RUSTY WALLACE & MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE "PUMPED" FOR PEPSI 400 RECENT DAYTONA FINISHES CAUSE FOR MUCH ENTHUSIASM

-Wallace Hopes 39th Career Visit Will Produce His First Daytona Win
-Wallace Running Miller Lite/Harley-Davidson Colors Again On Saturday
Night

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 2, 2002) "We can win it, that's for sure," said Rusty Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Team Penske Ford Taurus.

No, Wallace isn't talking about a NASCAR Winston Cup race on the .533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has amassed nine of his career 54 race wins. And he is not talking about a track like the sprawling 2.0-mile Michigan International Speedway, where he has won on five occasions.

Instead, Wallace is referring to his chances in Saturday night's Pepsi 400 on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, a track where he is still looking for his first career victory after 38 prior attempts.

"The fact is that we're getting closer and closer, and we're running good enough to win at Daytona," continued Wallace. "The place used to be one of our worst tracks. They'd always say, 'Poor Rusty, he's gonna' crash or blow or something is gonna take him out.' Well, it's been several years now since they've said that. I think they're thinking we can win at Daytona now. I know that my team and I know that we can win. I mean I don't think it would come as such a big shock if we won on Saturday night. It may have been that way at one time, but that's
not the case any more, I don't think. We're pumped about our chances."

The statistics back Wallace's statements. During the nine races held at Daytona from February 1993 through February 1997, Wallace was eliminated from competition by three crashes and a blown engine. His best finish during that stretch was a 16th. His average finish was a dismal 29.6 for that period.

In the 10 races since, Wallace has recorded five top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes. His other two finishes were an 11th and an 18th, the latter coming in February's Daytona 500.even after sustaining damage in a crash. He has a 7.0 average finish. In the five July races during that period, Wallace has two top-fives, four top-10s and an 11th.for a 6.4 average finish.

"The DEI cars (Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip) are really tough and they've been the guys to beat there, that's for sure," said Wallace, whose total Daytona record sports five top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes. "We ran right behind Junior for almost the whole race last July and we had a great race car. It was unfolding to be a final gas-and-go stop toward the finish and looked like we had second nailed down, but a caution flag flew there toward rhe very end and bunched us all back up. On the last restart, we got pushed up to the outside and we fell back about 10 spots. It was each man for himself the last five or six laps. It was a real great run. We got caught up in that three-wide racing the final two laps and it was a real dogfight with everybody trying to get all they could get and we got a seventh out of it."

Wallace and crew are again racing their "PC-18" Ford Taurus at
Daytona. The car will carry the special Miller Lite/Harley-Davidson color scheme again on Saturday night. This chassis debuted in the 2000 Daytona 500 where Wallace started fifth and finished fourth. He started 12th and finished third at Daytona in the July 2000 race with the same car and drove it to an eighth-place finish at Talladega in October 2000. In the 2001 season-opening Daytona 500, Wallace started the PC-18 12th and made up a lap (lost because of a right front flat only 28 laps into the race) en route to a third-place finish. The team raced the car
at Talladega in the May 2001 race, where Wallace started 26th, led for three laps and finished 13th. The car was used in last year's Pepsi 400 where Wallace started 24th and finished seventh. It was used at Talladega last October where Wallace crashed in practice and had to resort to a back-up Ford Taurus. A practice crash in February also saw Wallace park the car in favor of the "PC-28" backup Ford.

"If it's broke, then fix it," crew chief Bill Wilburn said with a chuckle about this particular car. "And if it ain't broke, well fix it
some more. Seriously, it's been a great car and no matter what we come up with, it seems like we put 'em up against each other on the track, or especially in the wind tunnel, and this car just keeps on coming out on top. There's just something special about it, it seems."

As for NASCAR's rule changes relative to the Ford Taurus for this race (NASCAR announced on June 12 that for the Pepsi 400, spoiler heights will now measure 5 7/8 inches, a reduction of one-eighth inch, a move designed to decrease aerodynamic drag), Wallace has a quick assessment:

"That eighth-of-an-inch off the back is a tenth of a second on the race track," said Wallace. "So, if you run a 49.50, you should run a 49.40 and that's about it. We had a five-and-three quarters spoiler in Daytona and I thought the Fords were competitive. I didn't see them dominate and I didn't see anybody dominate. I thought it was a good race. Then they put the quarter-inch back
on us for Talladega and the Chevy won again for three out of four
races. I think when they looked at the three out of four, that's when they said, 'Hey, we need to try to work something here.'"

Qualifying for the Pepsi 400 is set for Thursday at 8:00 p.m. The
final "happy hour" practice session is scheduled from 8:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on Friday. Saturday's Pepsi 400 begins at 8:00 p.m. EDT and features live coverage by Fox-TV and MRN Radio.