and now adam will watch over him on his love - road courses!


Pre-Race Report for the Dodge/Save Mart 350

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into the
Dodge/Save Mart 350

ATLANTA, GA. June 21, 2004 -- Road courses through eyes of one who likes them

"I like road courses. That's not going to surprise a lot of people but I just
like them. They break up the ovals, they are challenging and they are fun to
drive.

"A series with nothing but ovals wouldn't be as fun, and it wouldn't carry the
same prestige, I don't think. A series with nothing but road courses would be
the same way.

"One of the great things about the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series is that we run on so
many different types of tracks. We run short tracks, intermediate tracks,
superspeedways and road courses. Even the tracks in the different groups are
different from each other. Martinsville and Bristol, for example, are both short
tracks and both just over half-a-mile in length, but that's where the
similarities end. Bristol is banked high and, because of that, the speeds are a
lot greater. Martinsville is banked only a little, so that puts a premium on
braking.

"Infineon and Watkins Glen are both road courses but they are different too. The
length is different, obviously, but the way you approach each of them is
different as well. Watkins Glen is almost a disjointed oval with a majority of
right-hand turns. Infineon puts more of a 'trick' into it, with that hard
right-hand turn at the top of the hill, and that hairpin Turn 11. That doesn't
mean one is any better than the other, just different.

"Infineon is not as forgiving as Watkins Glen. Even though they have increased
the runoff areas in a lot of spots, you have to be extra careful in several
different areas. There are several spots where, if you get off the pavement just
a little bit, it could grab hold of you and tear your car up. You might consider
'short-cutting' a couple of turns, letting your right front or left front ease
off the pavement a little bit, but for the most part, you need to keep it on the
pavement.

"I've never liked that old racing saying, 'Sometimes you have to run slow to go
fast,' because I don't think it's true. But sometimes you have to run
deliberately to run fast, and sometimes you have to take the cautious route to
make your car go faster. That really comes into play at road courses, and
especially at Infineon.

"This is a bigger race than some people give it credit for being. While we are
north of San Francisco, this is one of the biggest markets on the circuit and
it's important to our sponsors and to a lot of racing fans. For a lot of fans,
this is the only chance they get to see us race each year. The next closest
track for Cup racing would be Fontana, and that's almost 500 miles away. For a
lot of fans, if they are going to see a Cup race in 2004, it's going to be at
Infineon. For that reason alone I'm glad we run there.

"Plus, it's fun. Hey, there are tons of people who pay a lot of money to come to
this very same area for vacations. This is our job but we end up spending four
or five days in the same area and come for business reasons. True, we have to
work most of each day but, still, it's a great area to visit. Bruton (Smith) and
his people have worked hard to make the speedway better and better, and it gets
a little better every year. I remember the first time we came out here and, when
you compare that to what we see now, it's night and day. We didn't even have
garages our first few trips to Infineon. They've added that, new grandstands,
redone the course a few times . . . essentially, they've done everything they
could to make the track better.

"We're planning on a good weekend at Infineon for this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny
Dodge team. Like I said, I like road courses."




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