Chevy Qualifying Notes - NASCAR PIR

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I was wondering
whether the track got a little faster after the trucks put a little rubber
down, and my car did have a little bit more grip. That's a good lap for us.
We don't normally run that great here. Hopefully we learned a lot in
practice that can help us in the race with our shocks and stuff like
that." - More follows below -

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW/DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I gave a lot of time
away there on my first lap trying to get the tires hot. It got really loose
coming off Turn 4 coming to take the white flag so I killed my front
straightaway time. We had an excellent (Turns) 1 and 2 and an excellent
(Turns) 3 and 4 coming back to the checkered. But I gave too much away
getting up to speed. I've got to say thank you to UAW and Delphi and all
these guys working on this car. We're coming on strong."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We expected to run a
little faster. But we ran about the same speed. So we're a little
disappointed but this Pennzoil Chevrolet is a good race car and we're hoping
that's fast enough to get us in the race and we're looking forward to a good
race on Sunday."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I'm shocked that it
wasn't faster. I'm almost speechless. The car drove well. We were a little
loose, but I didn't make any mistakes. I'm very surprised but I'm not
worried with this Lowe's team and their hard work. I'm looking forward to
the race on Sunday."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was a great lap. We've
been working on being loose - middle off -- all day and we keep improving
and improving each time out. It was a great lap and I'm real excited about
it. We came that close to being the top guy. Obviously it's not a perfect
lap because you wanted to be up there. I think there are a few more guys
that are going to be pretty strong here. (Ryan) Newman was real fast in
practice. We're pretty happy though - knowing that we picked up as much as
we did. We were really happy when we tested here. So, hopefully that will
put us in the top five.  I think this is the best car I've ever had in
Phoenix. So, we'll find out here on Sunday.

"I love this race track. I've been coming out here for quite a while - even
back in USAC days. This is a great effort for the DuPont Chevrolet team. We
came out here and tested and made some improvements all throughout the day.
I'm really happy with this race car. Hopefully this can get us a good
starting spot and we can get us a win for this first time in a Winston Cup
car here."
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Checker Auto Parts 500 Qualifying nmwager@aol.com
Friday, November 08, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Phoenix International Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We ran a .49 in
practice and should have picked up a little bit. We've been having problems
in the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4.  It's not what we wanted to do. But it
should be good when we race."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "In my
qualifying attempt during practice, I got held up a little bit. I didn't
know how good we were going to be because I got a .50 on my first lap. And
we thought we could run a .20 on my second lap - a lot like (Jeff) Gordon
and some of the other guys did. But I got a little sideways coming off
(Turn) 2 and that probably cost us there."

MORE FROM DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
(qualified 3rd) "It was a pretty good qualifying run for us. I was pretty
happy with the car. In practice we worked on it and changed some shocks and
sway bars and things and got the car pretty fast. We haven't really been
good here in the past. I think this weekend we're going to run a lot better
than we have here judging by how the car was in practice and on how we were
able to make some gains on it. I was surprised at how well we did. I thought
the track would be a little bit different after the Truck race and it was
for me. My car was loose in practice this afternoon and the Truck race
seemed to tighten the track up a little bit more with more rubber on the
track. That helped us out."

(DID THE WEATHER AFFECT YOUR RUN?) "I think that the tires needed a little
bit of heat in them to get a better grip on this race track. The few laps
you get in qualifying plus the cool temperatures - I think it helped us to
be able to go out early. If it had gotten too hot, of course the track could
get greasy. I think the draw we had wasn't bad for us. It might not have
been much of an advantage, but it definitely wasn't a disadvantage. As it
got cooler, I felt like some guys were losing some of the grip in the
corners."

(CAN YOU COME FROM THE BACK TO THE FRONT TO WIN THIS RACE?) "It's great to
start up front anywhere. It's a kind of difficult place here to pass - maybe
not more so than other places, but it's hard to pass here. In the Truck
race, you saw that moving a guy away or getting on top of him and grounding
him down to the bottom seemed to be a way to get by people. Looking at last
year's top ten, a lot of them didn't start there. So, you've got to have
everything going for you. You've got to be able to get on and off pit road
good and make all kinds of good decisions all day long and just have a good
car. If you have a good car, you can come from the back to the front."
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Checker Auto Parts 500 Qualifying nmwager@aol.com
Friday, November 08, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Phoenix International Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

DALE EARNHARDT JR., Con't.

(ON RYAN NEWMAN'S SUCCESS AT QUALFIYING THIS YEAR) "He seems to be really
fast. He's always a tenth or a tenth and a half better than even the top
five in practice. It's really surprising. They've got a great handle on the
car. They've got exceptional horsepower. They can probably take some chances
and try to learn some things on their motor research. That's benefited him.
It's also bit him a few times this year. But they're in a situation where
they can really make some gains in the points in these last couple of races.
He's been real competitive in qualifying this year."

(WHAT CHANGES DID YOU MAKE IN THE CAR WHEN YOU GOT HERE?) "When we go here,
the car was really tight. We yanked some right front out of it and put some
right rear spring in it and took out some front bar and just did some normal
changes that you'd normally make anywhere else. The car seemed to react to
it. We also borrowed a few shocks from the No. 15 (Michael Waltrip) car that
they run real well with at Homestead and he seemed to like them here. They
put me up about seven thousandths or a tenth. We just kept on making little
gains on the car. I didn't know we would get into the .20's in qualifying,
but I felt like we had a good car that would run a .30 or .40."

(HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOUR TEAM TO BE IN THE TOP 10 IN POINTS?) "It's a
boost for the team. I think it's an accomplishment to say you got something
out of the season. We had an opportunity to break into the top ten. This
ain't the season we wanted to have or expected to have, but looking back
about six or seven races ago, I'm glad to be in this position to at least
get something. We're going to race hard and try to accomplish that.
Hopefully the race will come our way and we'll outrun those guys in front of
us."