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 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.'
It was a good run, a real good run, ... We qualified really bad but got from the back up to the front and it turned out real good. It was just a long day, but I really had pretty smooth stuff all day long, only a couple of little things happened. The jack broke early but we got that right back. And then, at the end, I just, the lapped cars were really tough to get around on the get go and that got me way behind. Other than that, it was a good day.
Sometimes bad things can bring on good things. This brought about a whole era of safety. It took something dramatic before they started thinking and looking out of the box.
I've still got a pin in my wrist that's about 8 inches long from that accident. I got hurt at some racetracks a little bit, but never as bad as I got hurt at Talladega.
I just lost it. I had a loose tire, a flat tire, and loose lug nuts. Bad night.
We brought it home in sixth place, ... We thought we had a better car than that. I just got behind early and that was about it. We had a lot of challenges today, but I was able to get back from them, and that was good.
We've got multimillion dollar sponsors and 150,000 people in the grandstands, ... He just wants all of us to act like men and represent NASCAR in the proper way.
We've got five to go, and I'm still in it.
When I decided to retire, I decided I couldn't stand it if I went out a loser,
The fact is that we had a car that should have won and looked like we were certainly headed that way until we had a right front tire to go down,
The crazy thing is I am probably driving right now better than I ever drove in my life, ... I guess I don't need to be retiring, but hey, I've made the decision to do that. Still the thing I want to do is go out on top of my game, and I think we're doing a good job out there for these fans. I really love these fans and I appreciate the job they're doing, pulling behind me.
Restrictor plates you've got to rely on all the other drivers around you to make it happen, and that's hard to do. ... But I think the mile and a half tracks are perfect for this Chase.
I tell Steven all of the time that I want his head in the carburetor,
I tell you what, I gotta get one of these at home.