BLACK IS BACK FOR RUSTY WALLACE AT LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY
-Miller Lite Team Penske Driver Hopes That Same Success Accompanies The
Return To Black-

CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 8, 2002) ? Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace will be "back in black" in this weekend's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. For Wallace, the color change is much more than just another flashy paint scheme.

"For the last five years, I've had all kinds of people asking if I'd
ever be running that black car again," said Wallace, whose last ride in a black car came at.of all places.Suzuka, Japan back in 1996. "The fans all just loved the black car. They remember all the hellacious battles that those two famous black cars had back in the early 90s. It was Dale (late Dale Earnhardt) and me beatin' and bangin' just about every week for the win.

"It was a big friendly rivalry between those two black cars," continued Wallace, who has been racing the familiar blue-and-white Miller Lite color scheme on his Ford Taurus race cars ever since the 1997 Daytona 500. "It was really cool to have the No. 2 and the No. 3 cars.both black and bad to the bone.out there battling it out and it was really good for the sport. People looked at it as the biggest rivalry out there and it's one of the best memories I'll ever have of my career. Everybody thought those black cars were so cool. Even all the TV people and newspaper guys talked so much about how the car showed up on the
screen or in photos.

"We've been lobbying for a chance to bring the black car back out for several years now and we're just thrilled that the brewery (sponsor SAB Miller) gave it their stamp of approval. The great thing about it is that we had such tremendous success racing the black car back then. Outside of winning the championship back in '89, that black car saw us come the closest to winning us another championship back in '93 and '94.

"We won 10 races and came so close to winning the title back in '93," Wallace said of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup points battle that saw Earnhardt take the title by only 80 points. "Then we came back and won eight races in '94 and were in the thick of things for the championship (finished third in points).

"Well, here it is about 10 years later and we're right there in the
points battle again," said Wallace, who enters this weekend's UAW-GM Quality 500 up to fifth in points, trailing leader Tony Stewart by 172 points. "I couldn't think of a better time to roll that big, bad black car out once again than at Charlotte (LMS) this weekend. The fans are gonna' go wild and it'll definitely put some extra 'oomph' into our whole deal this weekend, I'll guarantee you that."

For the record, Wallace began driving a black Pontiac for Blue Max Racing at Daytona on Feb. 18, 1990. The colors stayed the same when Penske Racing South started fielding stock cars for Wallace in 1991. When the team switched to Ford in 1994, Wallace continued to carry the black color scheme and did so through the 1996 season. The last time Wallace raced it came in winning fashion, when he drove his car named "Killer" to a win in the NASCAR Thunder 100 at Suzuka, Japan on Nov. 24,
1996.

Wallace won 30 of 210 races during that period. He also recorded 64 top-five finishes, 102 top-10 finishes and took 10 pole positions. He won three straight races in 1993 and three straight again in 1994. His first race in a black car at Lowe's Motor Speedway (then Charlotte Motor Speedway) produced a victory when he started ninth and won the May 27, 1990 Coca-Cola 600 on the 1.5-mile tri-oval track.

Wallace's career record at LMS boasts two wins, seven top-five finishes and 19 top-10 finishes in 41 races. He started 24th and finished seventh in last year's UAW-GM Quality 500. In the May 26 Coca-Cola 600, Wallace started 31st and finished 10th.

This weekend's LMS schedule calls for practice on Thursday from 3:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. leading up to 7:00 p.m. qualifying for all 43 starting spots in Sunday's race. Saturday's final practice sessions are set from 9:30 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. and from 11:15 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Sunday's 500-mile, 334-lap UAW-GM Quality 500 has a 12:30 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by NBC-TV and PRN Radio