Valvoline NHIS Preview

#10 Valvoline Pontiac Driver Jerry Nadeau will get to race as close to his
hometown as he ever will this weekend when the 31-year-old Danbury, Conn.
native replaces the injured Johnny Benson for Sunday’s Nascar Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Benson is recovering from three broken ribs suffered in a July 6 accident at
Daytona.

The Winston Cup Series last visited New Hampshire in July 2001. Since then,
NHIS expanded the track surface by 12 feet in all four turns hoping the 92-foot
wide configuration in the corners will create a second racing groove.

Valvoline Crew Chief James Ince is a bit skeptical. He served as Crew Chief for
a Busch team at an NHIS race in May and got an early glimpse at the new
configuration. He said fans shouldn’t expect too much of a difference in the
racing.


Nadeau On Driving #10 Valvoline Pontiac:

“I hate the circumstances because Johnny is a friend and I don’t like seeing my
friends get hurt, but we have a job to do this weekend and that’s give the
Valvoline Pontiac the best run we can give it. We are getting more and more
familiar with each other the longer we stay together and I think you will start
seeing that chemistry show up on the race track.”

Nadeau On New Hampshire:

“It’s a great race track for me. I have won three races up there in open wheel
cars. We finished fourth and sixth in the last two years in Winston Cup races,
I know they have changed the track, but I don’t know how it is going to be for
the Cup guys. The Busch guys said there are areas we can pass and that will
help us put on a better show for the fans. Even before, if you have a good car
you can pass at New Hampshire and I expect it will be the same this weekend.”

Did NHIS Play A Role In Your Career?

“I didn’t do any other stock car racing except for getting into Winston Cup. I
moved down South and went racing. I know they had a lot of Busch North and a
Busch South races there before they got the Cup dates. So I can’t say (NHIS)
directly benefited me getting into stock cars but it has a lot of other guys.
Like I said I won three open wheel races there and that helped my career. As a
racer you will go to where you have to go to race whether you live in
California or Maine. Everybody told me you had to move down South and find a
team to go racing with. I’m glad they have a track up there and I think it will
open the door for more and more racers.

How Many Passes Do You Plan To Give Out?

“I’m not much into giving out passes. My Mom and Dad will be up there and I
will have a couple of friends. I hope we put on a good show for them.”

Crew Chief James Ince On New Hampshire’s New Configuration At The Busch Race:

"It appeared people were better and I guess it looked a little easier to pass,
but as a crew chief I couldn't tell that they did anything. The drivers all
ranted and raved after the Busch race about how nice it was, but I just
couldn't see much of a difference

"In any case, Loudon is a place that I enjoy going to. It's a challenging
racetrack, but we've got a really good setup there.

"We like the place a whole lot, and any added opportunity to pass there is a
good thing. Essentially, what I saw was that they made the apron to where it's
got grip on it to where you can actually run down on the apron.

"For us, we're very much looking forward to going up there and glad we're
taking Jerry Nadeau with us as our driver. We don't have a ton of experience
with Jerry, but we do have some and now we get to take him to a racetrack where
this race team is very strong."

Will New Configuration Change The Setup?

"I don't think so. With the Busch car we ran basically the same setup that
we've always run there and felt really good about it. I don't think it's going
to change a whole lot of anything for anybody. Now, I do know that they went
back and did some repaving a couple weeks ago because they had some trouble. Anytime you've got new pavement it throws a curve at you. But, that is a really fundamental racetrack. You go there and if you do the right things to your race car, you can run well. Anytime we go somewhere that it's not an aero situation and you're back to springs and shocks, we feel like our chances go up
substantially.

"We work really hard week in and week out to make these things drive good. This is a place that gets back to short-track racing, which is what we're accustomed to. We like going to flat racetracks. When you go to a flat racetrack, it definitely equals out the aero side of things."

THE RACE: New Hampshire 300
Winston Cup Race #19 of 36 for the 2002 Winston Cup season

Race: Sunday, July 21, 2002 in Loudon, NH

TV: TNT - 2:00pm/et

Race re-air: TNT on Tues, July 23rd, 1:00am/et; Speed Channel on Wed, July
24th, 8:00pm/et and Thurs, July 25th, 1:00am/et.

Pre-Race Show: TNT - 1:30pm/et - Hosted by Bill Weber

Announcers: Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach

Pit Reporters: Bill Weber, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider, Dave Burns

Posted Awards/Purse: $4,054,390 (was $3,536,758 in 2001)

Entry List Link at: NASCAR.com

2001 Race Winner: Dale Jarrett, 102.131mph, started 9th

Race Speed Record: Jeff Burton, 1997, 117.134

Track/Race Length: 1.058 mile oval, 300 laps, 317.4 miles

Pit Road Speed: 35mph

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Practice

Practice: Friday, July 19th, 11:20 - 1:20pm/et; Saturday, July 20th, 9:30 -
10:15am/et.

Happy Hour Practice: Saturday, July 20th, 11:15 - 12:00noon/et on TV-Speed
Channel - live and re-air at 5:00pm/et.


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Qualifying

Qualifying Draw: Friday, July 19, 10:20am/et

Qualifying: 2 laps for positions 1-36, Friday, July 19th at 3:00pm/et, TV-TNT
live and live via MRN Radio

Second-Round Qualifying: there is no longer a 2nd round of qualifying (since
the 2001 season)

Track Qualifying Record: Rusty Wallace, July 2000, 132.089mph

Last Year's Pole Sitter: Jeff Gordon, 131.770mph, finished 2nd.


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Track Specs:
Superspeedway: 1.058 mile oval
Turns: Banking: 12 degrees; Striaghts: 2 degrees
Length of Straights: Frontstretch - 1500ft; Backstretch - 1500ft
Grandstand Seating: 91,000


Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America:

Nadeau is racing this week for the Flint, Mich. Chapter of Big Brothers Big
Sisters Of America. Each week Valvoline donates money to the national Big
Brothers and Big Sisters of America organization as well as an individual local
chapter based on the Valvoline Pontiac's on-track performance. Valvoline
matches the performance by donating $5,000 for a win, $2,500 for a pole, $1,000 for a top ten 10 finish, $500 for a top 20 finish and $20 for each lap led. The 3-year program has raised over $750,000.