RACE DAY REPORT
PONTIAC EXCITEMENT 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY -- RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2003

PRE-RACE NOTES &
RACE INFORMATION:

Tonight's race marks Rusty's 600th consecutive Winston Cup Series race start. He'll be shooting for his seventh career Richmond win and looking to break a race win drought of 72 races.

Rusty is scheduled to be presented a plaque in recognition of his 600th start in the pre-race activities on slate here this evening. As a former race winner here, he is among a small group who will receive special jackets as the track is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend.

While the garage area opened here at 1:30 p.m. and the teams went through the procedures in readying their cars for tonight's 400-lap, 300-mile battle, the big topic for conversation here today was the condition of Jerry Nadeau. Nadeau crashed his Pontiac hard into the first turn wall during the afternoon practice. He hit driver-side and was cut out of the car. He was later airlifted to a local hospital where he remained in critical condition today.

Dale Beaver, chaplain for Motor Racing Outreach, was discussing the situation with members of Rusty's crew in the team transporter early this afternoon. He was at the hospital until nearly 2:00 a.m. this morning lending comfort to family members including Jerry's wife Jada. "It's promising," he said of Nadeau's condition.

Today's weather forecast calls for a slight chance of thundershowers on throughout the evening. The temperatures have cooled some 15 degrees over the last 24 hours and the race should go with temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s.

Jeff Burton paced both practice sessions here late yesterday afternoon and many insiders have labeled him to be the favorite in tonight's race. "He was a tick better than anybody else out there," said John Erickson, team general manager who also serves as the spotter for Rusty's Penske teammate Ryan Newman. "After that 99 car, then there's a group that includes Ryan, Rusty, the 8 car (Dale Earhardt Jr.), the 20 (Tony Stewart), the 18 (Bobby Labonte) and the 24 (Jeff Gordon). That's the way I saw it and that's what most of the guys up top were calling it."

For the record, Ryan posted the 23rd fastest lap and Rusty the 25th in the final "happy hour" practice session.

Surprise pole-winner Terry Labonte and his Jim Long-led team chose the first pit spot on pit road, while his Hendrick teammate and outside pole qualifier Joe Nemechek went with the 17th spot up pit road in order to get an opening in front. Ryan and his Matt Borland team, who start fifth here tonight, will pit from the 30th spot up pit road. There is an opening in front and the Robby Gordon team pits behind. Rusty and crew start 17th and pit in the 12th spot. The Mark Martin team pits in front and the Greg Biffle team pits behind.

With rain showers moving into the area, officials were pressed to move things as rapidly as possible. The engines were fired right as the FX-TV broadcast came on and that scrapped a pit road interview by Dick Berggren with Rusty concerning his 600th consecutive start. The cars rolled off pit road at 7:33 p.m. and, after three parade laps, the green flag fell at 7:35 p.m.

A spirited battle between Terry Labonte and Nemechek occurred for the first five laps, before Nemechek took control of the lead. Raindrops were reported on lap 30.

Steve Park crashed in turn two on lap 43 to cause the first caution. A 15.515-second stop under the yellow helped move Rusty up to 13th for the lap 54 restart. Terry Labonte regained the lead on pit road, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. second, Nemechek third, Ryan fourth and Jeff Burton fifth.

None of the leaders pitted when another yellow flew on lap 63 for a frontstretch spin by Jack Sprague and Brett Bodine.

After the restart, Ryan was able to use the high line to his advantage, moving up to second on lap 73. He moved underneath Terry Labonte on lap 75 for the lead.

Unfortunately for Ryan and crew, other drivers and spotters began reporting smoke coming from the rear of the No. 12 car on lap 86. "I've been smelling rear end grease for a couple of laps," Ryan radioed when he was told of the report.

"Post the 12 car," race director David Hoots radioed on lap 97, meaning that the black flag was going to be displayed. Ryan hit pit road the next lap and after the crew looked the car over, they took it to the garage. The entire rear end burned out and the team had to replace it and all the relative components.

Meanwhile, Rusty was up to fifth at lap 100 and on the move. Nemechek and Kurt Busch swapped the lead as Earnhardt and Rusty had them in sight. Jimmy Spencer's lap 141 turn four crash brought out another yellow and saw the leaders hit pit road again.

