QUALIFYING DAY REPORT
DODGE/SAVE MART 350
INFINEON RACEWAY - SONOMA, CALIFORNIA
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003

PRACTICE INFORMATION:

Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace has been a busy man off the track this week before heading "Westward-Ho" to Sonoma, Calif.

Earlier in the week he could be found in Iowa laying the groundwork to become the designer of a new race track. He was in Milwaukee later for meetings with sponsor Miller Brewing later.

"I have the opportunity to design this track from the ground up and the goal is to eventually have my peers to say, 'hey, now that is a great race track,'" Rusty explained to a group of his team members huddled in the front of his team transporter this morning before practice. "We're going with a seve-eighths-mile layout with some similarities to the track in Richmond. The guys involved have realistic expectations for the place - no pipe dreams about Winston Cup and all. They'll start out with two ASA shows, two ARCA races and two USAC races. They'll use the place for a couple of concerts, too. It should be a fun project."

The weekend's forecast here at Infineon Raceway calls for sunny skies and temperatures reaching up into the 70s for each of the next three days here in California Wine Country. There is absolutely no chance of precipitation throughout race weekend.

Most teams and drivers arrived into the area yesterday in time to see the many sights, such as venturing into San Francisco or visiting some of the wineries in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

Rusty was hoping to have a new car ready for this weekend, but time didn't allow that to occur. He was able to take last year's race car up to Virginia International Raceway near Danville and get in a brief shakedown before the rains came.

Rusty and his Bill Wilburn-led team finished 12th at Michigan last Sunday and maintained their eighth spot in the points. Rusty's last road course win came at this track back in 1996 and his team is hot after a win anywhere - with the streak now at 77 races since the last victory.

The schedule here today called for two hours of practice, from 11:20 a.m. until 1:20 p.m. The 3:05 p.m. single round of qualifying will award all 43 starting positions for Sunday's 350-kilometer race.

Practice began right on time and after the first hour, it was Boris Said, driving the No. 01 Pontiac for injured driver Jerry Nadeau, as fastest with a lap time of 1:17.413 seconds. Last week's winner, Kurt Busch, was second with a 1:17.421, Mark Martin was third with a 1:17.640, Robby Gordon fourth with a 1:17.834 and Michael Waltrip fifth with a 1:18.113. Rusty's 1:18.162 was seventh, while Rusty's Penske teammate Ryan Newman was 13th with a 1:18.505.

Several incidents including Said's car dropping fluids and stalling and a couple of crashes extended the practice until 1:30 p.m. When the red and black flags were finally displayed, ending the pre-qualifying practice, it was Said still atop the speed chart with a fast lap of 1:17.264 seconds. Bobby Labonte clocked in with the second-fastest lap of 1:17.284 seconds in the final minutes of practice. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 1:17.322 was third, Jeff Gordon's 1:17.385 fourth and Robby Gordon's 1:17. 404 fifth. Ryan was 12th with a 1:17.664 and Rusty's 1:17.712 was 14th.

Martin is scheduled out first of the 47 drivers expected to make qualifying runs here this afternoon. The Penske drivers are early qualifiers with Rusty scheduled out seventh in the order and Ryan out 10th.

NASCAR's timing and scoring calculates times in total seconds, not minutes and seconds.

Martin kicked off the qualifying session with a 77.701. Rusty turned heads with his 77.180 (92.823 mph). Ryan turned in a 77.510 (92.427 mph).

Rusty's time held the point until Kenseth, out 16th, ran a 77.133 (92.879 mph). That held the point until Ron Fellows, out 26th, ran a 76.972 (93.073 mph).

Then all the attention was focused on Said. If Fellows could run that fast, how fast would Said blister the track? After Robby Gordon turned in a 76.816, the next man up was Said and he didn't disappoint with his new track record 76.522 (93.620 mph) lap.

When the dust settled, it was Said on the pole, with Robby Gordon second, Fellows third, Kenseth fourth and Kurt Busch fifth. Kevin Harvick, Rusty (seventh), Jeff Gordon, Ricky Rudd and Tony Stewart rounded out the top 10 qualifiers here today. Ryan will start in the 13th starting spot.

Sunday's Save Mart 350 has a 12:30 p.m. local (3:30 p.m. EDT) starting time and features live coverage by FOX-TV and PRN Radio.

RUSTY'S QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
"I really ran hard around the whole race track. As I made the right-hander going behind the scoring stand, I got dead sideways where Jimmie Johnson spun out. I definitely lost a couple of tenths there, but it was pretty good the rest of the way. That was a pretty good lap."