CONCORD, NC (October 11, 2002) -  Heavy rain caused Jack Sprague and his Haas CNC Racing team to have this Sunday afternoon off.  Sprague, who drives the No. 60 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for owner Gene Haas was set to qualify for the UAW-GM Quality 500 Winston Cup event at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday when it started to rain after 19 drivers fired off their two-laps.

       "We knew it would be tough when the rain started," said Sprague who is also racing in the NASCAR Busch Series event this weekend.  "I don't know why, but the car didn't run that well in practice and we were wondering how it would be for qualifying.  We made a good amount of changes before qualifying, but now we don't know if they would have helped or not. There were a lot of cars trying to make the race and quite a few of them with little or no points like us.  We needed to beat about ten other teams on time, which would have been tough. I don't know if we would have made the race.  Now we just have to sit and wonder."

        The rain continued and NASCAR made the decision to reschedule qualifying for first thing Saturday morning. Again, the weather was uncooperative and Sprague, with no provisional points was left loading up and going home.

         "I don't feel that bad because you can't control the weather," said Sprague.  "The guys did everything they needed to do to get me here, but it didn't work out for us.  We'll just hope for the best next time.  A good amount of guys go home throughout the year who are good drivers, but things happen.  Look at Kerry Earnhardt - I race against him every week in the Busch Series and he attempted to make two Cup events and both weeks its rained and he went home. There's just nothing we can do about it.  Maybe we'll do something miraculous in the NetZero car on Saturday to make for it."

         Sprague and the No. 60 Haas CNC Racing team's next appearance will be the Pop Secret Microwave 400 Winston Cup event at North Carolina Speedway.  The event will be aired live on Sunday, November 3, 2002 on TNT.  Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) and broadcast on more than 400 affiliates around the nation.