Rusty's 15.550-second stop put him out first, but after NASCAR reviewed the tape, they ruled that Bobby Labonte was inches ahead at the end of pit road and moved him up into the lead. Rusty was second, with Nemechek third, Earnhardt fourth and Ward Burton fifth.

Precipitation continued to fall and the race didn't restart until lap 158. Ryan returned to action on lap 189. With Bobby Labonte leading at lap 200, Rusty had fallen to fifth, with Nemechek, Earnhardt and Jeff Burton in between.

Rusty got around Burton before the fourth yellow of the night flew on lap 210, this one for rain. The leaders didn't pit then, but they hit pit road 15 laps later when Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart crashed in turn one to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

Bobby Labonte, Rusty, Earnhardt and others fell behind some 10 cars that had pitted during the earlier caution. Nemechek did not pit and he led, with Jeff Gordon second, Mark Martin third, Bill Elliott fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth. Bobby Labonte was 11th, Rusty 12th and Earnhardt 13th.

Rusty and his group exercised patience through the next 60 laps and three cautions to again be moving into the top five.

Rusty's move to the front got a damaging blow on lap 268 when he got tied up in a turn two crash involving Ryan, Ward Burton and later Jeff Green. Green creamed the wall and Rusty ran into him, damaging the right front suspension.

The team made a valiant effort in repairing the "toe-in," but they fell back to 28th, running as the final car in the lead lap.

During the next 75 laps, Jeff Gordon, Elliott, Martin, Kevin Harvick and even Robby Gordon shared time at the front before Nemechek finally gat back to the point. He grabbed the lead with 70 laps remaining and held off several challenges caused when cautions bunched the field back up. Rusty picked cars off one by one as he moved back up through the field.

Nemechek had jumped out to a comfortable lead when Sprague and Kenny Wallace crashed on the frontstretch to bring out the 15th caution flag of the night. What appeared to be a seven-lap shootout to the finish was called off as rain forced officials to display the red flag at 11:00 p.m. Some 10 minutes later, they ruled the race as official, which gave Nemechek the win. Bobby Labonte finished second, with Earnhardt third, Robby Gordon fourth, Martin fifth, Harvick sixth, Matt Kenseth seventh, Busch eighth, Jeff Burton ninth and Rusty 10th. Ryan was credited with a 39th-place finish.

Rusty moved into the top 10 in points with tonight's finish and is now ninth in the standings. Kenseth continues to lead with 1,619. Earnhardt is second with 1,599, Busch third with 1,452, Jeff Gordon fourth with 1,438, Bobby Labonte fifth with 1,376, Jimmie Johnson sixth with 1,372, Michael Waltrip seventh with 1,361, Harvick eighth with 1,328, Rusty ninth with 1,274 and Sterling Marlin 10th with 1,259. Ryan fell to 27th with 1,031 points.

The Winston Cup tour now takes another weekend off for Mothers' Day before heading to Lowe's Motor Speedway for their version of Speed Weeks 2003.

POST-RACE QUOTES:

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
"We had another great car and another great run. The car was great, and I came down the front straightaway there and I looked up and saw the back of Ryan's car wheel hopping. He got it in there and when the thing started wheel hopping it spun around and a couple of cars got together and it just wiped out everybody, including me.

"The guys have got this thing put back together. It was a good deal. We had four new tires, sitting there running 10th and if it had gone back to green we were going to finish fifth or so. All the new stuff we tried worked. We didn't use all of it, but what we went with a couple of things we learned at Memphis (test) and it worked well for us. I've got to say everything we've learned we've learned bits and pieces from all these little race tracks. Nothing was negative, that's for sure.

"We were gambling on the rain. If we had hit pit road and went out, we would have been leading and won. You don't know if it's going to rain, so you stay out. It dries up or it doesn't dry up. Who knows? I think the guys made all the right calls. We had a great car.

"It would have been nice to win tonight to celebrate the 600th straight start, but we got another top 10 and moved up to the top 10 in the points, and we've got a lot of racing left. We're heading in the right direction. We just need a break or two."