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
It's definitely, when we talk about Springfield, I feel that it's definitely an important area for me. The track here played a huge role in my development as a driver. I'd race there on Friday nights, then I'd go on to Fort Smith, Ark., and back to St. Louis on a Sunday.
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.
This track, I'm really proud of it. I've got my name on it and people have put their heart and soul into it and I really want everybody in the world to know about it.
To think about a new car owner, a driver, a new driver so to speak, all new, new, new, and have to make all the races early, things like that, it just is a huge uphill feat. I wish them all the luck, but it's going to be a tough one.
You guys are probably getting sick of seeing me get all this stuff. But I'm enjoying it, even if you aren't.
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.
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 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.
As soon as I fired it up and pulled out, I knew I was in trouble. The engine just welded itself shut.
We had a real hot rod today, but ...
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.
The racetrack said, 'You get a release from the judge, we'll let you race,'
I guess I should have come down for four tires when Kenseth came in, ... but, man, I just did not want to get back in that pack, so I was just holding on.
Carl is a darn good one (driver), no doubt about that,