WALLACE & TEAM LOOKING FOR NEW TIRE TO BE A PLUS AT DOVER
-Miller Lite Driver Rusty Wallace Says Goodyear's Softer Tire A Move In Right Direction

DOVER, Delaware (Sept. 17, 2002) -- Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace has long been lobbying for a return to softer tires along the NASCAR Winston Cup tour. He'll get a taste of what he's been wishing for in this weekend's MBNA All-American Heroes 400 at Dover International Speedway.

"I understand it's a softer tire than Goodyear had for us at Dover back in June," said Wallace, a three-time race winner, four-time pole winner and track qualifying record holder (159.946 mph/22.505 seconds set in September 1999) on racing's "Monster Mile." "I know it's not as soft as the tires we used to run way back when, but it's a softer compound than what we've had. I applaud the decision to go back in that direction, instead of the tires just getting harder and harder."

"Yes, it's a new tire this time around at Dover," confirmed Goodyear Racing engineer Graham Gott. "It's the (Goodyear Racing Eagle D-) 6372 for the rights and the 6370 on the left. It's a tad softer than what we had there. The idea was to soften it a little and that will help add some grip. It'll definitely wear faster. There will not be as much heat buildup in these tires and that was the big objective.

"Dover is the toughest track we run on as far as the tires go and we're confident that these tires will work well there," Gott added. "These tires offer a little more grip, but the difference won't be like day and night. We never did an official tire test at Dover, but a couple of teams (Petty Enterprises) did their own testing there and used the tires. It's our understanding that this tire was about four-tenths (of a second) quicker and the longest run they made was about 25 laps."

"The bottom line is that the tires should wear more and I think you'll see a much better race as the result," said Wallace, who started 15th and finished 11th in last September's Dover race. "Don't get me wrong.the performance of the tire has been incredible this year. The tire has been fabulous. The problem is it's been too fabulous.

"There's so much downforce on the back of these cars these days that Goodyear has had to really toughen the tire up. The tire's gotten so hard that it'll run for a long, long period of time before giving up.

"I really expect a similar situation at Dover to what we saw happen at Bristol, the other concrete track that we run on. At Bristol, it was like this -- the last time (in the March 24th race) those guys could run a long time on tires and go an unbelievable amount of laps without pitting, but this time (in the August 24th race) we pitted with 150 to go and were able to get back to the front on those fresher tires. That's what we're hoping will be the case this time around at Dover."

Crew chief Bill Wilburn says he is "thrilled" about the prospects of the softer tires at Dover this weekend.

"That 48 team (Jimmie Johnson) ran 90-something (93) laps on the same set of tires there in the spring and won the race," said Wilburn. "It was all just a big crap-shoot.no tires, four tires, two tires.what do you do?

"We took on two tires with about 30 (laps) to go and it backfired on us. Three cars, the 48, the 99 and the 55 (Johnson, Jeff Burton and Bobby Hamilton), stayed out during that caution and a bunch of the other teams went with four tires. The 48 won it and the 99 hung on for third. We were up to seventh for the restart, but just taking on the two tires bit us bad at the end. We wound up 17th for the day.

"I think the softer tire will put a little more hard racing back into
the equation," Wilburn said. "I think it'll be back to where unless it
comes down to a matter of only a handful of laps to go when a caution flies, it'll be almost automatic to go with four fresh tires. But just when I say and think that, somebody will come along and try to go 90 laps at Dover again on the same set of tires. But maybe this time around.they just won't make it."

Wallace, Wilburn and team will be racing a car they have plenty of confidence in during the Dover race weekend. They'll be armed with their "PC-54" Ford Taurus that debuted at Bristol last month and hasn't been raced since. In that race, Wallace started fourth and appeared headed toward Victory Lane before a controversial bump from behind by Jeff Gordon relegated him to a runner-up finish.

Wallace's 37-race Dover career record sports three wins, 10 top-five finishes, 18 top-10 finishes and four pole positions. His most recent win came in the fall of 1994 and his most recent pole came in the spring of 2000. Wallace is currently sixth in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings with 3,399 points. He trails leader Mark Martin by 146 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 2:05 p.m. single qualifying session to allocate all 43 starting spots for Sunday's MBNA All-American Heroes 400. Saturday's schedule calls for practice sessions from 9:30 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Sunday's schedule calls for the driver & crew chief meeting at 11:00 a.m. and driver introductions at 12:30 p.m. The 400-lap, 400-mile race starts at 1:00 p.m. EDT and
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