QUALIFYING DAY REPORT
COCA-COLA 600
LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY - CONCORD, N.C.
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2003

PRACTICE INFORMATION:

Miller Lite driver Rusty Wallace and his Bill Wilburn-led team are eager to get back to action here at Lowe's Motor Speedway. After last weekend's dismal finishes in the non-points The Winston all-star race, Rusty and crew brought a different car (the PC-43) here for this week's action.

"Last week was last week and this week is this week," said Rusty, who finished 21st in last Saturday's The Winston "all-star" race after failing to advance past the first segment, earlier this week. "This week is the big pie in the sky - the World (Coca-Cola) 600 - the major big-time race and that's where all of our focus has been since about 10 o'clock last Saturday night."

The Winston did not pay any points and not advancing from the first segment kept Rusty from getting involved in several crashes later on in the race, such as the one that totaled out Penske teammate Ryan Newman's car.

"It was a little embarrassing to not advance the other night, but when you look back as far as the big picture goes, we still have a great race car without a single scratch on it that we'll probably take to Michigan next," Rusty said of the PC-51 used here last weekend. "I know last year we crashed hard later on in the show and I broke my foot, so I know what Bill Elliott is going through here this week. The thing is that we're up to ninth in the points and looking to continue to move toward the front. The big show - when the points and opportunity to advance are on the line - well that's here this weekend."

Unfortunately for all the 46 teams gathered here in the garage area yesterday, continuous rain forced officials to scrap the entire schedule and hopefully come back here this morning and run an abbreviated practice and qualifying schedule.

The rain subsided earlier this morning, but the forecast called for more wet weather today. The great news is that, regardless of what comes into place with today's schedule, the area is to be blessed with picture-perfect weather for Saturday and Sunday.

Although the heavy precipitation had moved out of the area, a slight mist continued to hamper the drying effort on the track and the ARCA race that was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. this morning didn't get the green flag until after 11:00 a.m. The revised schedule now called for Winston Cup practice from 12:15 p.m. until 1:30 p.m., with qualifying beginning at 3:00 p.m.

It wasn't until after 12:30 p.m. that the Winston Cup cars finally made it onto the track. After the first 30 minutes, Ryan had everybody's attention, as he was fastest with a 29.319-second lap. Jimmie Johnson was second with a 29.325, Tony Stewart third with a 29.498, Jeff Gordon fourth with a 29.639 and rookie Jack Sprague fifth with a 29.662. Rusty was 26th on the chart with a 30.100.

The final 10 minutes of the session saw speed chart change often. When the session concluded, it was Johnson's 29.081 fastest, with Stewart's 29.256 second, Sprague's 29.316 third, Ryan's earlier lap fourth and Dave Blaney's 29.539 fifth. Rusty wasn't able to better his 30.100 turned earlier and that had slid to 44th overall. The speculation around the No. 2 camp was that perhaps this car (PC-43) was not as strong from an aerodynamic standpoint as it needed to be.

The qualifying order sees Johnny Benson as first of the 46 drivers set to make qualifying runs. Ryan goes out second and Rusty is scheduled out 26th. Others include Gordon, out 13th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., out 18th and Johnson, out 22nd.

Ryan didn't disappoint when it came his time to qualify. The session started some 15 minutes later than scheduled, but he took to the track second and turned in a lap of 29.140 (185.312 mph) to give all the competitors something to shoot at.

One by one they tried. Gordon ran a 29.350 and Earnhardt only a 29.742. Johnson's luck turned sour as he has a crankshaft break on his warm-up lap and was listed as a DNF. Rusty picked up some speed, but his time of 29.861 was not a threat. Mike Skinner was a surprise with a 29.348. Stewart managed a 29.433.

As it would turn out, Ryan's closest competition for the pole came from Elliott Sadler, who went out 40th in the order and turned in a 29.300 (184.300 mph).

Ryan wound up winning his second Coca-Cola 600 pole and will have Sadler starting on the outside of him on the front row. Skinner, Gordon, Sprague, Stewart, Joe Nemechek, Blaney, Michael Waltrip and Benson round out the top 10 qualifiers. Rusty will start 34th and will have some super competitors starting even further back in the field. The Burton Brothers, Sterling Marlin and Johnson will all start behind Rusty here on Sunday.

Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 has a 6:05 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)
"We've struggled since we came off the truck, but we got it better. We need some more time because I know which way to go with it now. We've been loose since we unloaded. It's a different car than we had last weekend, and it's doing some radically different things. It's got different looking fenders on it, and I think we might have overshot with the fenders a little bit. We've got to get working on it and get it tightened up. I had it real tight for qualifying, and when it was all said and done, I had it too tight. It pushed from the center of the corner."