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 ask myself why would I retire and its because I don't like running 36 races. I hate running 36 races. I don't like being away from home that much.
I feel like broadcasting is my calling. I knew when I retired this is what I wanted to do. I feel like I am well educated on the cars, NASCAR, the whole industry.
I had the restart, which was all I could do,
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.
If you sit down with a guy and say 'I'm gonna sign a three-year deal,' and he sells sponsorship for three years based on your being there, you need to be there. You've got to honor it.
I guess my day is coming, ... I tried real hard. I just got nailed in the rear end on the last lap and turned sideways. I didn't expect it.
I just think if you make a deal with a man, and he builds his program around you, then you need to understand that and you need to honor that,
I just couldn't believe the bump drafting I was seeing.
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 don't know if I will or not. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't have the answers to that yet.
I don't know if I'd have done it, but I sure do understand the reaction. I hope Ryan learns from this mistake. He can't just go out there and rough these guys up, whether it's a mistake or not. Guys are tired of hearing it's a mistake.
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.
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.
The car here is the car I drove last time, ... (Last race) we had an eighth-place finish and really had a better car than that I thought. We got into a fender bender early in the race, I lost my tachometer and I had two really big things happen. All that stuff is fixed right now so let's hope we have a good, smooth race.