Ford Racing Friday notes

2 RUSTY WALLACE
Rusty and "Mad Max" will team up for the second time this season after posting a 12th place finish in Atlanta three weeks ago...Rusty gave PC-25 the "Mad Max" monicker after it won the August race at Michigan last season...reason for "Mad Max" is that the car was so strong in the Brickyard, finishing 2nd, that Rusty was "mad" it didn't win...car bounced back at Michigan and performed to the "max", hence the name "Mad Max"...car has seven races to its credit after debuting in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte last season...car has finished in the top 10 in five of those starts.

6 MARK MARTIN
Martin won his first pole since October of 1999 last week at Bristol, but suffered some bad luck when he got caught up in teammate Jeff Burton's accident on lap 247...Martin has brought the same car he raced at Las Vegas earlier this year...that marked the car's debut as it was built during the off-season...Martin qualified 15th for the Vegas race and led three times for 54 laps before finishing a season-high 6th. 7 MIKE WALLACE
Wallace will have a brand new car this week as he looks to improve on his 37th-place spot in the point standings...trying to bounce back from some bad luck at Bristol last week when he got caught up in a wreck involving Todd Bodine and Robert Pressley.

11 BRETT BODINE
Bodine's car this week is the same one he raced at Atlanta a few weeks ago...this Taurus probably has more miles on it than any other in the Bodine fleet as it ran extensively in 2000...raced here at Texas and finished 23rd, but also ran at Michigan, Atlanta, both Pocono races and Charlotte last October.

12 JEREMY MAYFIELD
Mayfield has been on a roll posting consecutive third-place finishes at Darlington and Bristol...he'll look for more of the same this weekend as that Darlington car returns for its second start of 2001...Mayfield did not lead any laps in that event, but the car did run up front for 11 laps in last year's season finale in Atlanta before engine problems forced it out after 45 laps.

17 MATT KENSETH
Kenseth will be racing this particular Taurus for the second time in 2001...it's first race of the season came at Rockingham, where Kenseth took a provisional to start 38th and finished 28th...car also ran at Homestead last November and posted a 21st-place finish...former car chief Ben Leslie has moved over to the 97 of Kurt Busch, where he will take over as crew chief.

21 ELLIOTT SADLER
Sadler and the Wood Brothers are still riding high after last week's win at Bristol...team tested Monday and Tuesday at Martinsville and return to Texas this weekend with the same car that raced at Las Vegas a few weeks ago and led two laps before finishing 20th...unlike the car last week, this is not a Roush-built Taurus...instead, it was built entirely in the Wood Brothers shop a couple of years ago...car was basically re-built after Sadler flipped through the air with it during practice last year at Michigan...everything is pretty much brand new with the exception of the center cage section.

26 JIMMY SPENCER
Spencer debuted this car three weeks ago in Atlanta and qualified eighth...eventually led one lap during green-flag pit stops and finished 25th...car was built during the off-season and had only a few hours of testing prior to the Atlanta race.

28 RICKY RUDD
Rudd will be running the same car he had in Atlanta as well...he qualified 23rd, but worked his way up to a sixth-place finish...that marked the car's first appearance since it hit the wall during a qualifying lap in Atlanta last fall...car has a history of running up front, leading 98 laps at Charlotte in October before a late-race debris caution dropped him out of the lead and put him 3rd...car suffered a similar fate at Michigan as it jumped out to a big lead only to see another late-race caution bring the field back to him and an eventual 2nd-place finish...this car is also the same one Kenny Irwin drove to capture the pole here at Texas in '99.

32 RICKY CRAVEN
This will be the second time Craven gets behind the wheel of this particular Taurus...car was brand new for the Atlanta race and proved to be one of the strongest Fords in the field until pit problems dropped him back to 13th...Craven comes into the race 23rd in the point standings.

66 TODD BODINE
Bodine and his Route 66/Kmart team will also be debuting a brand new car this weekend...team has not tested the car prior to Texas, so this will mark its first appearance on a race track of any kind...Bodine comes into the race 35th in the point standings.

77 ROBERT PRESSLEY
Crew chief Ryan Pemberton calls this the best car his team has ever built in-house...car was completed a couple of weeks ago and will debut this weekend at Texas...Pressley is 20th in the point standings after peaking in the eighth spot three weeks ago.

88 DALE JARRETT
Jarrett won the pole and finished fourth with this car at Atlanta and bounced back to sit on the outside pole and win with it at Darlington...this will mark the third race in this car's history as it was built during the winter months...Jarrett leads the point standings by 45 over Jeff Gordon.

90 HUT STRICKLIN
Stricklin will be trying to bounce back from last week's disappointment at Bristol when he did not qualify...team has switched to Robert Yates motors for the rest of the season and crew chief Bobby King feels this Atlanta car will be good enough to make the field for Sunday.

96 ANDY HOUSTON
After missing three of the previous four races, Houston qualified at Bristol only to see him get hit from behind and crash early...despite that setback, Houston and his team are back at Texas with the same car he drove to a 21st-place finish at Atlanta a few weeks ago...this is the first in-house car built by PPI.

97 KURT BUSCH
Busch will have a new crew chief this weekend as Ben Leslie takes over for Matt Chambers...while there may be a new man on the pit box, the car Busch will drive is familiar since he posted a season-best 10th-place finish with it in Atlanta...this will be the car's second start as it was built over the winter.

99 JEFF BURTON
Burton will try to get back to his winning ways this weekend with the same car he drove at Darlington in week five...had a solid run going that day until a tire got loose on pit road and the team incurred a stop-and-go penalty...that resulted in losing a lap and an eventual 18th-place finish...that marked the car's first race.

-Ford Racing