MOUNTAIN DEW 500k PRE-RACE NOTES

TIM STEELE (No. 16 HS Die/CIMLINC Ford) -- (Series point leader and
'93 race winner.) I'm going to try to lead it start-to-finish! I
know Ernie's (Elliott) motors have got plenty of horsepower for us.
They run flawless. I'm sure they'll try to gang up on me, but that
thing can get pretty wide if it has to! I think we've got something
for 'em. We've got a pretty good car and we've been practicing pit
stops. We should be able to beat everybody out of the pits. You get
feelings about weekends and I've got a good feeling about this one.
It's time to win here again. It's been either real good or real bad
-- I've either won or blown up or wrecked. (ON RACING WITH JACK
SPRAGUE.) I've raced with Jack a lot in the past. He came from
where I was at and we raced together around Berlin (Michigan) and
at Concord (N.C.). We've always raced each other clean and if we've
got to gang up on anybody we'll hook up together and go if we have
to -- we've talked about that. (ON SUPERSPEEDWAY SUCCESSES.) Davey
Allison kinda told me some of the tricks of the trade. He was out
here with me and showed me about drafting. I owe him a lot for
that. He definitely helped me with a lot of things. (ON HIS RECENT
EPISODE OF KIDNEY STONES.) I got rid of all those kidney stones and
I feel like a normal person now. I hope I don't get any of those
things back (Steele was having severe attacks when he won the
APCO/Easy Care 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.) The doctor said
'You've got quite a gravel pit there.' They're analyzing it and
figuring out what I have to do to correct it. That's one of the
things you listen to your doctors on. I'll tell you -- I wouldn't
wish those things on nobody! (NOTE: If Steele, who has led 518 laps
in 13 races, can lead 11 laps in the Mountain Dew 500k he will move
into third in the all-time ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Supercar Series
superspeedway lap leader standings, behind Charlie Glotzbach
(1,061) and the late Grant Adcox (784). Third place Jeff Purvis has
led 528 laps.)

HARRIS DeVANE (No. 33 Georgia Peanut Commission Ford) -- We are
going to ride it out and follow (Tim) Steele for a while until the
last 20 laps then we'll see what we can do. We've got a pretty good
car and we're just going to fine-tune in the last practice session
this afternoon. We ought to be pretty good, especially if I can get
a little help from behind. (In 1995 DeVane led on the white flag
lap but ran out of gas in turns three and four and was beaten by
Mike Wallace. He finished second.)

ANDY HILLENBURG (No. 52 ACDelco Chevrolet) -- Our guys are working
hard today. We got a new motor and hopefully we will be running
near the front. The new motor will be all right for us. I wish we
had just a little more time with it. We may not be as prepared as
we probably should be. I'd like to hook up with one other car and
break away, but I don't think you can do that here. I'd like to do
that as soon as we could but I don't think it'll happen.

MARK GIBSON (No. 59 Issac Leasco Ford) -- (Gibson is the most
experienced driver at Talladega in the Mountain Dew 500k field with
1,180 laps completed. His best finish is fifth in the 1986 spring
race.) We got a good shot at winning the race. Tim (Steele) was a
little faster in qualifying but I think the draft will make-up for
that. We just want to be around at the end and stay in the top five
cars throughout the race. We might change a few springs -- nothing
really major. We really didn't go all-out for qualifying because we
didn't think we could outrun Tim for the pole anyway. We are
basically gonna race the car just like we qualified.

DOUG REID (No. 05 Long-Lewis Ford) -- It's gonna be a good race
'cause there are a lot of good cars up front. I think that it is
going to be a fast race and we are in a pretty good position. We
got a pretty good race car although we practiced a little faster
than we qualified. We came out here with a brand new car. We're
gonna make some minor adjustments to see if we can get the car a
little quicker, but nothing major.

