DAYTONA 500 RACE DAY REPORT
SUNDAY, FEB. 16, 2003
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.

PRE-RACE NOTES &
RACE INFORMATION:

The carburetor infraction in Thursday's qualifying race here sent him from
what would have been an eighth-place starting spot back to 38th, yet it
didn't diminish his hopes for picking up his first Daytona Winston Cup win.

"We've shown that it really doesn't matter where you start here," Rusty told
a FOX-TV reporter here in the garage area yesterday. "We've started at the
tail before and 30 laps into the thing, there we were up front. Heck, just
the last race here back in July, we started almost dead last (37th) on the
field and finished second. So where we're staring really doesn't have us
rattled."

And that day could be a long one if today's weather forecast here carries
any weight. The forecast calls for a 70 perecent chance of rain and the
adverse weather conditions could hamper today's 500-mile, 200-lap race that is scheduled for a start shortly after 1:00 p.m. EST.

In yesterday's final practice leading up to today's race, Bobby Labonte's
Chevrolet clocked in with the session's fastest lap. Rusty was fifth on the
chart and his car ran well in the draft and that will be extremely important
here today.

While the Penske cars of Rusty and teammate Ryan Newman will start
side-by-side in the 500, their pits will be separated only by the Ford team
of Dave Blaney. Ryan and his Matt Borland-led team pit from the 39th spot.
The Jerry Nadea team pits in front, while Blaney's team is behind. Rusty
goes from the 41st pit. He'll have Blaney in front and Matt Kenseth behind.

After Mariah Carey sang the national anthem and John Travolta gave the
command to start the engines, the green flag flew after three parade laps at
1:08 p.m.

Pole-winner Jeff Green got a good start, but Michael Waltrip went to the
inside and made him the meat in the sandwich to lead the first lap. Dale
Earnhardt Jr. fell back at the start, but was back up to third on lap three.

With the DEI cars running first and second, Rusty was up to 12th on lap 10.

The first round of green flag stops began on lap 31 when Rusty and Mike
Skinner hit pit road. Rusty went with right side tires and fuel in 8.955
seconds.

Earnhardt Jr. pitted on lap 34 and Waltrip hit pit road on lap 35. Matt
Kenseth led for two laps before the stops cycled around to show Tony Stewart as the leader.

Behind Stewart were Bill Elliott, Earnhardt, Waltrip and Todd Bodine. Rusty
was eighth and Ryan ninth.

Elliott Sadler's contact sent Bobby Labonte for a spin down the backstretch
on lap 42 to bring out the first yellow flag of the race.

All the leaders pitted on lap 43, with Rusty and Ryan taking on four tires
and fuel. It was evident that rain was near when the green flag flew again
on lap 46.

Earnhardt got the lead under the caution, with Waltrip second, Stewart
third, Sadler fourth and Robby Gordon fifth. Rusty was 12th and Ryan 17th.

Two and three-wide racing was the order when on lap 57, Ryan got turned into the turn four wall. His Dodge bounced off the wall and flipped wildly down
into the infield grass. The replay showed that Ward Burton triggered the
accident when he got into the rear of Ken Schrader's Dodge. Schrader
bounced off the outside wall and into Ryan causing his horrendous crash.

Ryan emerged from the wreckage unscathed and waved at the crowd as he
approached the ambulance for the mandatory trip to the infield hospital.

"I was just trying to make up some spots and what happened, happened," Ryan told MRN reporter Danielle Frye. "We just came off three-wide and there was no air gap between us -- that was all that I felt. After that, I was pointing toward the wall and just hung on from there. It was a pretty hard hit, but when I saw that I figured that was more trouble that hitting the wall."

Rain began falling during the ensuing caution and the red flag flew halting
the action on lap 53 at 2:15 p.m.

The precipitation subsided and the drivers were called back to their cars at
3:05 p.m. The engines were refired at 3:20 p.m. Rusty's car was slow to
start as the fuel had evaporated out of the carburetor during the red flag.
Earnhardt's car had to be pushed off and the report was that he possibly had
a failing battery.

