 Pepsi 400 while Dale Earnhardt Jr. won
the 2001 Pepsi 400, the 2001 EA Sports 500 and the 2002 Aaron¹s 499. They
finished 1-2 in three of the last seven restrictor-plate races.

STEVE HMIEL:

HOW DOES THE DEI TEAM FEEL ABOUT THE SMALLER FUEL CELL RULE?

"It¹s one more opportunity to either gain or lose. And depending on how you
handle the situation you¹ll either end up being glad they went to smaller
fuel cells or you¹ll be mad that they went to smaller fuel cells. What it
does is force you to have more pit stops. Obviously you don¹t carry as much
fuel on board as you used to. You have to make a decision whether you¹re
going to get four tires or two, whether you¹re going to get just gasoline,
no tires at all. The driver has an opportunity to make up time getting into
the pits without getting a penalty. The driver has an opportunity to make up
time leaving the pits versus the other teams without getting a penalty. On
the other hand, it¹s an opportunity for them to get two more penalties, or
three more penalties in the race based on the number of additional pit stops
you have to make because of the small amount of fuel on board. So, properly
done, you would look at any rule change and say that we want rule changes
because we think we can react to the change quicker than most other teams.
Improperly done you¹d say, ŒMan, I wish they¹d have left it like it was
because we came on pit road and we¹re speeding and we have three more
opportunities to get better and we made them into three opportunities to do
a worse job.¹ It puts the onus on the driver for getting the car to pit road
as quick as possible. In terms (of being fast) on the race track before they
start the mile-an-hour speed limit. And then we have to do a good job in the
pits; we have to use good strategy; two tires, four tires, no tires. And
then the driver has to get the car off pit road and back up to speed as
quickly as possible. The way it used to be, three times the driver was
really involved in the pit stop, now it¹s going to be more like five or six.
Again, it¹s just a matter of how you handle the situation. If you look at it
optimistically, it¹s a chance to do better two or three more times. If you
look at it pessimistically, it¹s a chance to mess up two or three times."

HAVE YOU PRACTICED ANY PIT STOPS LATELY TO HANDLE THIS SITUATION?

"You can¹t really do that. You¹d need a two-and-a-half-mile oval and you¹ve
got to run real fast. We have practiced a bunch to try to understand how
long it takes to put 13 gallons of fuel in the car and that looks like it¹s
the same amount of time it takes to put two tires on the car. I would
imagine that most people¹s strategy would be come in when they needed fuel,
put two tires on, come in the next time they needed fuel and put the other
two tires on, what have you. I don¹t think right now, especially at
Talladega, because handling isn¹t that big a premium here, that many teams
will get four tires. And that¹s sitting here talking on Friday, and maybe
Sunday will be completely different. Our plan right now would be every time
we run out of fuel get one side of tires, do the best you can getting in, do
the best you can accelerating back up to speed, work with your buddies as
best as possible so that you stay in a draft. This is one more opportunity
to lose the draft, and that¹s why I think NASCAR has got the smaller fuel
cells, to try to break the field up. And that¹s certainly reasonable. You
can make that call. You could say this is going to break the fields up
because we¹re very worried about coming off pit road wrong, breaking a
transmission, not having the right first gear, the driver not getting all he
can get as he accelerates back up to speed or as he decelerates to come on
pit road. You¹re going to have to have pals; you¹re going to have to work
with people like the old days to make sure you¹re all pitting together. Like
I said, three more chances to do good or three more chances to do bad."

DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE ANY MAJOR MODIFICATION TO THE CARS TO ACCOMMODATE THE
SMALLER FUEL CELL?

"No. Actually, NASCAR gave us the filler pieces that they wanted us to use.
The 13-gallon cell goes into the same can in the car that held the 22-gallon
cell. You end up with about an eight-inch void on either side of your can in
the middle of the car. And NASCAR gave us those pieces, showed us what they
wanted the rack to look like for the past two or three weeks and we just
went home and built that to NASCAR¹s specs. That wasn¹t a big change."

ANY CHANGE IN BALANCE AND WEIGHT?

"There¹ll be less fuel in the back; that will definitely make a difference.
What you do is take your ballast and slide it back and then you end up with
the same weight percentage as you always had; you just don¹t have as much
lead or constant in the front of the car. You have it more in the rear so
that the car still feels it¹s got the same amount of fuel in the back."

