WALLACE AND MILLER LITE TEAM ON A MISSION AT MARTINSVILLE
-Track Statistical Leader Looking For More Success; Debuting New Dodge This Weekend-

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 12, 2004) - Riding the thrust from two straight top-five finishes, which has rocketed him 12 spots up to 11th in the current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, Rusty Wallace and his Larry Carter-led Miller Lite Dodge team are on a mission.

"Keeping that momentum going this weekend at Martinsville, that's it plain and simple," Wallace offered Monday when asked about his team's goal in this weekend's Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway. "That's the mission we're on and Martinsville is a great track for us to continue riding that wave. This team is getting stronger and stronger and it's just a matter of time when we break through and win again."

Wallace enters this weekend as the active statistical leader at Martinsville with six wins, 15 top-five finishes, 22 top-10 finishes and three poles in 40 races.

"The guys have been putting great racecars out there all year long and we finally got the problem with the pit stops fixed," said Wallace. "We really have everything clicking for us right now and we're looking forward to keeping that going this weekend at Martinsville.

"Our in-house chassis has been super through the years and this latest version we've been using recently has been exceptional," said Wallace, whose Penske Racing South organization has been building "ground-up" (Penske Chassis or "PC") racecars since Wallace debuted the team's "PC-1" at Pocono on June 16, 1996 and won with the same car at Michigan the very next week. "We've now seen well over 70 cars that have been built at our shop and we've been having some great runs with our newest cars. The (PC-) 71 car is the one we debuted at Atlanta and bounced back to finish fifth with out at Texas. We brought out the
(PC-) 73 car at Bristol and turned heads with it right out of the box with our runner-up finish there.

"Now the car we have ready for this weekend is another brand new piece - the (PC-) 70 car," said Wallace, whose last Martinsville win came in April 1996 and most recent pole came in qualifying for the April 2000 race. "We looked at taking it to Martinsville and testing there last week, but decided to save that test for Richmond, where they're finishing up a complete repaving job. We had thought about taking the car down to Greenville-Pickens to shake it down before heading to Martinsville, but with the weather forecast like it is, that looks doubtful."

"Several years back, it was a time when it seemed we were winning every time they opened up the gate at Martinsville," said Wallace, who enjoyed a stretch during the 1993-1995 seasons when he won three consecutive races and five out of seven on the .526-mile paper clip-shaped short track. "We've still been strong in every race there, leading a bunch of laps and having some really good finishes."

The record book shows that Wallace has eight straight top-10 starts at Martinsville and a 4.5 average start in the races held since the beginning of the 2000 season, but only a 15.4 average finish with an eighth as tops during that same period. He has led laps in each of the last four races there.

"Most recently, it seems like we've been just super strong in qualifying, but have trouble in the pits or a little lacking with our brake systems and haven't come up with the finishes we needed. I'm confident that we'll qualify well on Friday and that we'll have a handle on the pit stops and with the brakes on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to this weekend and like our chances."

This weekend's schedule calls for practice on Friday from 11:20 a.m. until 1:20 p.m. leading up to 3:00 p.m. qualifying session to allocate all 43 starting spots in Sunday's race. Saturday's final practice session for the Advance Auto Parts 500 is set from 11:10 a.m. until 11:55 a.m.. Sunday's 500-lap, 263-mile battle on the .526-mile short track, the smallest track on the circuit, has a scheduled starting time of just after 1:00 p.m. EDT and features live coverage by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.

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