RON BARFIELD (No. 94 New Holland Tractor Ford) -- The car's been
running real good the past couple days. We didn't put a lot of
effort into qualifying because this car was built for tracks like
Charlotte and you can't get it as soft as it needs to be for
qualifying. Bill (Elliott, team owner) will be up there helping me
on the radio and the McDonald's (Winston Cup) team will be changing
tires for me.
     (HAS HIS SUPERSPEEDWAY PERFORMANCE SURPRISED HIM?) First, I've
got to thank Bill Elliott and Charles Hardy for putting me in this
stuff because you're no better than your equipment is. They've got
me in some good equipment that really makes me look good. We're
just going to try to be there at the end of the race. I don't push
things very much at the first of the race -- I'm just trying to
make it to the end and put myself in a position to win the race.
Sometimes you don't win and sometimes you do but you've got to be
in position to do it. This is a good car that was built in
Dawsonville (Ga.).
     (ON HIS NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES EXPERIENCES.) That truck
series is a ball! It's a little bit different. It's real exciting.
My main thing has been learning to call them trucks and not cars,
but they drive a lot like a car -- you can't even tell there's a
truck body on there.

JACK SPRAGUE (No. 44 Quaker State 4x4 Chevrolet) -- The plan is to
win! I've raced here before in the Busch cars (Humminbird Fish
Finder 500k). We're pretty comfortable about our pit crew
(Sprague's car will be serviced by a combination of crew members
from the Hendrick NASCAR Winston Cup teams.)

TRUE VALUE FIREBIRD IROC XX ROUND TWO ADVANCE NOTES

NOTE: Saturday's Round Two is tentatively scheduled to start
between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Central. The determining factor will be the
weather and scheduling at the PPG IndyCar World Series round at
Nazareth, Pa. Al Unser Jr., Robby Gordon and Scott Pruett will fly
here following qualifying for Sunday's Indy car race.

STERLING MARLIN (NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- It'll be a chess
game -- just a quicker one. The cars are all pretty equal. I don't
think it'll be a deal like Daytona where the cars got tight and got
to pushing. Here, handling's not that critical. It should be a wild
race. We're just proud to be in the IROC series and we're looking
forward to racing. The IROC guys do a great job with the cars and
we are just going to go out and try to win us one.

JEFF GORDON (NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- I'm looking forward to
the race. The cars seem to be drafting even better than they were
at Daytona, so that's good. The cars are driving real good so I
think we're going to have an exciting race. I'm glad that Terry
(Labonte) decided to come back and run. It's just a dream-come-true
for me to be involved in the IROC series because I always looked at
them and said 'Man, that's the neatest thing with all the best
drivers and I want to be involved with that some day.' Now I am. 
     In the race there's a lot of thinking process that has to go
on...a lot of the instincts I was talking about before play a major
role. You've got to make smart moves and really think before you
make a move because you can make a move and advance one position or
make a move and lose five or six. Even though it's a quick race
you've got to be patient to be there at the end. If you can put
yourself in a position to be there at the end, when the white flag
drops or two laps to go the whole field spreads out and you don't
have a clue what's gonna happen. You can go from fifth or sixth and
take the lead or from the lead back to about 10th. It's always
exciting here and it's probably the best IROC race all year long.
I know this has always been one I've looked forward to watching and
now I'm looking forward to driving in it.

JOHNNY BENSON (NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division) -- The
IROC car's going pretty good. Jay Signore's doing a super job with
the Pontiac Firebirds and they're gonna be a lot of fun to drive.
We're gonna go and GO -- that's all you can do in those cars.

TERRY LABONTE (NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- It's hard to say
what's going to happen after 100 miles. The cars are driving real
good. The race cars are usually better and closer-prepared than the
test cars. Three cars don't draft as good as when there's 12 cars.
The cars are comfortable and they handle better than at Daytona.

WINSTON SELECT MILLION PRESS CONFERENCE NOTES

DALE JARRETT (No. 88 Quality Care/Ford Credit Ford) -- (This
weekend Jarrett is shooting to win the $100,000 Winston Select
Bonus that would be awarded to the first driver who is able to win
two-of-three Winston Select Million events. The events are the
Daytona 500, Winston Select 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Mountain Dew
Southern 500. If a driver can win three-of-four, as Bill Elliott
did in the program's inception year, 1985, he would win $1 million
from R.J. Reynolds.) I could just tell you I'm gonna win it and be
done with all of this... We've got a good car and a good shot at
it. It's a lot of fun being a part of this challenge.
     Our guys have stepped up to the plate and built me a good race
car. As most of you know we had to build a new car after winning
Daytona because they kept our car just like it came off the race
track and it will be in DAYTONA USA (at Daytona International
Speedway) when it opens in July (on Friday, July 5). We really had
to hustle because building one of these cars isn't something you
can do in a week-and-a-half. The body, especially, is real critical
here and our guys have done a good job of giving me an opportunity
to win here on Sunday. Robert and Doug Yates have been working hard
in the engine room and we've got good engines to go along with a
good car.
      We'd have to have a lot of help to win the $70,000 bonus
(awarded to the Winston Select 500 winner if he is the NASCAR
Winston Cup point leader) after we gave it away (season-long point
lead) last weekend.

