RUSTY WALLACE THINKS ROAD COURSE HOLDS THE ANSWER
MILLER LITE DODGE TEAM WANTS MORE SUCCESS AT INFINEON

-Wallace Looking For Seventh Career Road Course Win, Breaking 77-Race Victory Draught­-

SONOMA, Calif. (June 17, 2003) - Miller Lite Team Penske Dodge driver Rusty Wallace thinks that this weekend's return to road course competition might just offer up the perfect environment to claim his 55th career victory and break a 77-race victory drought.

"Heck, we've been turning left all season so far and what we've done is left so much on the table," offered Wallace, whose 54 career NASCAR Winston Cup wins entering this weekend include six on road courses and two of them at the Sonoma, Calif., track. "Maybe getting out there and turning right for a change will see us have the right stuff to get the job done.

"We just need to finally put together a whole race out there," said Wallace, currently eighth in the Winston Cup point standings after Sunday's 12th-place finish at Michigan. " I mean I think we could have won there in recent years, but we'd have something happen - a bad pit stop or me getting off the track. We've had a lot of flats to hit us, too. We just need to click on all eight cylinders for an entire race and I think we can get back in Victory Lane.

"We've had a lot of success at Sears Point (Infineon Raceway) through the years and it would be great to add to that," said Wallace, whose last road course win came at this track in 1996. "We're confident we'll be in the thick of things and with a little luck, we can add another chapter to our road course book."

A "road course book" that already contains these chapters:

"The early years":

"When we first went out there (in 1989), for the first couple of years it seemed like it always came down to me and (Ricky) Rudd battling for the win," Wallace recalled. "In the very first race, I won the pole and he had me out in the dirt coming down for the finish of that one. He won it and I finished second. Then the next year, he won the pole and I won the thing. Heck, people think we've stirred up some excitement together in just the last few seasons. The folks who saw those races back then saw some helluva' battles -- running all over each other and dirt flying all over the place. And the records will show that the win there in 1990 was the last win ever for the old Blue Max Team as that deal was coming to an end. That'll always be special."

"The 1990's":

"Man, it seems like we were right there going for the win in every one of them, so close but we didn't win again until '96," said Wallace. "That was such a cool race. We dominated the thing all race long. We just killed 'em all. When we took the checkered flag, somebody said on the radio, 'Rusty you just killed 'em out there today…killed 'em all…you better name that thing 'Killer.' We always name our cars after their first wins, so we named that car 'Killer' that day after winning that one. Now that was a special car, too, because we took the thing over to Suzuka (Japan) later that year and won the first international race with it. That was something that I'll always treasure."

"The off-track memories":

"Wow, now you wanna' talk about some fun times? Maybe a little on the weird side, but they certainly have been a lot of fun," said Wallace. "The PR guys at Sears Point have always been on the ball, I think. My hat's off to them because they knew they'd have to come up with something really unique to go up against the stick and ball sports and get some ink in a market like San Francisco.

"Well, they really came up with some unusual gimmicks and they all hit home runs. It was neat to be part of them. They had us drive show cars across the Golden Gate (Bridge) one year and they let me drive the lead car. We had the wire service writer (AP writer Anne Peterson) riding with us and there she was over on the right side hanging on to the roll cage for dear life going over the thing.

"Then one year, they had me driving a cab through the streets of San Francisco and the fares I took went to a local charity. I took one TV crew down that curvy street (Lombard Street) and just about threw 'em all out. Then I ran up on the curb in front of a big hotel and the cops pulled me over. The poor PR guy had to come to my rescue or they were gonna' throw me in jail. And I'll never forget the last fare of the day. The cameraman for the top-rated TV station in the city was riding in the front seat shooting the whole deal. We picked up a gal down at the wharf area and took her back to her condo and dropped her off. Turned out that she was a 'porno' star. She had me playing a guessing game at what she did for a living all along the way and the TV guys had all of that on tape.

