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 feel good -- I'm in the Chase and ready to run for the next 10 races,
I'm having better runs than I've had in a long time, ... I want to go out on top of my game, and I'm doing that right now.
This is new for me. Everybody knows I retired from NASCAR racing and I've been dying to run the Rolex 24. This is a great team. I probably feel like I am one of the weakest links but I've got 24 hours to figure it out and I'll be working really hard to keep it on the course. This will be a fun weekend.
My racing career in California dates back to the late '70s when I was out here running the outlaw late model shows,
By the second day she was running laps a half-second faster than I had on the first day. Let me tell you something, she's fast. And if she couldn't drive, she wouldn't be in our car.
Then I got to thinking, 'Hey, I could just take those two weeks off and get ready to go!' But I think when you sign up to run all those races, if you take a couple off I think it would void your Winner's Circle program. So if you skip one it just wouldn't work.
I put Stephen in the car, and he runs a 22.99. He said, 'I beat you,' and I said, 'I'm glad. That's good. I'd rather have you beat me than any of the rest of these characters.'
I'm really disappointed that Mark has been talked into running that extra year, ... The thing I feel bad about for Mark is that he and I have been out there getting all these accolades, and now Mark's having to say, 'It looks like I'm coming back.'
But I'll tell you this -- there's no way we could be out there racing at those speeds. It was neat to be out there running that fast by myself, but it would be insane to think we could have a pack of cars out there doing that.
It was twice as wild when I started, because when I started, there was no spoiler rule, ... Guys were running wide-open with only an eight-degree rear spoiler, and cars were out of control, sliding and spinning out, going in the air and flipping upside-down. It was just totally crazy.
Evidently, what they did was within the rules,
As an owner, he's been incredible at getting all five of his teams working together. And (if) one of them doesn't get along, he makes damn sure that he fixes that real, real quick.
Then, at the end, the lapped cars were really tough to get around on the restarts and that got me way behind,
I'll tell you, I never could have reported on this sport the way it needs to be reported without getting to drive this car.