STERLING MARLIN, NO. 14 WASTE MANAGEMENT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

ON RUSTY WALLACE: "I've known Rusty for a long time and we've always gotten along great. At the Las Vegas test, I saw the No. 2 car go by and for a minute I thought it was still Rusty. Well no, it's not Rusty. He'll still be around and we'll get to see him at the race track."

HOW WILL HE DO ON TV? "Oh, he'll do good. He's always talked real good. He can b.s. a whole lot, so he's good at it."

ON THE 13 GALLON FUEL CELLS AT TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA, IS THE JURY STILL OUT OR IS IT NOW A GOOD THING? "I don't think it was a good decision. Nobody can get away from anybody. They still bunch up. I wish it was still a 22-gallon cell where you can more 55 laps. They won't separate the cars from these big packs at Daytona and Talladega. We hadn't got a run that long on fuel. The best kind of car comes to the top. To put a 13-gallon cell in it didn't separate them and it costs more money. So I'd go back to 22 if I had a vote in it."

IS THIS MORE OF A HANDLING TRACK THAN A HORSEPOWER TRACK? "Yeah, it can get pretty tricky. It hasn't been paved since 1979, I guess. Your car gets too tight a lot up in traffic off the corners. You've got to get up off the gas. Talladega is just totally different. You're just on the mat all day and handling doesn't really come into play."

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT PLATE RACING? "Well, I wish we could run little faster. I think the magic number is somewhere around 198 or 200 mph. That would separate the cars more. I don't know what you do at Talladega to separate them. If you look back to the mid-90's and early 90's we could separate for some reason. I don't know why. I don't know if the competition is closed up. The motors are within five or six horsepower and the bodies, you really can't trick them up like you used to because you've got all them templates and stuff. They've really kind of made them like IROC cars. Maybe that's why we can't separate, I don't know."

WHO WOULD YOU PICK TO RUN WITH AT DAYTONA? "Dale Jr. and Tony. They really run good here. They run good and handle good. If you can stay right with them two, I think you'll be in business."

ARE THESE TRACKS BORING OR EXCITING OR SCARY? WHAT'S IT LIKE WHEN YOU'RE IN ONE OF THOSE PACKS FOR A LONG TIME? "Well, it's just kind of like running three or four wide on the Interstate. If somebody cuts somebody off, then here you go. That's what we want to get away from or try to. At Daytona, when you restart and everybody has new tires on. You've got to watch Daytona for being three deep cause you'll get in trouble pretty quick if you don't watch - like off turn 2 the middle car can really get tight and you can wash up into somebody. You've got to be on your toes when you're in three deep here -- especially if you're in the middle."

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THIS YEAR? "Last year we had a bad year, really. But we ran good at some tracks. And when we did run good, something blew up or something stupid. We had a good shot to win Dover last year and blew up. If I didn't think I could do it, I'd stay back in Tennessee and sit on a bulldozer. But I know we can still win a race. We have a good shot in this car. The car we have here is as good a car as I had back in '94 and '95 when we won and had a good race team. We've got Hendrick motors and we've got a great race team.

ON THE KEY TO WINNING DAYTONA: "You've got to have a good car to go through the traffic. We didn't run good here last July 4th. We had a terrible car. You couldn't go anywhere with it. If it was wide open, it would drive away from you. So you've got to have a good handling car. Tony Stewart's car always seems to drive good here and so does Dale Jr's car. They've got good power. When you've got all that, you can drive to the front. But if the car doesn't drive good or you're off on the motor, you ain't going to take a 15th place car and win the thing."