All of the cars pitted the next time by and Rusty took right-side tires,
fuel an took a round of wedge out in 8.519 seconds.

The race restarted on lap 68 at 3:30 p.m. Casey Mears had stayed out and
led. Ward Burton was second, with Waltrip third, Earnhardt fourth and
Stewart fifth. Rusty was back in the 19th spot.

After only a lap back under green, Waltrip was back at the point and
teammate Earnhardt was second. Sterling Marlin was black-flagged for racing below the yellow line on lap 73.

At lap 80, it was Waltrip leading, with Earnhardt second, Stewart third,
Kurt Busch fourth and Jerry Nadeau fifth. Rusty was running back in
three-wide action in the 19th spot.

Some 15 laps later, weather once again became a big issue. n lap 87, Kevin Harvick was challenging Earnhardt for second when Earnhardt's battery problem bit again. He was forced down pit road to change batteries on lap 89 and lost two laps in tghe process.

At lap 90, Waltrip continued to lead, with Stewart second, Harvick third,
Jimmie Johnson fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth. Rusty was up to 15th.

Jeff Green's blown tire triggered a crash with Jimmy Spencer out of turn
four to bring out the third yellow of the race on lap 95. While Todd Bodine, Ricky Craven, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth continued to stay on the track hoping for rain, Rusty and the rest of the lead pack pitted on lap 96.
Rusty took on right-side tires and fuel in 8.028 seconds.

Johnson went with fuel only to take the lead when the green flag was
displayed again on lap 99.

Only two laps into the ruun, Rusty radioed in, "There's oil over the
frontstretch and it's all over my windshield. I can't see good at all."

NASCAR officials threw the fourth caution of the day on lap 101 for debris.

"Guys, I can't see at all," Rusty radioed after taking the yellow. "We're
gonna' have to pit and get a tear-off off the thing." He pitted on lap 103
and fell to the rear of the pack for the lap 105 restart.

Earnhardt's car still showed the ultimate strength as he was able to power
through the field and catch the lead three two laps later. He went to the
inside of Johnson on lap 107 and brought Waltrip with him. Just as Waltrip
got by Johnson for the lead and Earnhardt got one of his laps back, Ward
Burton blew a tire and crashed hard into the fourth turn wall to bring out
the fifth yellow flag of the race.

Rain again started falling and officials were forced to red-flag the race
again on lap 109.

The rundown at the time showed Waltrip with the lead and Busch in second.
Johnson was third, with Harvick fourth and Mark Martin fifth. Robby Gordon,
Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield, Mike Wallace and Dale Jarrett completed the top
10. Rusty showed up on the scoreboard in the 25th position.

The rain persisted and at 5:28 p.m. the race was declared official after 109
laps.

POST-RACE QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE (finished 25th) - "Man, I really wanted the thing to go back to green, that's for sure. We had a much better car than that (25th spot).
I don't know if we had anything for the Chevys running up front because we
never got a chance to get uop there and run with them. We had a strong car
and the thing took off like a rocket ship from the drop of the green. We'd
passed something like 26 cars in just the first 20 laps. The car started
getting a little tight and then we had to pit earlier than everyone else
because of our fuel mileage.

"We were plugging away there in the top 15 and moving forward after that
restart. I radioed in that NASCAR needed to throw a caution because there
was oil all over the frontstretch. By the time theyy threw the yellow, my
windshield was just dripping and I couldn't see a thing. We had to pit to
get it where I could see again and that bit us. The time just ran out on
us. They called the race official before we had the chance to get back up
there again to show how strong our car really was. Like I said, the car was
a lot stronger than that finishing position shows.

"I'm certainly happy that Ryan came out of his deal okay. I understand that
it was a helluva crash - that it looked like some of the tumbles I've had
at these big old tracks. We'll just have to both bounce right back and get
'em at Rockingham next weekend."