NASCAR WCUP: Rusty Wallace always ready for action at Bristol

Posted By Terry Callahan
Contributing Editor, The Auto Channel

March 20, 2001

Rusty Wallace, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Taurus, has enjoyed tremendous success at Bristol Motor Speedway over the years, winning nine races and six poles there, so far, in his NASCAR Winston Cup career. He swept both races at Bristol in 2000, and looks forward to going back and trying to improve on his seventh-place standing in the current NASCAR Winston Cup point standings.

RUSTY WALLACE - 2 - Miller Lite Taurus - DID YOU KNOW WHEN YOU DROVE AT BRISTOL FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME THAT IT WAS A TRACK THAT YOU WOULD LIKE?

"Yeah. I'll tell you what, the first time I got on that track was a long time ago in an All-Pro race, it was a different race association we used to run, and I held the world record at Bristol for a long time, in an ASA car. We had a little bitty engine in it, I think a 330-inch engine, turned a lot of rpm's and the car screamed around there and I got the pole that day, and held the track record there for a long, long time. Then Dick Trickle came later and beat me. But we had it at Bristol for a long, long time, too. I've always liked that track. I like the shape of it, and I've won nine races there, and it's been a great track for me, won three of the last four. One of the things I like so much about it is I got five car dealerships now. We just added a new one two weeks ago. And, so, I got a bunch of friends from that area come down, my whole family comes down and, let me tell you, I cut my teeth on the short tracks, and everytime I get a chance to run there and do good like we normally do, you end up liking something, really liking the place. I didn't get to test there this time, and I wish I could've because I think it's going to be important, the test session. But, I think we'll get the chassis going again real good and be a threat to win that race."

IS BRISTOL A TRACK THAT'S SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU WERE DRIVING BACK THEN? "Yes. It's a track I compare to Winchester, Indiana, a track we ran with the ASA cars, and Salem, Indiana. They're both real high-banked race tracks, real fast, and back then those were our highest-banked race tracks we ever run on, and gosh, when you go to those places you feel like you're running 5,000 miles an hour. And you look back now and Bristol's one of the smallest tracks on the circuit, and it's really the same size as Winchester - Winchester might be a little bit bigger. I did quite well at those places, too; I won at Winchester. Like at Darlington, there wasn't much I could do there with what happened first-round qualifying (cancelled because of fog). We had tested there and were running good in practice, so my mind was really on Bristol a lot. We've got a brand-new car for that race. The car we were gonna run got destroyed in Las Vegas, and it seems like every time the guys build me a new car and take it to Bristol we run pretty good, too. And we're already learning things about this new tire that we can incorporate into that car before we get there, which I think is going to be important."

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE SURFACE AT BRISTOL THAT YOU LIKE - AND NOT EVERYBODY ELSE LIKES? "A lot of people don't feel hooked up and comfortable on the concrete, but I always do. I feel real good about it. I like going there, and I like the concrete at Dover. I wish a lot more tracks were concrete. Because I think it gives an illusion to a lot of the competitors that the cars not in the ground, really, when it is. I don't know what makes them feel that way, but I've always been an advocate of the concrete and stuff - I don't know if I want to run 200 miles an hour on it, but with banking. I don't know if I want to run a flat track on concrete, but the banking seems like it likes the concrete."

YOU WERE SO SUCCESSFUL DURING QUALIFYING LAST YEAR, WINNING NINE POLES. WITH ONLY ONE ROUND OF QUALIFYING THIS YEAR, AND WITH IT BEING SO IMPORTANT TO START TOWARD THE FRONT AT BRISTOL, WILL YOUR APPROACH CHANGE THIS YEAR? "No, not really. I think I'm gonna go to Bristol with the same qualifying set-up. I mean I have to because I was on the pole last time. And, I'll unload with maybe a little bit different air pressure in the left-side tires, but other than that I won't make much changes. Then after I get going, I'll adjust to it, try out what it's gonna need."

BUT UNLIKE OTHER TRACKS, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO START NEAR THE FRONT AT BRISTOL. "Oh yeah. I think it's real important. I think track position at that track is one of the most important places we go to, I really do."

Text provided by Dan Zacharias

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