GM Racing - Dale Jr. Notes - Daytona Test, Jan. 15

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Highlights of
Q&A's with media: (HOW IS THE TEST GOING?) "Right now, we've got one car
that's real good. The chassis is kind of like some of our old stuff we've
run n the past. The motor combination is kind of like some of our older
stuff and it's working just like it always has. With the other car, we've
got some vibrations we can't seem to work out of the motor. But it's good to
know what the vibrations are. Sometimes you can't find them and can't work
them out. Steve (Park) had two cars down here last week and had the same
problem. One car was good and it was the older combination of motor in the
car and the newer combination with the new motor and new car and he was
having some trouble with vibrations in it too. So we're trying to work it
out and maybe be able to run it and race it. If not, what we've had in the
past is working out. It's really good."

(ON THE CHANGES TO THE TEAM FOR '03) "I didn't expect as many changes. I've
got a new bus driver and a new truck driver. I've got two new tire changers
and one new tire carrier. There have been a few odds and ends where people
have been moved to certain positions and whatnot. We built that Busch team
and all those guys are brand new. It's been a lot of fun getting to know
these people and trying to see if you've improved the situation or the
position and how good the personalities are and if they are going to improve
the team.

"I feel like the changes we've made weren't really wholesale changes or big,
big changes. We didn't just chop off a limb or two and then try to set it
back on its place. There were good reasons for the things we did. The morale
just around the truck is different here at the track. The mentality and the
feeling you get when you walk in the shop is a lot better. And, it's really
amazing to me sometimes how just one person can affect so many.  You are
reminded of that every once in a while. The guys we've got are really pumped
up and real enthusiastic about being with the team. That's what we need and
that's what makes you feel good when you're a driver.

"The people that we had in those positions before had kind of lost the spark
we needed or the enthusiasm toward the team.  And I can understand that. We
had some rough times and some tough times. Some people deal with it
differently. I wish everybody that was with us last year that's not with us
now the very best. I'm looking forward to this year. I think we've made some
good changes."


CHEVROLET and PONTIAC Notes Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Preseason Thunder  nmwager@aol.com
Daytona International Speedway GM Racing Communications
NASCAR Winston Cup Series - 2nd Test Session 727-784-8465
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Page 2


(HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU DRIVE THROUGH THE TUNNEL AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL
SPEEDWAY?) "I don't exactly remember the first time I came here, but the
first time I can recall was when Greg Sacks won. I watched it in that little
scoring stand down there in turn one. That's where all the kids and wives
went. The first time you came in here, you didn't see it all. Every time you
come in here you see something different - just because this place is so
big. It's a good feeling. When you come in here, you can't get here fast
enough. And then when you leave, you drive out real slow - getting every
little last bit you can because it's going to be too long before you come
back. I love it. This place is a great race track with a lot of history. It
has such an impact on the sport. There are other tracks on the circuit that
are important to NASCAR and that are cornerstones and the foundation. But
this place here is a pillar. This place really represents everything that I
like about the sport. I really like coming here."

(WITH SMALLER SPOILERS AND SOFTER TIRES, HAS THE DRIVER LOST THE ABILITY TO
MAKE A DIFFERENCE?) "When I first raced in the Busch Series, your car would
get a little tighter when you ran behind people. But you didn't have what
you have here in the Winston Cup Series. When I went to Japan, they had just
added an inch to the spoilers and didn't do anything to the noses of the
cars. It was some kind of a test run for the following year. It was
unbelievable. When you got up behind somebody you just had no grip at all.
Even if your car was quicker than the car in front of you, if he was good
enough, there was no opportunity to pass him. You just couldn't get to him.
The spoiler knocked such a big hole in the air that you don't have anything
to assist you once you get to him. You can run him down, but you can't pass
him.

