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 was really impressed with the brakes. They could stop on a dime. The acceleration was incredible. But the biggest surprise to me was how you go out and get such great speed, and as you turn down off the back straightaway, I can't believe how hard the wheel gets going into turn 10. As you arc off into there, the steering wheel's locked up. It's amazing.
It's been a great ride, ... If I roughed anybody up along the way, I'm sorry. I didn't really mean it unless it paid more.
You have to have a great handling car and a ton of horsepower and durability. It's a track that usually doesn't have many cautions, and that's what produces the fuel mileage races that the place in known for.
I've always enjoyed racing at MIS and would like to win here again. This track has always treated me real well and the fans here have always been some of the best on the circuit. It's been a great run and I've enjoyed my last season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.
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.
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.