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mlitefan01
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WALLACE COMMENTS ON NASCAR PENALTY
"I'm OK with the penalty. I just hate it happened. NASCAR knows there was no intent on our part. We were 12 horsepower off the best car because of the carburetor. We just had one of the wrong carburetors on the truck. We didn't check it and we're paying for it now. Our engine guys feel real bad about it. We're going to start at the back of the field now, but I think we'll run
even better with the right carburetor on the car.
"A rule's a rule. We're just embarrassed about the whole thing. Roger Penske is embarrassed. It's our first race with Dodge and Miller is doing a big promotion. We're embarrassed for our sponsors.
"I'm proud how we ran in the race based on what we found under the hood. It
apparently was a test carburetor we'd been using on our unrestricted stuff.
It was just a dumb mistake. We weren't trying to pull anything off on anyone
and that's why NASCAR penalized us the way they did.
"Mentally, I'm a little down right now. I think we had an outstanding race
in the Gatorade 125. The pit crew did an outstanding job. We were really
hauling the mail. I think we could have passed the 54 car and challenged the
15 and 8 for the win, but I didn't want to do anything crazy. It is a little
upsetting. I started in the back last year and was running fourth after 30
laps. I started last in the Pepsi 400 last year and finished second.
"Rusty and Roger are still trying to get to the bottom of it. We're still in
disbelief that it happened. That carburetor cost us 12 horsepower, so that's
probably the only good thing that came out of it.
"We weren't going to practice today anyway. We didn't want to sacrifice the
car and take a chance on something stupid happening. We'll be there at 9:30 in the morning and our Daytona 500 engine will be in the car. I think we've found a couple more horsepower, so now we're going to work like crazy on fuel mileage. I think it's going to come down to a fuel mileage race. I'm real confident about the Daytona 500. We were a little tight in the 125, so
we want to make sure we've got the setup right. We've got a couple of front
shocks we want to try and make sure we're loaded for bear on Sunday."
"I'm OK with the penalty. I just hate it happened. NASCAR knows there was no intent on our part. We were 12 horsepower off the best car because of the carburetor. We just had one of the wrong carburetors on the truck. We didn't check it and we're paying for it now. Our engine guys feel real bad about it. We're going to start at the back of the field now, but I think we'll run
even better with the right carburetor on the car.
"A rule's a rule. We're just embarrassed about the whole thing. Roger Penske is embarrassed. It's our first race with Dodge and Miller is doing a big promotion. We're embarrassed for our sponsors.
"I'm proud how we ran in the race based on what we found under the hood. It
apparently was a test carburetor we'd been using on our unrestricted stuff.
It was just a dumb mistake. We weren't trying to pull anything off on anyone
and that's why NASCAR penalized us the way they did.
"Mentally, I'm a little down right now. I think we had an outstanding race
in the Gatorade 125. The pit crew did an outstanding job. We were really
hauling the mail. I think we could have passed the 54 car and challenged the
15 and 8 for the win, but I didn't want to do anything crazy. It is a little
upsetting. I started in the back last year and was running fourth after 30
laps. I started last in the Pepsi 400 last year and finished second.
"Rusty and Roger are still trying to get to the bottom of it. We're still in
disbelief that it happened. That carburetor cost us 12 horsepower, so that's
probably the only good thing that came out of it.
"We weren't going to practice today anyway. We didn't want to sacrifice the
car and take a chance on something stupid happening. We'll be there at 9:30 in the morning and our Daytona 500 engine will be in the car. I think we've found a couple more horsepower, so now we're going to work like crazy on fuel mileage. I think it's going to come down to a fuel mileage race. I'm real confident about the Daytona 500. We were a little tight in the 125, so
we want to make sure we've got the setup right. We've got a couple of front
shocks we want to try and make sure we're loaded for bear on Sunday."