IF THE RACE RUNS UNDER GREEN THE WHOLE TIME, THE PIT STOP STRATEGY AND SPEED
IS GOING TO BE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

"How you get to pit road, the decisions you make while you¹re on pit road
and how you get off pit road and back into the pack is just huge. It¹s
always been huge here, but we only made two or three pit stops. Now we¹re
going to make five or six and it¹s as much a part of the race now as ever.
It¹s probably as much as it was four or five years ago, or 10 years ago,
when there wasn¹t any pit road speed. You had to get together with your
buddies, pit at the right time, come off the pit road at the right time,
keep that line of cars going. Basically, what we racers have to do is defeat
what NASCAR is trying to do. What NASCAR is trying to do is break up the
packs. And we have to work like mad to stay in the packs so that we can
maintain the speeds because of the draft. If we get out there by ourselves,
we¹re stuck. What NASCAR is trying to do we applaud, because it will break
the packs up. But we have to do the best we can to stay in the pack and go
as fast as we can with the help of our friends."

WHO ARE YOUR FRIENDS?

"Right now our friends are only our teammates. And on the last lap I¹m not
even sure they¹re our friends. IŒm sure there will be a lot of working
together among the Chevrolet teams, among the Pontiac teams. It¹s got more
to do with what driver is comfortable going with what guy. It kind of shakes
out as the race goes on. If you¹re not in the lead pack, you¹re going to pit
with the guys you¹re around, because obviously you can¹t run with the lead
pack. If you are in the lead pack, you want to make sure you pit when the
lead pack does, so you stay in the lead pack. People talk a lot on Saturday
afternoon and Sunday morning about making plans and who¹s going with who,
and that always kind of goes out the window based on the performance of your
car. You want to be with who you run the best with. And those guys want to
be with you if they run the best with you. It¹s kind of a moot point to even
discuss strategy until the race starts and see how everybody is running."

IF SOME PIT STOPS ARE NOT AS GOOD AS OTHERS UNDER GREEN AND CARS GO DOWN A
LAP, WILL THE FANS STILL GET A GOOD RACE?

"I don¹t know. It¹s very possible that people will go down a lap. It¹s very
possible that the cars will be more spread out. Week in and week out people
go down a lap and it¹s not really a big deal. The past five or six years at
restrictor plate races there¹s no way to make it back up. You look at that
and say, ŒAh, if we ever go down a lap our race is essentially over.¹ Now
you have two or three more pit stops where someone could do a poor job and
you could do a great job and you may even make it up if you caught the
caution right, or what have you. I think it¹s going to put more excitement
into the race, personally. There¹s more opportunity for somebody to do well
or do poorly and that always changes the outcome of the race."

BEING THE DOMINATING TEAMS IN RESTRICTOR PLATES, DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS
WITH THE POSSIBILITIES HERE BECAUSE OF THE SMALLER FUEL CELLS?

"Naturally, it¹s more opportunities to mess up on pit road, but it¹s also an
opportunity to take the three DEI cars and pit them together, get the same
number of tires, get the same amount of fuel together, pit them at the same
time, get on the pit road the same time, come off pit road the same time and
keep a fast pack of at least three cars going. You could look at that as an
advantage. I think, based on the way the DEI cars have run at
restrictor-plate races in the past, other people are going to want to come
with us. In other words, if they see the three DEI cars coming on pit road I
think they¹re going to come with us. Rather than us being out there by
ourselves struggling along, I think we can almost encourage the pack to pit
with us, because they want to pit with the fastest cars and we¹ve been
fortunate to be among the fastest cars. We can kind of control the tempo of
the race a little bit, not a whole lot. I think people will go where we go,
and that kind of plays into our hands."

HOW ABOUT KERRY EARNHARDT?

"Kerry Earnhardt is going to do a real nice job. This is the car that Kenny
Wallace used to run fifth with in the spring when he was driving for Michael
Waltrip. Kerry had a great run last weekend at Kansas City, finished second
(in the Busch race). We¹re real happy about that. He¹s going to run a
Winston Cup car here and maybe some more next year; maybe even some more
this year. We built Kerry a nice race car, it¹s got one of our engines in
it; it¹s one of our cars; it¹s well prepared. He¹s like everybody else.
People will have to decide if they¹re going to draft with him or not. But
Kerry is a good race car driver and we feel sure he¹ll do a real nice job on
Sunday."

###