ROCKINGHAM STATISTICAL LEADER WALLACE PLEDGES RETURN TO TOP THIS WEEKEND

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (Feb. 20, 2002) Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace is confident that his team's testing at North Carolina Speedway three weeks ago (Jan. 29th & 30th) will pay big dividends in this weekend's Subway 400.

"Rockingham has been a big stronghold for us and we're determined to get that going again," said Wallace, the track statistical leader and qualifying record holder. "After testing at Rockingham a couple of weeks ago, we're confident that we can show the same strength we enjoyed there a few seasons ago.

"That place has been one of our best tracks through the years and last season's races were very disappointing for us. That was the biggest reason for testing there. It used to be that an off day for us at Rockingham was a top-10 finish. We were so used to winning or running in the top five and contending for the win. We're determined to get back up there leading the laps and in a position to win the races.

"We did the best job we could to make it a really brutal test," Wallace said. "We did all we could for two straight days, making a ton of 50-lap runs and going through no telling how many sets of tires. We made pretty drastic changes chasis-wise from what we had been running and the car really responded. At the end of the second day, we were super pleased with what we had." Wallace is the leading active competitor on the 1.017-mile track with five wins, 12 top-five finishes, 19 top-10 finishes and two poles in 36 winnings wit $1,165,245 earned entering this weekend. Wallace won both races in 1993 and the first race of 1994. In the last nine seasons (18 races), Wallace's Rockingham record boasts the three wins, eight top-five
finishes (including two second-place runs) and 12 top-10 tallies.
Wallace thinks having a bona fide teammate in rookie sensation Ryan Newman could also be beneficial in this weekend's action at "The Rock." "We definitely have notes that carry it from one extreme to another, that's for sure," said Wallace. "It was really warm -- pushing 80 degrees -- when we tested the Miller Lite Ford at Rockingham and it was about 40 when Ryan, Matt (Borland, crew chief) and those guys had the ALLTEL car over there. Based on that, we'll both be starting off with different setups, but we both have plenty of room to compromise and tons
of data to work with."

Wallace holds the North Carolina Speedway track qualifying record of 158.035 mph (23.167 seconds), set in qualifying for the February 2000 event. "We set that track record two seasons ago on the old Goodyears, so I don't know how much we should be all jacked up about qualifying this time around," Wallace offered. "It's always good to have that in the back of you mind that you were able to qualify that well and the record books shows that, but the fact is that we struggled there in qualifying in both races there last year. The good thing though is that we now have the notes to go on. We can look back and learn from that."

Wallace started 33rd on the grid at Rockingham in last February's race and went on to finish seventh, recording his 19th career top-10 finish there. He started 28th and finished 24th in last fall's race. "We're bringing the exact same car back to Rockingham and that'll help because it should respond immediately to what we learned in last year's races and especially in the testing," Wallace said of his PC-29 Miller Lite Ford Taurus race car. "We got better and better as the race went along last February. We got in a hole pretty early there last October and just couldn't recover. We're looking for much improvement on both ends.qualifying and in the race.this weekend at Rockingham."

This weekend's schedule calls for practice on Friday from 11:20 a.m. until 1:20 p.m. prior to the 3:05 p.m. single round of qualifying to determine all 43 starting spot's for Sunday's race. Saturday's activities features practice from 9:30 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. and final practice from 11:15 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Sunday's Subway 400 (400 miles, 393 laps) has a 1:00 p.m. EST starting time and features livecoverage by Fox-TV and MRN Radio.