RUSTY WALLACE & MILLER LITE TEAM ANTICIPATE CALIFORNIA RETURN AS DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

FONTANA, Calif. (April 23, 2002) Rusty Wallace and his Bill
Wilburn-led Miller Lite Team Penske enter this weekend's NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway looking to duplicate last year's edition of the race.

"We're bringing the same car, a super little hot rod that we call "Mad Max," out to California hoping for a carbon copy of last year's race when we were dominant and won the thing," said Wallace, third in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings, 157 out of first place, entering Sunday's 10th race of the 2002 season. "We have a lot of momentum and confidence coming in, knowing that we've won it before and carrying such good consistency with us."

"The guys were actually considering retiring the '25 car' (Mad Max) after the Atlanta race last fall, but it's been so strong that we just couldn't park the thing," said crew chief Wilburn. "Rusty really loves that car and rightfully so, with the big numbers it has produced. We've gone back and refinished this car to where it's in the best shape ever. It'd certainly be cool for Rusty to win another one with this car and move his winning streak forward another year." (Wallace has at least one race win for the last 16 consecutive seasons, the sport's longest active streak.)

The background on the 2001 NAPA Auto Parts 500 and the history of "Mad Max" follow:

2001 NAPA Auto Parts 500:

After qualifying for the 19th starting spot in the Friday qualifying
session (with a lap of 39.860 seconds.180.631 mph.compared to pole winner Bobby Labonte's lap of 39.423 seconds.182.635 mph), Wallace was on the move from the drop of the green flag.

A 14.343-second pit stop during the first round of green flag stops helped put Wallace up to eighth when the stops cycled around on lap 50. It was Jimmy Spencer leading, with Jeff Gordon second, Dale Jarrett third, Ricky Rudd fourth, Tony Stewart fifth, Kevin Harvick sixth and Jeremy Mayfield seventh.

The first caution of the day, on lap 58 for Bobby Labonte's spin on the frontstretch, brought the cars back to pit road for yellow flag pit stops. Several teams opted for just two tires and track position. Wallace went for four and fell to 11th on the lap 64 restart. Up front, it was Gordon, Johnny Benson and Mayfield in the top three spots. Benson jumped into the lead on lap 65 and held the top spot until Mayfield cleared him for the lead on lap 77. He held the lead for five laps before Gordon moved back around on lap 82. Wallace was patiently moving forward and had climbed to seventh on lap 100.

The second round of green flag stops began on lap 106. Wallace hit pit road on lap 110 for a super-fast 13.833-second stop. The stops just had cycled around on lap 113 when the second yellow flag of the race flew for debris on the track. The running order saw Gordon with the lead, Spencer second, Benson third, Rudd fourth and Wallace fifth.

"The car's pretty good," Wallace radioed to his crew during the caution. "You just can't push this tire too hard. It's like it's on a skid plate on all four corners."

Spencer wasted little time flexing his muscle after the restart and had the lead at the race's mid-point. Gordon was second, with Rudd third, Wallace fourth and Benson fifth.

Wallace was up to third when the third caution of the day flew on lap 146 for oil in turn three. The ensuing 14.865-second stop under yellow had him up to second for the lap 150 restart.

Wallace powered his way around Gordon to lead lap 151 and continued to lead through the fourth caution for a Ricky Craven/Michael Waltrip crash that saw none of the top 20 hit pit road.

After the lap 158 restart, Wallace set sail, leading second-place Gordon by 0.775 seconds on lap 169 and 1.7 seconds on lap 175.

"It's pushing pretty good right now, but it really likes this clean air
up front," Wallace radioed to his crew on lap 185.

The next round of green flag stops began on lap 195. Wallace pitted on lap 199 for four tires and fuel. The only changes made were to air pressures in the tires during the 14.804-second visit to pit road.

When the stops cycled back around on lap 204, Wallace led, with Stewart second, Gordon third, Ward Burton fourth and Spencer fifth.

Jerry Nadeau's spin down the backstretch brought out the fifth yellow on lap 207. Spencer was the only member of the lead group who opted to pit.

After the lap 211 restart, Wallace had jumped out to a 2.5-second
advantage on Stewart on lap 218. But a lap 224 crash involving Ward Burton and Mark Martin bunched things up.

The big question was at first two tires or four tires. When then crew chief Robin Pemberton pointed out that Rusty had been running his fastest lap times of the day on that set of tires (41.40s), the team decided to stay out. Spotter Earl Barban predicted a lengthy clean-up process, and that sealed the deal. Contrary to most similar situations the team had faced last season, however, none of the other lead cars chose to pit.

The green flag was displayed again with 19 laps to go. Wallace got a good restart and had the lapped car of Todd Bodine separating him and second-place Gordon.

Gordon cleared the Bodine car on lap 242 and began closing in. He got as close as two car lengths to Wallace with four laps remaining, but Wallace stretched his lead a bit before managing a 0.270-second advantage at the checkered flag.

The win marked Wallace's 54th career victory. In tribute to his fallen friend and fellow competitor Dale Earnhardt, Rusty ran a post-race victory lap carrying a No. 3 flag around the track. The victory also extended Wallace's winning streak to 16 consecutive years.

"It was a great day today," Wallace said after the big win. "The car ran super. We qualified 19th and about 40 laps into the race I could tell we really had a great car. It moved up to seventh and kept going forward. We had some great pit stops and I made some air-pressure changes that really woke the car up and from there on out it just took off. The engine was extremely good in it, but the car really handled good too. Those last 150 laps, I guess, we were out front most of the time and it really felt good to win my first race here at the California Speedway. The last time I won in southern California was at Riverside. I won the last two races at Riverside before they shut the race track down and now to win out here, it feels great."


"Mad Max" Background:

The Miller Lite Ford Taurus debuted as Wallace's "PC-25" in the May 2000 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and has been used in all the points-paying events at LMS, Michigan and Atlanta since. It received it's name after winning the August 2000 Pepsi 400 at Michigan.

"A lot has been made of this car and many of the fans hold it up there with the other famous cars we've had like "Midnight," "Midnight Rider," "Killer," "Banker," and the list goes on and on," Wallace said. "This was a great race car from the very beginning. We ran it in Charlotte in 2000 and then took it to Indy for the Brickyard 400. After leading that race all day long (led four times for 110 of the 160 laps) and having to settle for second, I was madder than hell. We took the thing back to
Michigan the very next (oval track) race and it performed to the very 'max. So, we named it 'Mad Max' in Victory Lane and.like they say.the rest is history."

Wallace raced "Mad Max" to win last year's NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway and used it at Charlotte on May 27 (started 16th & finished 14th), at Michigan on June 10 (started 18th & crashed out early to finish 41st), at Indianapolis on August 5 (started 37th & finished fourth), at Michigan on August 19 (started 14th & finished 17th after leading late in the race), at Charlotte on Oct. 7 (started 24th & finished seventh) and most recently at Atlanta on Nov. 18 (started 27th & finished 12th).

Entering this weekend, the car's overall record sports two wins, four top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes in 14 races. It has led laps in seven races and led the most laps in three of those races.

Friday's single round of qualifying, set for 3:05 p.m. local (PDT)
time, will determine all 43 starting positions for Sunday's 250-lap, 500-mile race. Sunday's NAPA Auto Parts 500 starts at 12:00 noon (PDT) and features live coverage by Fox TV and MRN Radio.