PRACTICE INFORMATION:

After last Sunday's absolutely beautiful weather at the New Hampshire International Speedway, it was a couple of days back in the Carolinas and what else but more rain for the traveling circus known as the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit.

But the trip back up north here to Pocono Raceway brought a pleasant change almost a carbon copy of the weather that was left in New Hampshire. Partly cloudy skies high temperatures reaching into the mid-80s make up the forecast here for the next few days.

Miller Lite Team Penske drive3r Rusty Wallace is looking to pick back up on the level of success he has enjoyed here through the years. His overall career record on the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pennsylvania race track sports four wins, nine top-five finishes, 16 top-10 finishes and three poles in 39 races. His last win here came in 2000 and his victory here in 1996 still rates as the fastest Winston Cup race ever run here to date.

Rusty had a Nikon appearance late yesterday afternoon over in the western part of the state and he fought weather much of the day getting here. He arrived in the area just before 9:00 p.m. and still had time to make it over to the Edelweiss, a favorite restaurant of his for a late dinner last night.

The two-hour practice session began here on time at 11:20 a.m. this morning. At the mid-point of the session, points leader Matt Kenseth was fastest with a lap of 53.750 seconds. Kurt Busch's 53.776 was second, Rustyy¹s Penske teammate Ryan Newman¹s 54.019 third, Bill Elliott's 54.031 fourth and Joe
Nemechek's 54.068 fifth. Rusty's 54.281 was 15th.

Ryan and crew saved the best for last in practice as they went out with less than five minutes remaining and turned in a 43.224 to better Jimmie Johnson's 53.269. Sterling Marlin's 53.560 was third, Kenseth's 53.687 fourth and Nemechek's 53.713 fifth. Rusty could not find any more speed and his 54.281 was 32nd on the speed chart.

"Guys, we're gonna' have to go up front here and figure something out to do," Rusty said as a group consisting of himself, crew chief Bill Wilburn, engineer Roy McCauley and shock specialist Tom Hoke moved to the front of the transporter and closed the door.

For the 3:05 p.m. qualifying session, it will be Marlin the first of 44 drivers attempting to make the starting field. Rusty is 18th in the order, while Ryan goes out 26th.

Qualifying began as scheduled and it was rookie Casey Mears, out third, surprisingly fastest of the early guys out with his 53.445. Kenseth, out fifth, lowered the fast time to a 53.403.

Rusty was out as scheduled and was a great surprise with his 53.346 (169.710 mph). "I told you that would free the thing up and it did," was Rusty's response on the radio after hearing his time. It was second fastest at the time, behind John Andretti's 53.278.

After Bobby Labonte went out and turned in a 53.276, all the eyes were focused on Ryan. He certainly didn't disappoint when he turned in a 52.830 (170.358 mph). He surprisingly took a second lap. It wasn't as fast, but he radioed that he, "didn't get what I wanted on that first lap." But the clock certainly said differently.

Elliott Sadler was out 33rd and he threatened with his 53.177. But it was Johnson who had everyone's attention when he took to the track as scheduled. His 53.194 first lap was good for third, but he mustered a 52.997 (169.821 mph) on his second lap to take the second spot beside Ryan. None of the final nine drivers threatened the top five.

So it's Ryan with another great performance and a Pocono pole, with Johnson starting second, Sadler third, Bobby Labonte fourth, John Andretti fifth, Terry Labonte sixth, Rusty seventh, Dale Jarrett eighth, Kenseth ninth and Mears 10th.

Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 has a 1:00 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.

RUSTY'S QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE:

"RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
"I'm real happy with that. That was a big gain from practice. The bell housing really bottomed out in practice and was really upsetting the car in turn one. The guys got together and worked real hard on it. We dreamed up a setup and loosened the car up a ton for qualifying. It fixed a lot of the problems we had in practice. It woke it right up. Turn one was killing me in practice, and that cost me a lot of speed. We got some clearance and got it where those front springs could travel. After you get through that you get greedy. You want the tunnel turn to be great. One of the other important turns is turn three. If you don't have speed getting off you're not going to have any speed in the straightaway. We put some more gear ratio to it to get
the motor wound up in case we did make a little mistake. Gear ratio is real big here. You've got to have really good luck in the pits (to win Sunday). You've got to have good track position, fuel mileage and obviously a great handling car, but nowadays you can have a great handling car and still lose it on fuel mileage or maybe a two or four-tire stop."