RACE DAY REPORT
CAROLINA DODGE DEALERS 400
DARLINGTON RACEWAY - DARLINGTON, S.C.
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2003

PRE-RACE NOTES &
RACE INFORMATION:

"We've got a pretty strong hot rod there, I think," Rusty told Speed Channel reporter Bob Dillner after the final practice here yesterday. "With great pit stops and a little luck, it could be our day."

It was quite incredible that the Winston Cup teams got in all of their scheduled practice here yesterday. Showers were all around the track for all morning long, but did not close in until just prior to the scheduled start of the Busch race. The race went to red shortly after 1:00 p.m. and at 2:30 p.m. officials called off the event until Monday.

The weather here today was still threatening early this morning, but with the majority of the rain moving far to the north, adverse conditions were not expected to hamper the 1:00 p.m. start here today.

With this event being the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, naturally there were many Dodge manufacture officials in attendance. Roger Penske and Walt Czarnecki were in for the race to coach their drivers on here today.

Because of the weather, Rusty was unable to get in his usual round of golf yesterday afternoon. Instead, after doing some PR work including shooting a cover photo with Penske teammate Ryan Newman for an upcoming edition of Stock Car Racing Magazine, he hung out at the coach with son Stephen before meeting some of the team members for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. There they discussed today's race, in addition with this week's Texas test and next weekend's trip back to Bristol.

Today's pit road layout sees Rusty and his Bill Wiloburn-led team pitting in the No. 6 spot. The Jimmie Johnson team pits in front and the Jerry Nadeau team pits behind.

Not only had the rain left the area by the time the engines fired at 1:04 p.m., the sun was actually peeking through the clouds. The cars rolled off pit road at 1:07 p.m. and, after three parade laps, the green flag fell at 1:12 p.m.

Ryan cleared pole-winner Elliott Sadler going down the backstretch to lead the first lap. But, Sadler came back on the inside to grab the lead the next lap.

Jerry Nadeau was running second when he spun on the sixth lap in turn two to bring out the first yellow. None of the top 15 cars pitted during the caution. But when Jack Sprague spun on the frontstretch on lap 12 to bring out the second caution of the race, all the leaders pitted.

It was Jimmy Spencer leading on the lap 17 restart, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. second, Nadeau back up to third, John Andretti fourth and Jeff Green fifth. Mark Martin, Ricky Craven, Jeff Burton, Mike Skinner and Bill Elliott rounded out the top 10. Ryan was 20th and Rusty 21st.

After tangling with Jimmie Johnson in turn four, Sterling Marlin cut down a tire and slammed the first turn wall on lap 23 to bring out the third yellow of the race. All the leaders once again pitted. Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt, Nadeau and Spencer made up the top five for the lap 29 restart. Ryan was 18th and Rusty 22nd.

The cars didn't get a chance to get spread out before Jeff Burton blew an engine on lap 33 to draw the fourth yellow of the afternoon.

After the lap 40 restart, Earnhardt took the lead and controlled the pace up front.At lap 55, He had a 6.4-second lead over second-place Nadeau and was stretching it lap after lap.

Meanwhile, Ryan had radioed in that he was experiencing a severe tight condition and began falling back at a fast pace. At lap 65, the condition was a factor, along with contact from Ward Burton, in his turn two spin which brought out the fifth caution of the race.

All the leaders hit pit road. Unfortunately for Rusty, Joe Nemechek got on the brakes really hard and Rusty clipped the rear end of the No. 25 Chevy. It caused a gaping hole on the right front corner of Rusty's car.

Numerous pit stops ensued, but the fender braces were still in place and the team used ample duct tape to get the hole covered.

Amazingly, when the race had gone back to green after lap 75 and Rusty had made it passed some lapped cars at the rear of the field, he was actually turning lap times faster than anyone except leader Earnhardt.Ryan's car was still too tight.

Earnhardt controlled the lead until Martin chased him down and made the pass on lap 117. The pace was so torrid that Martin put Ryan down a lap on lap 120. Ryan short-pitted on the next lap for fresh tires and major chassis adjustments. Rusty pitted on lap 130, during the first round of green flag stops.

The stops cycled around on lap 136 with Martin in the lead, Gordon second, Matt Kenseth third, Sadler fourth and Earnhardt fifth. Ryan's car was now "free and drivable" and he had made up lots of time by short pitting. He was up to 11th, while Rusty was running in the 17th spot.

The adjustments on Ryan's car had brought it to life, but the crew went a little too far and the car was now getting too loose. He began falling back fast and by lap 167, he was lapped by leader Martin. He hit pit road again the very next lap for tires and adjustments.

Rusty was making up time and spots, running some 10 seconds in front of the leader when he was called down pit road for his scheduled green flag stop on lap 188.

Terrible luck struck the Penske camp when John Andretti spun out of turn four on lap 190 to bring out the sixth caution of the race. Because Martin and 10 other lead lap cars had yet to pit, that put Ryan down one lap and Rusty down two laps.

On the lap 197 restart, it was Gordon leading, with Sadler second, Martin third, Craven fourth, Blaney fifth, Michael Waltrip sixth, Tony Stewart seventh, Earnhardt eighth, Kurt Busch ninth, Elliott 10th and Kenseth 11th, the only cars remaining in the lead lap. Ryan was 16th, running one lap down and Rusty was 18th, running two laps down.

After a lap 236 caution for debris in turn four, Gordon continued to control the lead up front. He had a brief spirited battle with Busch and Sadler, but continued to lead until he made contact with the fourth turn wall with less than 30 laps remaining. Sadler's chances for a win were lessened when he also scraped the wall.

Busch inherited the lead and appeared to be heading toward a win, but Craven mustered a great challenge and closed the gap. He was on Busch's bumper with five laps to go and made a move to the inside with three laps remaining. The final three laps were as physical as possible on this track without cars crashing. The two swapped the lead twice before it came down to a side-by-side battle for the checkered flag. Craven got a good run to the inside out of turn four on the lap and emerged with a 0.002-second (matter of a half-foot or so) win over Busch. Blaney came home with a third, his best finish ever. Martin, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Sadler, Kenseth, Elliott and Stewart rounded out the top 10 finishers. Ryan was credited with a 14th-place finish, running one lap down, while Rusty was 16th, two laps down.

Kenseth continues to hold down the points lead with 760 points. Stewart is second with 703, Waltrip third with 698, Earnhardt fourth with 634 and a tie between Craven and Busch for fifth with 617 points each. Ryan is now 12th with 571, while Rusty is 20th with 524.

The Winston Cup tour now heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for next weekend's running of the Food City 500, one of the most exciting events of the year.

POST-RACE QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE -
"Now, that's a pretty tough pill to swallow. We had a solid top-10 car - maybe a top-five - and all we got out of it was a 16th. Our problems started out when the 25 car slammed on the brakes in front of us on pit road early in the race. That messed up the front end - the right front there was a big gaping hole - but the guys patched it up pretty good. They said at one time or another we were running second or third fast overall, even with the damaged front end. But what really got us was the pit stop there with about a hundred laps to go. Me and the 88 car had just pitted and the darned caution flew. That put us down the two laps and we just never could get a break to make them up. That just killed us and that kept us from having a good finish here today."