"And that's the problem. When we go to Charlotte (for example), we run
really good there. We always have a fast car. But if I have a bad pit stop
and come out 17th, I normally end up riding around there for a while before
the tires get wore out and the set-up part starts to come into play. But
when everybody is on new tires, it's impossible to pass because you've got
no air on your car. I'm not sure what the answer is. I've only been at it
for a few years.

"We had a smaller spoiler and a softer tire before we had the aero push, but
there was a reason to go to the harder tire. The tires were blistering at
certain tracks and there are reasons why we're where we are now. We don't
want to do the whole cycle all over again.

"I do agree that taking some spoiler off will give the guy behind you a
little more air on the nose -- add a little more valiance or allow little
wider fender width or something like that across the front of the car. But
the tire thing - that's a touchy situation. You've got to be careful that
you don't get too soft. I agree that at some places the tire is really hard
to deal with. I guess the engineers and experts can handle that."

(DO YOU STILL THINK ABOUT DRIVING FOR OTHER TEAMS, OR ARE YOU HAPPY WHERE
YOU ARE?) "I don't think you ever work your way through that. I don't think
there are many people that are in the situation that I'm in - driving for
your dad. I think Kyle Petty probably has dealt with some of the things that
I've faced or thought about. I've always wondered......

"When I drove Richard's Busch car here is was so cool. We won the race. If
we hadn't won the race, I don't know if it would've been quite as cool. It
was neat to see him get excited about it and him been a car owner. I felt
like I was a real asset to the team. In the situation that I'm in now,
you've got to understand, that no matter how you put it or no matter how
long I'm there, I'm always going to be the son of the man who started the
business and who envisioned it all.  So I miss out on some things, but there
are advantages to it. I'm just always going to wonder what it would be like
to drive for somebody else. That's not saying that I think the grass is
greener on that side of the fence, I'm just always going to have that in the
back of my mind. But I like where I'm at.

"Teresa (Earnhardt) has a lot of responsibility. She's going to have to make
a lot of big decisions here in the future. I want to help her as much as I
can - as much as she'll let me. Hopefully she makes the right decisions and
we prosper and we're successful. You just have to wait and see how things
work out. We made a lot of changes over the winter that made me confident
that everybody is on the same page. I felt like maybe I didn't know whether
everybody was as dedicated as I felt they needed to be. I didn't know if
Teresa was really sure about what she was getting herself into because
there's a lot of responsibilities being a car owner with the sponsors and
everything. And she didn't really have the type of relationships that she
needed to have with some of the sponsors. I think she's working on that.
There's just a lot of things that need to be better to where I feel more
comfortable racing. I'm 28 years old and I've got to put myself in positions
to win championships. That's what I want to do is to win championships. I
don't want to have to compromise too much to do that. I don't want to feel
like I'm compromising. I've never held Tony Jr. or Tony Sr. back. If I felt
like I was, I'd make a decision to do something different. I don't want to
feel like anybody's holding me back."

(WITH LAST YEAR'S CONTRACT SPECULATIONS ABOUT STEVE PARK AND MICHAEL
WALTRIP, WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THOSE TEAMS?) "It's not really a big
secret that this is a make or break year for Steve (Park). We put a lot of
thought about what to do there. It was a real tough decision. We felt we
needed to give Steve a good opportunity this year and I think we have put
good people in position to really make a difference on that team. The team
morale was really awful at the end of the season last year. There was just a
lot of bad feelings going back and forth among the guys.

"Now that's changed tremendously. Hopefully this season he can get some good
finishes and get some confidence back and the guys get some confidence in
him. They're doing good now, but the best medicine is a good finish and good
runs and that's what they need. Hopefully we won't have to worry about
making those decisions again. We signed a two-year contract and hopefully
he's going to give us a good reason to extend that.

"With Michael (Waltrip), he changed his attitude quite a bit. I don't really
know what was affecting their performance on the race track, but it changed
dramatically last year and they got some good runs in. They kind of faltered
a little at the end of the season again, but his attitude has changed
tremendously. That was the biggest thing with him - trying to get him to be
more cooperative, I guess, and be by the shop more often and work with the
guys. I've seen a big change in Michael.

