WALLACE PLEASED WITH PROGRESS OF
HIS MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE SO FAR THIS SEASON

HAMPTON, Ga. (March 6, 2002) Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace knew that a crew chief change and picking up a bona fide teammate for the 2002 Winston Cup season could have presented difficulties, but he is pleased with the situation thus far.

"So far.so good," said Wallace, currently ninth in the Winston Cup point standings entering the fourth stop of the series this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "It's been pretty smooth sailing, to tell you the truth. "Bill Wilburn has come in as the new crew chief and has done a jam-up great job and I'm happy for him and our team. We haven't exactly been contending for the win each and every week as we'd like to, but we're definitely headed in the right direction. We've been consistent and right there as a top-10 team and that says a lot. The pit work has been outstanding and we just have to keep it up. We have some other new guys on the team and we all are meshing together about as well as can be expected.

"Just looking back, we had a top five or so run going at Daytona and got caught up in that chain-reaction deal during the last few laps. We still salvaged an 18th-place finish out of it. At Rockingham we got up as far as third before falling back to eighth. But, you have to admit that we'd made tremendous progress compared to the way we ran there last season. Then at (Las) Vegas, we went with the two-tire change with 30 to go and that got us right up there at the front. If the thing would have stayed green, we'd have finished seventh or so instead of 11th. We're ninth in points, consistent and headed in the right direction. I'm hoping to get to qualifying better so we don't start so far back in the hole at the beginning. But Bill continues to harp on focusing on the finish of these things and that really is what's important.

"As far as having Ryan (Newman) and his guys there as teammates, that's really been a neat deal. They've been a pleasure to work with, even though we really haven't traded any big secrets or anything like that yet. They've tested everywhere we've been so far and that's a comforting feeling to know that all their data is right there available if you need it. I think the fact that we're all running the exact same chassis has already paid dividends and will be extremely beneficial on down the road. Those guys have gone out there and put some big numbers on the board so far this year and I'm really proud to call them my
teammates."

Wilburn has an equally positive take on the team's season thus far. "It's all about communication and I think we've done about as well as could be expected," said Wilburn. "It seems like every week has been a situation of learning from the decisions we make. We've made calls strategy-wise that probably have tested the decision-making process. But, I'm so proud that we've gelled to the point of whatever we decide such as taking two tires, four tires.whatever.it's been a case of just making the decisions, sticking with them and making the best of it.

"Probably the biggest thing for me personally so far this season is juggling the crew chief job and still doing the tire-changing, too. There's so much of this business that's mental and it's almost equally challenging to concentrate on getting both jobs done with the level of excellence that's expected. I'm still looking to hand off the tire-changing job to someone else. But like I told Rusty, until we find somebody who can step in and click with our bunch without missing a beat, I'll continue to go over the wall.
"As far as the season as a whole goes, we're pretty pleased. When you look at where we've been running at each race, where we've finished or should have finished.that ninth-place position in the points right now probably sums it up. There are a lot of parts of the whole deal that we can get better at and that's what we will continue to focus on."

Friday's 3:05 p.m. single round of qualifying will establish the
complete starting field for Sunday's 500.5-mile, 325-lap race. Sunday's MBNA America 500 at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway begins at 1:00 p.m. EST and features live coverage by Fox-TV and PRN Radio.