DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING REPORT
MONDAY, FEB. 10, 2003

PRACTICE INFORMATION:

After Sunday's persistent rain wiped out the scheduled first round of qualifying for next Sunday's Daytona 500, another band of moisture hampered the track schedule here at Daytona International Speedway again this morning.

The precipitation began falling just after 9:30 a.m. and caused the Goody's Dash race to be called short of the scheduled distance.

Rusty's schedule today saw him participate in a "racers'round-table" TV discussion with Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch. That was followed by a phone interview to Dan Patrick's ESPN Radio show and a shoot for FOX-TV in their effort for producing opening footage for their upcoming
broadcasts.

By the time he had completed the FOX shoot, the rain had subsided and the track drying process had begun. Officials were able to roll out Matt Kenseth, the first of 51 drivers to make his qualifying attempt, onto the track to make his run just after 2:00 p.m.

As is the case here in February first-round qualifying here at Daytona, only the top two starting spots ­ the front row ­ for the Daytona 500 is up for grabs today. The remainder of the 43-car starting field will be determined after the running of the two 125-mile qualifying sessions on Thursday.

As expected, all the other competitors were chasing the DEI Chevrolets as for the battle for the pole. Michael Waltrip was the first of those drivers, going out seventh, and his lap of 185.400 mph (48.528 seconds) set the early pace.

Rusty was 25th out and his 182.171 mph (49.404 sec.) lap was 20th fastest at the time.

"Well, we certainly hoped for better than that," Rusty said after the run. 'We'd looked at picking up some more speed, but it just didn't happen. That seems to have been the story here for the last few races ­ we qualify really bad and we race really, really good. That's gonna' be the same deal here this time, too, we think. We'll just have to start back there in the pack in Thursday's qualifying race and get up there for a good finish and a good starting spot in the 500. We have a great race car; just not a very
good qualifying car."

Just as expected, Dale Earnhardt Jr., out 36th, dazzled them with a lap of 186.382 mph (48.288 sec.) to grab the pole away from his DEI teammate Waltrip.

But not expected, Jeff Green took to the track immediately after
Earnhardt and knocked him off the top spot. Green turned in a lap of 186.606 mph (48.230 sec.) to take the top spot with 14 cars remaining.

Robbie Gordon posed a threat with his lap of 185.927 mph (48.406 sec.)

Rusty's Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman was 45th in the order and he clocked in with a 183.001 mph (49.180 sec.) lap, which was 28th fastest with only six cars remaining.

"No, we were not too happy with that at all,"Ryan said after his run. "I guess the good thing here is that the qualifying is totally different from the racing. We'll be good in the race, though."

None of the remaining drivers posed a threat for the pole and simply filled in the blanks as for the starting spots in Thursday's qualifying races.

So the two drivers locked into Sunday's Daytona 500 are pole-winner Jeff Green and outside-front-row starter Earnhardt. The remaining spots will be allocated by virtue of the results from Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying races.

Here is the way the 51 drivers fared here today:

1. (30) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 186.606.

2. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 186.382.

3. (31) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 185.927.

4. (15) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 185.460.

5. (21) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 185.372.

6. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 185.063.

7. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 184.957.

8. (18) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 184.942.

9. (40) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 184.710.

10. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 184.668.

11. (42) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 184.502.

12. (9) Bill Elliott, Dodge, 184.438.

13. (25) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 184.385.

14. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 184.373.

15. (32) Ricky Craven, Pontiac, 184.362.

16. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 184.320.

17. (1) Steve Park, Chevrolet, 184.320.

18. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 184.313.

19. (22) Ward Burton, Dodge, 184.268.

20. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 184.230.

21. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 184.117.

22. (74) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, 184.026.

23. (41) Casey Mears, Dodge, 183.978.

24. (33) Christian Fittipaldi, Chevrolet, 183.914.

25. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 183.614.

26. (09) Mike Wallace, Dodge, 183.516.

27. (23) Kenny Wallace, Dodge, 183.490.

28. (0) Jack Sprague, Pontiac, 183.400.

29. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 183.221.

30. (97) Kurt Busch, Ford, 183.034.

31. (10) Johnny Benson, Pontiac, 183.005.

32. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 183.001.

33. (14) Larry Foyt, Dodge, 182.979.

34. (01) Jerry Nadeau, Pontiac, 182.908.

35. (7) Jimmy Spencer, Dodge, 182.841.

36. (43) John Andretti, Dodge, 182.815.

37. (5) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 182.682.

38. (54) Todd Bodine, Ford, 182.656.

39. (60) David Green, Chevrolet, 182.408.

40. (49) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 182.363.

41. (11) Brett Bodine, Ford, 182.267.

42. (2) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 182.171.

43. (4) Mike Skinner, Chevrolet, 182.035.

44. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 181.668.

45. (99) Jeff Burton, Ford, 181.360.

46. (02) Hermie Sadler, Pontiac, 181.027.

47. (37) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 180.668.

48. (90) Kirk Shelmerdine, Ford, 179.083.

49. (78) Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, 177.368.

50. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, did not finish.

51. (84) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, did not start.

RUSTY'S QUOTES: