The big news of the day, besides Jeremy Mayfield winning the pole for Sundays Talladega 500, was the pre-practice inspection process. The NASCAR men laid-out several teams during the seemingly endless process, but the aggressiveness of the sanctioning body might have backfired. The lengthy process of car inspection resulted in several cars missing most of the morning practice session. At the half-hour mark only 30 cars had posted times, 39 at the hour mark with the full compliment of 46 joining by the end of the session. Things were so tense www.teamfordracing.com saw one crew chief waving his finger in the face of NASCAR inspectors. Many of the cars were run at Daytona International Speedway and werent touched between the time they arrived back in the shops following that race and when they were loaded for this event. Therefore plenty of bodywork was required. Some of the cars just needed a dab of Bondo here or there, while others needed some pretty serious reconstruction to get through the NASCAR hoops. One car that needed considerable work was Jeff Burtons. Work was required to the A pillars as well as the C pillars of the #99 Ford. But the majority of the work needed to legalize the car dealt with the rear decklid.( Ford Racing )(4-5-2003)
