PRACTICE INFORMATION:

After the great weather enjoyed by one and all last Saturday and Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, things were more back to normal here at New Hampshire International Speedway this morning.

Just as rain has been part of the picture for the vast majority of the 18 races held so far on the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup schedule, the wet stuff entered the scene again this morning here at NHIS. Although it was partly sunny this morning when the teams arrived at the garage area, the clouds began moving in just after 9:00 a.m. By 10:30 a.m., light sprinkles began falling and at 11:00 a.m., just 20 minutes prior to the scheduled start of
Winston Cup practice, a rather heavy shower hit the area.

Rusty and his Bill Wilburn-led Miller Lite Team Penske had transmission problems and finished back in the 32nd spot last Sunday at Chicagoland, but any hurt from that race was immediately shed as the team went directly to Indianapolis for two days of testing in preparation for the Brickyard 400, which is coming up during the first weekend of August.

With the success Rusty and his team have had here, it is easy to get "pumped up" for this weekend's New England 300. After all, Rusty is returning to NHIS with a record that sports one win, six top-five finishes, 10 top-10 positions and two poles in 16 prior visits to the track.

The No. 2 team returns with what may be considered a "reincarnated" race car. "It's the same chassis we had here last year, but that's all you can say in that regard," explained Bill of the team's PC-49 chassis. "We ran it at New Hampshire and Martinsville last year with the Ford sheet metal and then changed it over to the Dodge Intrepid body this year. We raced it at
Martinsville, led some laps and came out of there with a top 10 finish (started fifth, led 13 laps and finished eighth). But we knew this car could be even stronger on these flatter tracks.

"The car was taken out of rotation after the Martinsville race," Bill
continued. "That's the only race we've used it in. Since then, that Dodge body was cut off and the thing has been completely stripped down. We started basically from scratch with the rolling chassis and went from there with this new version of the 49 car we're bringing to Loudon.

"This new rendition has the best short-track body we've ever had on a car in my opinion. The old body was great on drag, but terrible on downforce. This new car will have the most downforce we've ever had in a short-track car and it definitely has the wind tunnel numbers to back that up. I know Rusty's all jacked up about it and he can't wait to get back to Loudon and race this car."

When the team gets the opportunity to get the car on the track remained the big question at 11:45 a.m. this morning as yet another shower moved through the area.

The track-drying process was going along quite nicely until 12:45 p.m., when the heaviest shower of the day pounded the track, along with some thunder and lightning. The rain persisted, forcing officials to cancel qualifying for tomorrow's Busch race and set that starting field by points.

Time became an issue, with officials now faced with trying to fit in Busch final practice and both practice and qualifying for the Winston Cup division into the remainder of the afternoon. Just after 3:30 p.m., the opted to pull the plug on Winston Cup qualifying and set the field by the current points. By virtue of this move, Rusty will start Sunday's race 11th, while his Penske teammate Ryan Newman will start in the 16th starting position.

Sunday's top 10 starters, in order, will be Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Sterling Marlin.

Sunday's New England 300 has a 2:00 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.

RUSTY'S QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE:

"I think it would have been neat to have had the opportunity
to get this car out there and see how it stacked up in qualifying trim.We've got a lot of high hopes for this car here this weekend and were hoping to qualify well with it, too. We'd gotten a real good draw, going out something like fourth or fifth from last and that was bound to help. But, starting 11th isn't that bad. We'll be on the inside of the sixth row and starting on the inside is what you prefer here. We'll just have to get this little hot rod decked out in the race trim and see how it stacks up with 'em that way. I think we'll be strong here on Sunday."