WALLACE & CREW FOCUSED ON RICHMOND $1 MILLION BONUS
-Miller Lite Team Penske Driver Not Focusing On Short-Track "Payback" For Bristol Ordeal-

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 4, 2002) -- Things that go bump in the night at Richmond this Saturday night? Could be,but then again. More about that later.

"We're coming in there focused on nothing but winning that race and picking up the million dollar bonus," Miller Lite Team Penske Ford Taurus driver Rusty Wallace said of Saturday night's Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond International Raceway. "It's been a pretty long time since we've been eligible to pick up the (Winston No Bull) bonus and it's great that we have a chance to do so at Richmond, a track that I love so much and a place that's been so good to us through the years.

By virtue of Wallace's runner-up finish in the July 6 Pepsi 400 at
Daytona International Speedway, he is one of five drivers eligible for the special Winston No Bull 5 million-dollar bonus this weekend at Richmond.

"There's probably no better track for us to be going to left on the
schedule than Richmond for us to win that thing," said Wallace. "We had an older car there for the spring race (PC-27) and just about everything you can think of went wrong. The race got rained out on Saturday night and we all had to come back on Sunday. We had two flats, got drilled once and even broke a shock (absorber). It was a terrible finish (25th) for us as far as racing at Richmond goes.

"The bottom line, though, in the spring race there was that situation with the sealer on the track and the deal with the tires," said Wallace. "We've been back up there for Goodyear since then and think everything will be okay this time around.

"I'm confident that the sealer will continue to wear off as we put laps on it. I feel sure that we'll be able to run up in a second groove as the race goes on.at least that's what we're hoping for. Regardless, it's gonna' be a great race.another super show for all the fans. Isn't that the way it always is at Richmond?

"I know I always say that Bristol is my favorite track, but Richmond is a really, really close second," said Wallace. "We're looking to bounce back from that deal in the spring. The place is super special to me and we've always been on top of our game every time we go there. If you take away the blown engine we had there while leading the fall race back two years ago, our record has been pretty spotless. We've either won or finished in the top five in just about every one of 'em.

"We have a darned good car for Richmond," Wallace continued. "It's the (PC-) 49 car that we debuted back at Martinsville (in the April 14 Virginia 500). We led that race and the car was really strong, but we had problems with the jack in the pits and then got crashed on pit road and didn't have the kind of finish that the car deserved (finished 16th).

"We took that same car to Loudon (New Hampshire International Speedway for the July 21New England 300) and started third with it. We led a bunch of laps (led 59 laps), got a lap down and made it up to finish fourth; the car was just that strong.

"So this will be only the third time that we've used this car and we
expect big things out of it."

Wallace's stellar Richmond record boasts six wins, 20 top-five finishes, 26 top-10 finishes and three pole positions in 37 races. His most recent win came in the spring race in 1997 and his last pole came in the spring race of 2000. He started second in both of the Richmond races last year, a season which saw him going without a single pole, yet starting on the outside of the front row on four occasions.

Well, what about the bumping in the night? Remember the last night race two weeks ago at Bristol where a bump from the rear by Jeff Gordon cost Wallace his 55th career victory and his 10th at Bristol Motor Speedway?

"I don't know about revenge or paybacks ," Wallace offered. "I didn't expect the bump, but I didn't expect that lapped car out there, too. It'd be my luck that I'd tap him from behind and he'd go driver-side into the wall and get hurt. I don't want to be responsible for hurting anybody. It was tough losing at Bristol that way, but I think that getting bumped and knocked out of the way didn't make me near as mad as the lapped car staying right there in the groove and not getting out of the way. That's what really cost us from winning the race.

"All I can say is if I'm close enough to win the race like he was, he's gonna get the bump too. I know everybody is on the edge of their seats and if I do bump him and he does spin, they're gonna say it's a payback when it really could not have been. It could have just been a racing accident that particular time. I'm not gonna spin anybody out and wreck him for a payback. If I get close enough to bump him and get past him, I'll absolutely do that, though."

Wallace enters this weekend's Richmond race sixth in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings with 3,175 points. He trails leader Sterling Marlin by 230 points and is 139 points behind second-place Jeff Gordon. He trails fifth-place Jimmie Johnson by 63 points.

This weekend's schedule calls for a two-hour practice session on Friday (11:20 a.m. till 1:20 p.m.), with a 3:05 p.m. single qualifying session to allocate all 43 starting spots for Saturday night's race. The final practice prior to the race is set for Friday at 6:15 p.m. Saturday's schedule calls for the driver & crew chief meeting at 5:30 p.m. and driver introductions at 7:00 p.m. The 400-lap, 300-mile Monte Carlo 400 starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.