"Dad was always around to keep him straight before and now there's nobody to
keep him straight so he gets out of control every once in a while. He's such
a good guy and so funny. He's marketable and is really good for our
sponsors. He keeps the money coming back every year, which is very
important. I know he wants to run really good this year. They've been
testing and building cars and Michael has really been plugging in. I'm
expecting him to do well."

(HAVE YOU STRAIGHTENED OUT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEMS AND WHO IS IN
CHARGE?) "Tony (Eury) Sr. is in charge. The thing was that I'd come into the
pits and have to tell them both what the car was doing. They would get
together and have either the same opinion or a difference of opinion. That
got really old really fast doing it that way. Sometimes we would clash or I
wouldn't tell them the same story. Or, I'd tell one more than the other. And
when we didn't run good, the easiest thing to point at was the lack of
communication between me and Jr. or me and Sr. or Jr. and Sr. or whatever.
CHEVROLET and PONTIAC Notes Contact: Nancy Wager
NASCAR Preseason Thunder  nmwager@aol.com
Daytona International Speedway GM Racing Communications
NASCAR Winston Cup Series - 2nd Test Session 727-784-8465
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Page 5

"So at the middle of the season last year, once I got my head straightened
out and told Tony Jr. and I was just going to talk to him. I said I was
going to come into the pits and the garage and tell him what the car was
doing. He'd get all the information and he and his dad can make all the
decisions. Or, he could sit back and watch us make our own decisions and he
could kick us over this way (or that way) if we started getting off track.
That started working really good. We started making some big gains and
started running better. The communication was better.

"Me and Tony Jr. - I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you
all this - but we've fought like brothers since we was little kids. We
always will. It's funny because when we get new people that come into work,
they ask the other guys - they'll say, 'Man, is it always like this?' That's
just how we are. I love him to death and that's why we fight. We expect a
lot out of each other. He's going to be the greatest one day and if he's
not, I'm going to be on his ass the whole way until he is. He feels the same
way about me. We're still young, too, and really impressionable. We are
really affected by what people's opinions are of us and our team. We feel a
lot of pressure to be what we're expected to be. He feels a lot of times
like he carries a lot more responsibility than he really should feel like. I
never really realized that until last year that he was taking a lot of the
poor runs and stuff home with him and letting it bother him. But the older
we get, the better we get at getting along and being more professional.

"When I worked on Late Models, we were putting the decal on the hood one
night. And there were five guys in there helping me. By the time I got done
with that decal and looked up, there wasn't nobody in the shop. I done run
them all out - cussing at them and everything.

"And so you learn as you go to be a people person and how to get people to
help you and how to work with people. But Tony Sr. is in charge and he's
always going to be the head of the house.  I trust him to keep me and Tony
Jr. out of trouble. I feel like if we didn't have Tony Sr. at the race
track, Tony Jr. and I would have some good runs but a lot of times we would
go down the wrong road and never figure it out to turn ourselves around.
He's good to have around just to keep us in line. But he is letting Tony Jr.
do more and more. I think he knows that that day is going to come when Tony
Jr. is going to be a crew chief. And I want him to be my crew chief - I
don't want him to go somewhere else and work. I think Tony Sr. said he's
probably got maybe three, four, or five years on the road."


(ON ATTITUDE CHANGES) "I learned a lot last year. When I would go to Bristol
or Martinsville or Darlington with a bad attitude, we'd run bad. Everything
I expected (to happen) happened.  And it was hard because I had no reason to
go into Bristol or Martinsville last year with a good attitude. I didn't
have any past luck there in the Winston Cup Series and I didn't foresee us
hitting on some magical set-ups on both them tracks. But we went out and
tested and really worked hard at it. I got to feeling a little more
confident. I just really buckled down to try and do better. I'm seeing
improvements and I'm seeing where my attitude has a big affect on that. I
think if I could just get that feeling about Rockingham, we'd probably have
them all on the same page (laughs).

