BILL WILBURN SET FOR CHALLENGE AS
NEW MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE CREW CHIEF FOR 2002

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Jan. 11, 2002)

When veteran Miller Lite Team Penske crew member Bill Wilburn received the call asking him to be Rusty Wallace's new crew chief, it caught him by surprise. For him, it was not an opportunity that he worked his whole career for. However, it
was one that he couldn't pass up.

"I have not patterned my career in the terms of saying my goal is to be a crew chief, said Wilburn. "I love to race and it does not matter to me if I'm driving the cars, working on the cars, or whatever.

"I have had many opportunities come my way. I've raced Sprint cars, I've driven them and built them. I've done the same in Winston Cup, though I haven't driven the cars. My goal hasn't been to be a crew chief, but I think the great experience I've gained in everything I've done has prepared me for the job. I have a good relationship with Rusty (Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Team Penske Taurus), and I think those things fell in my favor when they were looking for somebody."

Says Wallace of his new crew chief: "Bill Wilburn is a team player who has definitely paid his dues over the years and we feel that he can be a great crew chief. Bill has abundant knowledge of our sport and has gathered plenty of business savvy from running his Sprint car team the last several years.

"He has the reputation of being the best tire changer in the business for years now and he deserves the opportunity to be the crew chief."

Wilburn says his goals for the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup season are sensible: "Stay competitive, win races and try to win the championship. We have a championship-caliber team. We just need to work on doing the same good job we've always done. I think that we have the personnel to do just that."

Wilburn began his racing career in 1982 with Pierce and Bryant Racing's Daytona Dash car. In 1983, he made his entry into Winston Cup Racing when he joined the Cliff Stewart Team and was a member of the Mike Curb Motorsports organization from 1985-1987, joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1988 and left briefly in 1991 to run a successful landscaping business. Wilburn worked part-time with Miller Team Penske in 1992 and joined the team full-time in September 1992. He is a multi-year All-Pro Team nominee and winner.

For the past couple of seasons, Wilburn returned to being only a
part-time employee to pursue driving opportunities with his own Sprint car team. Wilburn says that he will still run the team, however, the daily operations have been turned over to his brother, Mark Wilburn. Phoenix-based driver Johnny Herrera will handle the driving.

"I might climb back behind the wheel when we have a weekend off, but other than that, I have all the confidence in the world that my brother and Johnny can handle this deal.

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime, said Wilburn. "I sincerely
appreciate the confidence that Roger (Penske) Rusty (Wallace), Don (Miller), Walt (Czarnecki) and everybody involved has in me and I plan on doing everything possible to make them proud of their choice for crew chief.

"I am looking forward to having more of a role with the cars and a good communication line with the driver and all the people that work on the cars from the ground up. I'm not going to get to work on them every day, but I am definitely going to be involved in the shop and on the road with the guys working on the car. In that respect, I'll be a hands-on crew chief. That's the way I operate."