RUSTY WALLACE & CREW LOOKING STRONG FOR BRICKYARD 400
-Miller Lite Team Calling On New Car & Hoping To Pad Penske Prosperity
At Historical Track-

INDIANAPOLIS (July 30, 2002) -- Rusty Wallace is very cognizant of the success Penske Racing has had at the historical 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is looking to add to the team's mastery of the track in this Sunday's Brickyard 400.

"The accomplishments of Roger's (Penske) open-wheel teams at Indy are legendary, that's for sure," said Wallace, who enters this weekend's activity at IMS eighth in the Winston Cup point standings, trailing leader Sterling Marlin by 259 points after being involved in a first-lap crash that relegated him to a 40th-place finish at Pocono, Pa., last Sunday. "With 12 Indy 500 wins and with Helio (Castroneves) taking the last two back-to-back, we're looking to put the Penske stock cars in the limelight this weekend.

"We've been so close to winning the thing that we could almost taste it and I think we'll have our best shot yet at closing the deal this weekend," said Wallace, who has runner-up finishes in the 1995 and 2000 editions of the Brickyard 400 and who has just one finish out of the top-eight in the eight NASCAR races held on the track. "We're bringing a brand new little hot rod, the (PC-) 51 car, and we had her just screaming around the place during the test there a few weeks ago.

"We spent the first day and a half working on nothing but our race setup and we were really pleased from that end. We didn't mess around with the qualifying package until the final afternoon and we turned in the second-fastest lap in the hottest conditions during the whole test."

"Matt Kenseth was the fastest guy there," crew chief Bill Wilburn
added. "He ran a 49.40-something, but it was during the morning, when it was a lot cooler. We ran a 49.69 right in the heat of the day.at about 3:30 (p.m.) in the afternoon. That was second fastest, but we think we'll be faster than that when we get back up there.

"Rusty really loves this new car and we're all ready to go to Indy and get the job done."

Wallace's record at Indy sports four top-five finishes and seven
top-10s in the eight races held so far. His best starting spot to date came in the 2000 event when he started 10th on the grid.

He fought back from a 37th-place start to finish fourth in last year's Brickyard 400.

"We really dug ourselves a hole in qualifying there last year and
certainly don't plan on that happening again," Wallace said.

A determined Wallace, helped by three great pit stops, each taking less than 15 seconds, was up to 15th with 60 laps remaining in the race.

The complexion of the race began to change when the leaders began making green flag stops on lap 105. Most of the front-running cars were going to have to pit once again for fuel in order to complete the 160 total laps. Wallace, Bobby Labonte, rookie Kurt Busch were among the few drivers who were going to be able to make it after that stop.

Wallace stayed out until lap 118. After their 13.966-second stop, then crew chief Robin Pemberton assured Wallace that they could go the distance. The stops cycled around the next lap with Steve Park, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon making up the top five...but all of those drivers were going to have to make a final pit stop. Rusty was 17th and primed to see all but one car in front of him (Busch) have to make final stops in the waning laps.

The potential for a fuel mileage battle to the end evaporated on lap 131 when NASCAR officials displayed the sixth caution of the day...this for debris in turn three.

While Sterling Marlin stayed out to inherit the lead, the remainder of the lead lap cars pitted for either two or four tires. Wallace and crew gambled with right side tires only and that put their car up in fifth for the lap 136 restart. Marlin led, with Gordon second, Ricky Craven third, Johnny Benson fourth and Wallace fifth.

Gordon got the jump on Marlin on the restart and got around for the lead when Jerry Nadeau's lap 138 crash brought out the seventh caution flag of the race. It was Gordon leading, with Marlin second, Craven third, Benson fourth and Wallace fifth for the lap 142 restart.

Benson forced the issue with Craven for the third spot on lap 151 and Wallace was able to slide by also to take the fourth spot. Busch got by Craven for fifth on the next lap and the running order then would remain the same for the final seven circuits.

At the finish, it was Gordon winning his third Brickyard 400 by a
0.943-second margin over Marlin. Benson was third, Wallace finished fourth and Busch rounded out the top-five finishers.

"Man, the way things were going for a while, I thought we were gonna' up and win us another race by the fuel mileage deal," Rusty said after the race. "My crew kept on holding me out there and holding me out there. They said that lap 118 was the magic number and if we could get there then we'd be able to go the distance without pitting and all the other teams but two or three others would have to pit. But the yellow came out and threw all that strategy away. The call to get just the two tires was a great call, though. That picked us up about 10 spots and we were able
to hold our place up there. It could have been better, but you didn't hear me complain. When you think that we started way back there in 37th, had a shot to win the thing and still came home fourth, I'd say we had a pretty good day at the race track...a really darned good day..."