"But I used to hate going to certain places and would go there with a bad
attitude and run bad. When you carry that bad attitude into that first
practice, it spreads like a virus through the team. They see it and they
know you're not happy and not wanting to be there. It just makes for a long
weekend. I think I changed that last year and we got some good runs at
places we hadn't expected. That's given us more inspiration to try to stab
at the championship this year and feel like we can be a contender if we can
just get through certain places where we don't do well at. The road courses
are our Achilles' heel, I think.

"Getting this new body figured out on the speedway is going to be a little
bit of a handicap for us with the new body. Hopefully the car will draft
well and all that. But I won't be surprised if we're not as strong as we
have been on the plate races. We had really gotten that other body figured
out. I could just tell. This is just like starting over. It's just like it
was when we were rookies. Tony Jr. has always been a whiz with the bodies
for the speedways. Daddy on five in a row here with them boys in the Busch
Series. So, I think we'll get it figured out after a race or two. We're
going to test at Sears Point and hopefully that will benefit us a little
bit. We went to Virginia three times last year testing that road course.
We're trying as hard as we can to get good at those road course tracks. Once
we get good there and we can at least get a top 20 finish out of the deal,
we will be all right to make it up the rest of the year."

(ON FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN HIS CONTRACT AND SPONSOR APPEARANCES, ETC.) "I
talked to Dale Jarrett last year about that and told him I was a pioneer and
that I was giving back to the sport. Since drivers are contract labor, my
primary focus is the team and driving for the team. So I sell my services as
a driver to the team so I allot the team 40 appearances for whoever or
whatever. That's all they get. I had to put a cap on it because there was no
control. Nobody had a hold of the reigns. They could just sign and do and
bring everybody in that they wanted to.
CHEVROLET and PONTIAC Notes Contact: Nancy Wager

"I just didn't want to give away every free day I had. No I've got control
of it. We cut my appearances from last year in half (for this year). That's
going to help me a lot. Race car drivers can race on into their 50's and
still be competitive. But it's the stuff off the track that drives you away
from the sport. I don't want to get burned out before it's my time. I'm just
trying to get control of it. Maybe that'll be the future of contracts and I
can be credited for it."

(DOES THIS COUNT AS AN APPEARANCE?) "No (laughs).  Anything at the track
doesn't count."

(HAVE YOU SIGNED YOUR CONTRACT?) "Me and my sister turned in our proposal of
theirs (contract). It's kind of revised from what they give us. They have
yet to sign their end of it. Once they sign their end, I'll sign my end.
Right now, I'm working it as five years. We were going to go lifetime, but
you never know. The plane could crash into the mountain any day (so to
speak)."

(THIS NEGOTIATION IS WITH DEI, RIGHT?) "Yeah, it's just me and Ty (Norris)
and Teresa (Earnhardt) working right now. And like I said, the ball is right
now in their court, basically. I haven't seen them lobbing it up to pass it
to me."

(IS THE BUD DEAL GOOD?) "Yeah, the Bud deal's good. They're wanting to
extend their end of it, but they're waiting on me to be signed for good so
they can get their eggs in their basket, I guess."

(IS YOUR SISTER, KELLY, ACTING AS YOUR AGENT IN THIS?) "Not really. She runs
my company, JR Motorsports, and so I instill a lot of trust and
dependability on her to help me out because she's pretty smart about this
stuff. And let's fact it, I'm probably not too experienced in it. I would
have probably let them walk off with the bank (laughs)."

(HOW LONG HAS DEI HAD YOUR CONTRACT PROPOSAL?) "Oh, they've had it for about
three weeks now. I don't know what the hold up is."

(SO, YOU'RE ESSENTIALLY DRIVING AS A FREE AGENT RIGHT NOW?) "Yeah, I guess
you could say (that). A free agent. (laughs). You guys aren't helping
(laughs).