"The last time we helped 'em out was a few years ago. We rode with the California Highway Patrol, pulled people over and gave them tickets -- not tickets for speeding or nothing, but free tickets for the race. I wore my uniform and we really surprised some people. We got this one couple from Washington who was really big fans of ours. Heck, they had their poodle wearing a Rusty Wallace T-shirt and the lady even had No. 2 car earrings on when we pulled 'em over. I know that (Dale) Earnhardt did the same deal later on at Talladega, I believe, and it was a big hit with the media there, too."

"The glitches along the way":

"Well definitely, you have to look back at that race in 1993," said Wallace. "It probably cost us the damned championship that year. We'd had the big crash at Talladega in the race just before it. I broke my wrist and had a pin put in my arm. They had me wearing a brace that really restricted the movement. I was pretty stubborn, but I was determined. Roger (Penske) had a kid (Scott Sharp) who was really an ace on the road courses standing by. There I was leading the thing with 10 to go and I stripped the transmission out of the thing. Instead of winning it and keeping the points lead, we fell out and finished right at the bottom (finished in the 38th spot) and lost the points lead to Dale Earnhardt."

"And I'll never forget that deal back a few years ago (the 2000 race). We absolutely blistered 'em in qualifying and we set the track record," Wallace said of his lap of 99.309 mph (70.652 seconds), which is the current track qualifying record. "Well, I guess NASCAR was tired of us winning all the poles that year (it was sixth of nine poles for the season) and they wanted to get back at us.

"It was unbelievable. They didn't have garages or anything like that. They tore our engine down and made a public spectacle out of it all. They just tore the motor down and put all the parts right there on a table for everybody to see. There must have been three or four hundred people gathered around watching. People were gawking…'ooohing and awwwing'…and a bunch of photos were taken. I'll never forget that Robin (Pemberton) was the crew chief then and Roger (Purcell) was our engine tuner at the track. They both said that they felt like they were almost molested there that day. It was a dark day in the sport and still is…if you ask me."

Wallace started eighth and finished 27th in last year's race at Infineon Raceway. After running fourth and moving toward the front, a pit miscue saw Wallace have to pit for a second time under yellow on lap 86 because of loose left front lugnuts. That dropped him to 32nd for a restart with 25 laps remaining.

Wallace's run was further damaged when he had a left rear tire go flat and shred with two laps to go. He fell from 12th to finish 27th in the remaining distance.

"Man, that really hurt," Wallace recalled. " It was shaping up to be our day and then the bottom fell out. We really had too much sway bar, too much rear spring and too low of gear. It just wouldn't roll and bite like it should have. Anyhow, it looked like it was gonna' be a great points day for us and we had a top-five for sure. The left front was loose on that caution flag stop and I had to come back in. That killed us. But, Billy was coaching me on and we got back up there headed for a pretty good finish and the left rear blew out. I must have hurt it when the 11 car (Brett Bodine) got into me when I was passing him. It definitely could have been a big day for us and we just weren't able to capitalize on it."

Friday's 2:05 p.m. PDT single round of qualifying will award all 43 starting positions for Sunday's race. Saturday's practice sessions are set for 9:30 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 has a 12:00 noon PDT starting time and features live coverage by Fox TV and PRN (radio).

-Rusty Wallace Career Track Records-
INFINEON RACEWAY
(1.95-miles)

