NASCAR DISQUALIFIES RUSTY WALLACE'S 'TWIN 125' FINISH;
PENALTY MOVES NO. 2 DODGE TO 38TH ON DAYTONA 500 STARTING GRID

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 14, 2003) - NASCAR officials announced today that Rusty Wallace's finish in Thursday's 125-mile qualifying race for the Daytona 500 has been disqualified, after his No. 2 Dodge was found to have a carburetor that did not meet specifications. Wallace will forfeit his fourth-place finish in the second of the two "Twin 125s" and his prize money of $28,720. In addition, Wallace's crew chief Bill Wilburn has been fined $10,000.
Wallace's qualifying-race finish had placed him eighth in the original Daytona 500 starting grid. His disqualification will result in Wallace using a provisional berth, and starting 38th in the 43-car field.
During post-race inspection, the carburetor was found to have a venturi that did not meet NASCAR's specifications for the Daytona 500. The venturi - the constricted throat in the carburetor main body air passage - was found to have a diameter smaller than the minimum requirement of 1 9/16 inches mandated for the Daytona 500, the opening race of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.
The last previous disqualification in a NASCAR national series was in 1995, at a NASCAR Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway, when Dale Jarrett's victory was negated after his car was found to have an improper engine intake manifold.

WALLACE COMMENTS ON NASCAR PENALTY

"I'm OK with the penalty. I just hate it happened. NASCAR knows there was no intent on our part. We were 12 horsepower off the best car because of the carburetor. We just had one of the wrong carburetors on the truck. We didn't check it and we're paying for it now. Our engine guys feel real bad about it. We're going to start at the back of the field now, but I think we'll run
even better with the right carburetor on the car.

"A rule's a rule. We're just embarrassed about the whole thing. Roger Penske is embarrassed. It's our first race with Dodge and Miller is doing a big promotion. We're embarrassed for our sponsors.

"I'm proud how we ran in the race based on what we found under the hood. It
apparently was a test carburetor we'd been using on our unrestricted stuff.
It was just a dumb mistake. We weren't trying to pull anything off on anyone
and that's why NASCAR penalized us the way they did.

"Mentally, I'm a little down right now. I think we had an outstanding race
in the Gatorade 125. The pit crew did an outstanding job. We were really
hauling the mail. I think we could have passed the 54 car and challenged the
15 and 8 for the win, but I didn't want to do anything crazy. It is a little
upsetting. I started in the back last year and was running fourth after 30
laps. I started last in the Pepsi 400 last year and finished second.

"Rusty and Roger are still trying to get to the bottom of it. We're still in
disbelief that it happened. That carburetor cost us 12 horsepower, so that's
probably the only good thing that came out of it.

"We weren't going to practice today anyway. We didn't want to sacrifice the
car and take a chance on something stupid happening. We'll be there at 9:30 in the morning and our Daytona 500 engine will be in the car. I think we've found a couple more horsepower, so now we're going to work like crazy on fuel mileage. I think it's going to come down to a fuel mileage race. I'm real confident about the Daytona 500. We were a little tight in the 125, so
we want to make sure we've got the setup right. We've got a couple of front
shocks we want to try and make sure we're loaded for bear on Sunday."