This Week in Ford Racing: Wallace, Craven

The final race of the NASCAR Winston Cup season will take place Friday afternoon as New Hampshire International Speedway hosts the New Hampshire 300. The race was rescheduled for this week following the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Ford drivers Rusty Wallace and Ricky Craven expressed their feelings about the last event of 2001.

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus -- WILL YOU BE GLAD TO SEE THIS SEASON FINALLY END WITH EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED? "Yeah. I'm 100 percent focused right now, and I have been all year long, but I've turned the intensity up a little bit more and I hope it doesn't hurt me because I want to get our car back up in the top five where it really deserves to be. We have led the second-most amount of laps this year. I was looking at some of that stuff the other day and we have been so close. I sit and look at both of those Richmond races and how we dominated them. I look at Michigan and we dominated before blowing a motor. I look at Kansas City, we dominated and were driving off, but with 20 laps to go I get a pit road penalty. I look at Phoenix, we were dominating and driving off and the right-front tire blows out. I look at all of those potential victories and then I look at Gordon has beaten for the pole five times. I could qualify at a 20.21 and he'd qualify at 20.09. Last year, I had four wins and nine poles, but when I look at everything this year I see that we're better in the points and we've led a ton of laps. The tire has really, really changed everything. I can go back to my notes and look at every setup and I've got to tell you, I can't see one setup that is the same from last year. The only thing that's close is Richmond and Bristol because the construction of that tire isn't much different. My goal right now is to just go as hard as I can."

IS IT MORE MENTAL AT THIS STAGE OF THE SEASON? "It's not necessarily more mental, it's more preparation. Like Loudon, we're going there and know we've got a practice at eight o'clock in the morning when it's gonna be cold. We're gonna unload with the setup we planned to start the race with last time and then we're gonna cycle the springs out. What that means is that instead of running a 200 or a 300, we might try a 225 and a 275. Those things are all pre-measured and the amount of rounds that holds the spring in is all done, so we've got a notebook all built up going into this race. What we'll do is run 15 minutes of practice and then come in and take all the springs out and put a completely different setup in and try one thing. I feel like we're real prepared going into that race. I've never gone into a race before where that I've got to start by points and have an 8 a.m. practice session together, plus there's a different tire. They're taking a completely different tire back because Goodyear is anticipating it's going to be so cold, so here we go again. The championship is gonna come down to a race where you don't have an opportunity to qualify because that place is all about track position."

THE YEAR HAS BEEN A MARATHON. HOW DO YOU FEEL PHYSICALLY? "Physically, honestly, I'm drained. I'm tired. I'm tired of racing. I look forward getting to the track and back from the track as quick as I possibly can. I'm so glad that I'm fortunate enough to have a helicopter because I fly that thing everywhere I go. Last week at Atlanta I thought about flying home on Saturday because we were done at noon and the last place I wanted to be with the way I feel now was at the race track in my motorcoach. But the saving grace was that my mom had a big reception going on in the suites with a ton of my fans. We had hundreds of people up there and I signed all of their autographs and watched the ARCA race with them. After that, I went out to my merchandise trailer and signed for three hours. I do that every Saturday and meet a lot of fans, so that's how I passed a lot of my time."

RICKY CRAVEN --32-- Tide Taurus -- IS THIS LIKE A BONUS FOR YOU TO CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING ONE DAY AND RACE ON YOUR HOME TRACK THE NEXT? "What I think is neat is that we're ending the Winston Cup season at New Hampshire. It's so unusual I feel we should enjoy it because it's not gonna happen again. The circumstances that brought all of this together are very unfortunate, but NASCAR and the speedway were left with no choice but to add the race at the end of the schedule. Personally, I think it's great. I'm gonna be having Thanksgiving dinner with my wife's family the day before the race -- five miles away. It's kind of a little selfish, but it hasn't affected us at all."

YOU'VE ALWAYS GOTTEN A HEROES WELCOME THERE, BUT THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME BACK SINCE WINNING. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT A WARMER RECEPTION THIS TIME? "It would be nice to have a warm reception under the circumstances. I know it will be great, but it's always been great. It's home court for me. I don't think I can compare it to anything else, but anything else I do in racing -- there are no autograph sessions or no appearances that compare to it. This is an awesome event for me, whether it's July, September or November."

WHAT ABOUT THE RACEDAY DYNAMICS OF A PRACTICE SESSION BEFORE THE RACE? "I think that's going to be the telling tale. Whoever takes the best advantage of that 45-minute practice will benefit from it. If somebody drops fluid on the race track or if there's an incident or a problem, it could diminish that 45 minutes to 30 minutes or something like that, so you've really got to take advantage of that practice."

THERE'S A NEW TIRE FOR THAT RACE, BUT WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU'RE FACING? "I think there will be some unanswered questions going into this practice, but I do believe by the end of the practice it will be very similar to if we would have run there in September. The car is gonna have a problem on one end or the other relating to the race track or the car itself and you're gonna have to adjust. It's a little more of a gamble because you're not gonna have a second, third or fourth run to confirm it. You'll be making changes and saying, 'Alright, let's put it on the starting line.'"

IS IT A REFRESHING CHANGE FROM THE REGULAR ROUTINE? "I'm perfectly fine with every bit of it. I would rather have three days there, but I'm really looking forward to it. And I think that in the last month the competitors have adjusted their attitude towards it. The first immediate response was an unfair response and I don't think the competitors should be judged on that because Thanksgiving is a very personal holiday. But the professional side of the drivers, car owners and crew members kicked in and realized that this is all different. This is how we make our living and we obviously have very little to complain about as it relates to the events of September 11th. So, I think it's gonna be an exciting time. I think what I'm most happy about and most excited about is that New England fans can sort of savor the moment. This is an opportunity for them to see the Winston Cup season end at their track and it's very unlikely to ever happen again."