Rusty Wallace
Rusty Wallace
Russell William "Rusty" Wallace, Jr.is a retired American racing driver, and a former NASCAR Winston Cup Champion. Considered one of racing's most well-known and charismatic personalities, he is a member of four of stock car racing's major halls of fame: the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame. He also served as the...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth14 August 1956
CityArnold, MO
I'm proud of my team. I'm proud of what I've done and I am going out on top of my game.
I really think this is my calling. I'm excited about it. When I retired, television was something I felt I knew.
It's a mystery to me why the track doesn't already have a Nextel event. It's definitely a Nextel Cup track. It's beautiful. It's wide. It's shaped perfect. It's got the grandstand capability. They've proved they can pack them in with a lot of drama and excitement. It's just a fun place to go.
I made my decision. I'm sticking to it,
I'm going to watch a little of the truck race and talk to a prospective new sponsor,
With D.J. (Jarrett) winning at Talladega, and Mark taking the win at Kansas, maybe there's some kind of trend going on for us older guys uh, I mean us seasoned veterans to be winning the races, ... Heck, if that's the case, maybe it's my turn to win this weekend. I don't think it would come as a super big surprise if we were able to pull it off this weekend at Charlotte.
We have one last chance remaining and that's this weekend at Talladega. We're definitely coming in there with all our guns loaded and ready to go.
We've been finishing good -- a lot of top-10 finishes. We've made some smart calls to stay out when we need to stay out.
We had the best car, without a doubt. We were able to take the lead and just throttle back. But when the right front went down, the day started to unravel. We led the most laps, even with the problem we had. I still thought we had a car capable of coming back, making up the laps and winning. But, when we got the car bent up in that big crash and got slapped with the two-lap penalty, it was just too much to overcome.
When I took the plate off, I went 'Holy (smoke), you don't want to do this,'
We certainly want to go out on top of our game at Bristol with a strong run, and I think we're primed to come in there and do just that.
We certainly want to go out on top of our game at Bristol with a strong run and I think we're primed to come in there and do just that. The fact is that we had a car that should have won the spring race at Bristol and looked like we were certainly headed that way until we had a right-front tire go down.
We got down into turn one and the 66 spun out right in front of me,
We're in the Chase, and that's the big deal. I'm glad I'm not in that mess next week. I've been thinking about that and I'm glad not to be under that pressure.