Date Event Car St Fn Laps $ Won Status

6/232/02 Dodge Save Mart 350 Ford 8 27 110/110 $91,715 Running
6/24/01 Dodge Save Mart 300 Ford 2 5 112/112 94,780 Running
6/25/00 Save Mart 350 Ford 1 26 112/112 61,500 Running
6/27/99 Save Mart 350 Ford 4 4 112/112 56,340 Running
6/28/98 Save Mart 350 Ford 28 5 112/112 49,715 Running
5/4/97 Save Mart 300 Ford 2 40 47/74 38,720 Engine
5/5/96 Save Mart 300 Ford 7 1 74/74 58,395 Running
5/7/95 Save Mart 300 Ford 6 20 74/74 25,680 Running
5/15/94 Save Mart 300 Ford 12 5 74/74 25,970 Running
5/16/93 Save Mart 300 Pontiac 6 38 64/74 15,615 Trans.
6/7/92 Save Mart 300 Pontiac 3 7 74/74 18,110 Running
6/9/91 Banquet 300 Pontiac 4 3 74/74 34,975 Running
6/10/90 Banquet 300 Pontiac 11 1 74/74 69,100 Running
6/11/89 Banquet 300 Pontiac 1 2 74/74 39,225 Running

Races Wins Top-5 Top-10 Poles $$$$$

Dodge Save Mart 350 & Total 14 2 8 9 2 $679,840

Lap completion percentage: 1,187/1,224 = 97.0 percent

RUSTY WALLACE/MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE
2003 RACE RECORD/CAREER STATISTICAL BRIEF

Race Race Name Start Finish Laps comp/ Times Led/
Date Location Pos. Pos. Poss. Laps Laps Led $$$ Won Status/Comment

2/16 Daytona 500 38 25 109/109 0/0 185,625 Running/PC-33 pitted late
Daytona Beach, Fla. for oil on windshield
2/23 Subway 400 8 6 393/393 4/182# 103,710 Running/PC-54 was the
Rockingham, N.C. toughest for 2/3rds race
3/2 UAW/Chrysler 400 25 40 174/267 0/0 92,300 Accident/PC-47 crashed Las Vegas, Nevada by No. 4 in turn 1
3/9 Bass Pro/MBNA 500 7 15 324/325 0/0 88,092 Running/PC-43 slapped
Hampton, Ga. wall racing for 5th
3/16 Carolina Dodge 400 13 16 291/293 0/0 83,827 Running/PC-29 tough, but
Darlington, S.C. caution put 2 laps down
3/23 Food City 500 4 14 498/500 1/5 99,882 Running/New PC-60 lost
Bristol, Tenn. 2 laps on green pit stop
3/30 Samsung/R. Shack 500 10 14 333/334 0/0 126,692 Running/PC-51 again
Justin, Texas bitten after green stop
4/6 Aaron's 499 31 37 12/188 0/0 101,567 Accident/PC-33 caught
Talladega, Ala. in lap 4crash/returned
4/13 Virginia 500 5 8 500/500 1/13 91,217 Running/PC-49 tough;
Martinsville, Va. Great stops, then bad
4/27 Auto Club 500 7 3 250/250 2/54 146,917 Running/PC-51 was in
Fontana, Calif. a position to win
5/3 Pontiac 400 17 10 392/392 0/0 91,942 Running/New PC-57
Richmond, Va. Came back from run-in
5/25 Coca-Cola 600 34 12 275/276 0/0 117,542 Running/PC-43 hampered
Concord, N.C. by lug problem & rain
6/1 MBNA Family 400 2 6 400/400 1/41 110,097 Running/PC-54 tough
Dover, Delaware but tick too tight
6/8 Pocono 500 27 16 200/200 0/0 84,957 Running/PC-34 tight
Long Pond, Pa. with no practice
6/15 Sirius 400 17 12 200/200 0/0 93,457 Running/PC-51 was
Brooklyn, Mich. loose most of race

# led most laps

2003 Season Recap: (points events)
Races Led/
Times Led/
Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Laps Led Points Information
15 0 1 6 0 5/9/295 8th/1,798/-477 to 1st (#17)

Lap Completion Percentage 2002 Winnings Average Start: 16.3
4,351/4,627 = 94.0% $1,754,182 Average Finish: 15.6
DNFs: 2

Career Brief:

Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Career $$$ Won
613 54 190 314 36 $36,103,578