WINSTON SELECT 500 PRE-RACE NOTES

JEFF GORDON (No. 24 DuPont Refinishes Chevrolet) -- You learn every
time you're out there -- either what you can do to stay in the lead
or what you can do to get past this guy. The whole time you're
thinking, 'What can I do, what can I do?' You're trying to get up
closer, looking to the inside, looking to the outside... The thing
about Talladega -- it doesn't really matter how the car handles. At
Daytona, at the end of a run, the car had better be handling.
You've got to keep looking ahead and it's instinct. You can't think
about what to do -- it's got to be 'boom,' and you go.
     The biggest thing is patience. it's frustrating here if you
know you've got a car that can lead but you're running 10th or 12th
-- and if you get out of line you might be 15th or 18th. The guys
who can run fifth or sixth in line all day and keep their water
temperature down, those are the guys who can be there at the end.
(interrupting questioner) I still haven't found the happy medium
between patience and aggression! It takes a good two or three years
and even then...

ADVANCE AUTO PARTS QUALIFYING DAY FOR THE BUSCH POLE AWARD NOTE

     In response to requests from NASCAR Winston Cup car owners,
Winston Cup Director Gary Nelson supervised a "chassis dyno" test
to amass data on engine horsepower of the fastest Ford, the No. 88
Robert Yates Racing Thunderbird of Winston Select 500 Busch Pole
Award winner Ernie Irvan. The fastest GM car, the No. 4 Morgan-
McClure Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo of fourth qualifier
Sterling Marlin, would've been tested but the dyno's computer
malfunctioned.

GARY NELSON (NASCAR Winston Cup Director) -- The more good
information you have the better decisions you can make as a rules
committee. I didn't dream up the test we did today. We've been to
the wind tunnel several times trying to figure out the differences
in aerodynamic drag. Then the car owners said they wanted to
compare motors. They came up with this machine and we said we'd
give it a try. The machine is pretty good but we had a computer
problem. Robert Yates, the car owner, was there on the radio and I
was the driver. He walked me through the whole procedure. He was
nervous because that was their race engine. I smoked the clutch a
little bit the first time. Once we got that sorted out it was
basically no different than driving the car at full throttle. But
then the computer malfunctioned and we lost all the data. Rather
than do another run we decided to scrap it for now, get our problem
solved and do it again at another time. NASCAR strives to have
close competition among various makes of cars. We have aerodynamic
data so we're able to discuss intelligently what a Pontiac does,
what a Chevrolet does and what a Ford does with hard facts that we
know are accurate. We're looking for the same thing on horsepower.
     Robert Yates had the option to say 'no' to the test today. If
he had we would've done the test after the race. The goal was to
get the engine right off the race track...don't touch it, put it on
the dyno and let's see what it will do. This was done at the
request of the car owners. Nobody objected when I talked to the top
teams I thought might have a chance to be in the top couple spots -
- and that was about 20 teams' owners, engine builders and crew
chiefs. Not one guy said no and most said I hope it'll be me that
you pick. Qualifying was the best example of the peak that your car
could do, because most guys de-tune their cars for the race. In a
perfect world the qualifying number would be the one you'd want.
     We ran the car twice -- once when I slipped the clutch and
once up through the gears to 6,800 rpm. I hope it did no damage to
the engine. I know the clutch is going to have to be replaced.
Theoretically this machine is easier on the engine than driving a
lap around the race track because you don't have any wind
resistance. When they set the timing they rev 'em way up and they
don't damage 'em. It's not a dyno that loads the engine -- it's
just two big wheels that are turning. (IS THIS LEADING TO
ARTIFICIAL HORSEPOWER RESTRICTIONS?) We restrict horsepower now
with the restrictor plates. The restrictor plate takes away about
300 horsepower. The idea of NASCAR racing is to try to get the cars
to run side-by-side, to let the guys work within the rules to make
the cars the best they can and to let the best driver go to the
front. The drivers' talent should be displayed on Sunday.