RACE DAY REPORT
UAW-CHRYSLER 400 - LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2003

PRE-RACE NOTES &
RACE INFORMATION:

Rusty and his Bill Wilburn-led Miller Lite team are confident that their Dodge Intrepid can be a factor here in today's UAW-Chrysler 400. Rusty clocked in with the 11th-fastest lap in yesterday morning's early practice and was eighth in the final session. They know the importance of great pit stops and strategy.

One of the Penske Racing crew members picked up an odds sheet at the sports book back at the hotel this morning. Busch showed as the favorite with 8/2 odds. For the record, Rusty's Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman was 7/1 and Rusty was 13/1.

Rusty's day began early here this morning as he was escorted over to a hospitality function for the race track before 9:00 a.m. With today's race starting at 12:00 noon local time, that meant that the driver and crew chief meeting went off at 10:00 a.m. There was plenty of time before the 11:30 a.m. driver introductions. Rusty spent that time back at his coach.

Much of the conversation in the garage area had absolutely nothing to do with racing. It was a refreshing change to hear crew members discuss what they saw and did during their leisure hours here in Las Vega. Many conversations, of course, centered around the different fates of those who chose to wager while out here.

Once again, Rusty is penning a special column here for the Las Vegas Sun and a column earlier this week detailed his particular liking for this race and this track. "It's like a working vacation - a lot of fun with all the stuff to do," he told Sun staff writer Brian Hilderbrand.

The Penske drivers and teams certainly have enjoyed their "Vegas Visit" and the icing on the cake would be great performances here today.

Rusty and his team start in the 25th spot and they pit in the fourth spot up pit road. The Jerry Nadeau team pits in front and the Jeff Green team pits behind.

The engines were fired at 12:02 p.m. and the 43-car field rolled off pit road at 12:05 p.m. After three parade laps, the green flag flew at 12:11 p.m.

Jeff Gordon got a good jump on the outside of pole winner Bobby Labonte to take the lead on lap one. He led the first 50 laps, before Dale Earnhardt Jr. powered by for the lead on lap 51. During that period, Rusty had radioed in that his car was tight entering the turn and loose off. He had slid back to the 30th spot. Ryan, on the other hand, was too loose and he had fallen to 10th. Ryan short-pitted on lap 48 to make adjustments.

With leader Earnhardt breathing down his neck, Rusty pitted under green on lap 57 for four tires, fuel and adjustments. Earnhardt pitted on the same lap and emerged in front of Rusty. When the stops cycled around on lap 60, Earnhardt led with Gordon second, Labonte third, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Michael Waltrip fifth. Ryan was 11th and Rusty was 32nd, running a lap down.

Rusty momentarily got back around Earnhardt, but that was short lived. To add insult to injury, Bill had to radio Rusty on lap 75 that only six gallons of fuel had managed to get into the car during the last pit stop and that the team would have to pit again soon.

Rusty had to hit pit road again on lap 80 for four tires and fuel. A spring rubber was finally removed from the left rear suspension and the resulting 22.701 second stop saw Rusty three laps down at the time.

Earnhardt continued to control the pace up front until DEI teammate Waltrip got around to lead on lap 91.

Ryan pitted under green on lap 95. Only four laps later, Larry Foyt got into Ricky Craven exiting turn four and Craven spun to bring out the first caution of the race. While all the leaders hit pit road on lap 100, both Penske drivers were now two laps down and pitted a lap later.

On the lap 106 restart, it was Earnhardt leading, with Waltrip second, Johnson third, Labonte fourth and Joe Nemechek fifth. Ryan was 34th and Rusty 35th.

Mark Martin¹s blown engine on lap 116 dropped oil on the track and brought out the second yellow flag of the race. After a round of pit stops under the caution, the restart on lap 121 had Waltrip leading, with Nemechek second, Earnhardt third, Johnson fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth. Ryan was 33rd and Rusty 34th, both still two laps down.

When Elliott Sadler blew an engine on lap 125 to bring out the third caution, Ryan was able to pass leader Earnhardt before the yellow to get one of his lost laps back. Rusty was able to do likewise only seven laps later after Steve Park tapped Dale Jarrett into the turn one wall to cause the fourth caution of the day.

Earnhardt again proved too tough for either Penske driver to get another lap back. Jamie McMurray spun out of turn four on alp 165 to bring out caution No. 5 and send the leaders back to pit road.

Gordon led the lap 171 restart, with Kenseth using two-tire strategy and moving up to second. Earnhardt was third, with Johnson fourth and Sterling Marlin fifth. Ryan was 23rd and Rusty 27th, both running a lap down. Ryan got a great jump and set sail in front of the leaders. Kenseth grabbed the lead on lap 172 as Gordon slid back through the field.

Rusty¹s day came to an abrupt end on lap 175. Mike Skinner was on the inside of Rusty entering turn one. He got a little too deep into the turn and wiggled into Rusty, sending Rusty spinning into the outside wall. Gordon got buried in the smoke from that spin and hit Skinner's Pontiac in a wreck in which Kurt Busch's Ford also got serious damage.

As bad as that was for Rusty, Skinner Gordon and Busch, it was a good break for Ryan because it allowed him to make up the second lap he'd lost earlier and put him back on the lap with Kenseth and the other leaders. He was in 16th position on the restart on Lap 184.

Back up front, Johnson and Marlin got past Earnhardt Jr. after the restart but both were chasing Kenseth, who built his lead in his Ford as the final round of pit stops approached.

Kenseth came in for his stop on Lap 228 and the rest of the front-runners came in over the next few laps. Newman, who'd been two laps down earlier, actually assumed the lead during that round of stops before he stopped on Lap 232. He wound up finishing a remarkable seventh.

Kenseth's four-tire stop was blazing fast, and once everyone had been in he was four seconds ahead of Johnson with 31 laps to go. Johnson had changed only two tires on his stop, so he had nothing for the leader and began fading. He spun out after making contact with Marlin on the final lap and wound up finishing 11th, the last car on the lead lap.

At the finish, it was Kenseth winning yet another race here for Jack Roush. Earnhardt finished second, with Waltrip third, Labonte fourth, Stewart fifth, Jeff Burton seventh, Ryan coming home a credible seventh, Marlin eighth, Nemechek ninth, Park 10th and Johnson 11th. Rusty was credited with a 40th-place finish.

Heading in to next weekend¹s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Waltrip leads the point standings with 461 points. Kenseth is second with 458, Johnson third with 447, Jeff Burton fourth with 412 and Tony Stewart fifth with 409. Ryan is 17th with 306 points and Rusty is 22nd with 291 points.

POST-RACE QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE -
"I'm okay, but the car is junk. It was just one of those racing deals down there in turn one. The four car was in there low and got a little loose. He tapped me and away I went. It wasn't a good day for us. We got way behind there at the beginning. Something happened and we only got six gallons of fuel in the thing under the first stop. Than forced us to pit again after only a few laps and put us two laps down. We were able to make up one of them and I think the way the car was running, it was a top-five or top-10 car. But we got crashed out, and here we are in the garage, out early. The thing is that these Goodyear Tires are just so hard that they don't wear and with the aero situation we have out there, it's easy for things like this to happen. I'm lobbying really heavy for NASCAR to get some of the spoilers off these things and get us some softer tires. It'll make the competition much better and you'll see fewer of these things happening that we got caught up in here today. Oh well, we'll just have to write this one off and head back to North Carolina to get ready to get back after it in Atlanta next weekend."