NASCAR WCUP: Rusty Wallace Interview: Success record at Richmond
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 2, 2001
After his victory at California last weekend, Rusty Wallace, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Taurus, became the winningest active driver in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series with 54 career triumphs. Wallace, who is eighth on the all-time win list, moved one victory ahead of Jeff Gordon. Wallace will be trying to add to that lead this Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, where he holds the distinction of having the most wins among active competitors with six. Wallace spoke about returning to RIR and the challenges he has faced in the first three months of the season.
RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus -- YOU'VE WON MORE RACES AT RICHMOND THAN ANY OTHER ACTIVE DRIVER. HOW DOES THAT FEEL? "Whenever you've got records like that it always makes you feel good. You like to be the top guy wherever you go, but you have to keep working at it too. We've been doing some testing at different race tracks getting ready for Richmond, so I feel good about our effort going in there. We chose the car we're gonna run and we did some testing. We went down to Lakeland, which is a track that's pretty doggone close to Richmond and we always learn a lot of things there that help for the Richmond track, whether it's shocks or springs or whatever. My main concern was how it was gonna handle with the new tire compared to last year and it didn't seem to be much different whatsoever to me, so I was pretty happy with what I saw. As far as being the all-time active leader in wins, I'd like to bang out a couple of more here so I can stay a little bit ahead of the gang. Richmond is a track I really love going to. I love the shape of it. The last time I was there I was leading the race by a pretty good margin when I blew an engine and I've always had good runs there, so I have no reason to believe that I shouldn't have a good one when I go back. I'm excited about going there, I can tell you that."
ALL SIX OF YOUR WINS AT THAT TRACK HAVE COME AFTER IT WAS REBUILT TO ITS CURRENT CONFIGURATION. DID YOU RACE A LOT ON IT BEFORE? "Yeah, I did race on it before but not much because I was pretty new to the circuit and didn't have a lot of experience. When I got together with the Blue Max team we started doing a lot of testing and we tested at the new race track. I can remember when I went to that new race track for the first time, I was running really, really good and the caution flag came out. Geoff Bodine didn't slow down and actually drove over the roof of my car. I'll never forget it. He hit me in the rear end so hard that he went up the decklid and went over the roof of my car. I landed in the infield and the tailpipes were squished so far shut and packed full of mud that it blew the motor up. They fired it up to try and get back out, but I finally lost the motor with back pressure. That's what lost me the championship in '88 because I only lost by 24 points to Elliott. When Bodine ran over the back of me at Richmond, that killed my championship hopes right there when it was all said and done."
NOTE: The Miller 400 marked the first race on the new .75-mile track at Richmond in the fall of 1988. The accident occurred after a first lap yellow and knocked Wallace out of the race. He was saddled with a 35th-place finish and left Richmond trailing Elliott by 119 points with seven races remaining. Wallace eventually finished second by 24 points to Elliott. DO YOU FEEL YOU'RE GAINING ON THE NEW TIRE? "This tire is so hard and so moody and it's so hard to get right. I'm being too conventional with it and I'm leaning more to the stuff I did last year and you just can't do that. My setup for California was completely different than what it was last year and it just drives you crazy. If you go win a race, you come back and you want to bring that same setup because you know the springs are right and the shocks are right. You want to rub on 'em a little bit, but you can't do it because everything is different. I've gotta tell you, that's happening in this sport like crazy. You go run one race and when you come back everything is different. You're constantly chasing something different. If the track is the same and the tire is the same, then something might be wrong with the car you're running so you bring a new car back. But this year, the Daytona-Talladega rules are different. There's a brand new tire everywhere we go that's different. Now there's some new shock technology coming out that we're working real hard on. I've been right there, but I'm just tired of running fifth and sixth. It's seems I've honed in anywhere from fourth to seventh as far as finishes go, but I haven't had a pole yet and I had nine of 'em last year. It's really crazy what's going on, but I feel we've gained a lot at every place we went and tested. When you go back to some of these tracks it's like, 'I can't believe how different it was.' We went to Sears Point for two days and I said, 'Man, I'm glad we came out here,' because, man, it was different."
THERE ARE A LOT OF VETERAN DRIVERS WHO HAVE BEEN CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS THAT ARE STRUGGLING IN THE STANDINGS THIS YEAR. DO YOU THINK IT'S A CASE WHERE THEY'VE RELIED ON PAST NOTES AS WELL AND HAVEN'T ADJUSTED TO THIS NEW TIRE YET? "Oh yeah because you would never go into a race where you run really good at and say, 'Okay, we're not gonna do any of that stuff we did last year. We're gonna dream up a bunch of new stuff.' Most people start out with those notes and try to perfect 'em. If they're really successful, they'll go back like that and then they'll work on it. That's what we did and, boy, that got us caught a lot this year. It's all different and it's a real scramble to try to figure the tire out. It's way different than last year and it's a little bit frustrating, but I've talked to Goodyear and they're helping a little bit."
WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THE SEASON SO FAR AND THE STANDINGS? "I think that the standings are all in an uproar right now. I think it's anybody's game right now, I really do. We're not that far out of second with the way the point standings are bundled up right now. If it wouldn't have been for Las Vegas, even with the way we've been running, we'd be real close to the front right now. We've been running okay, not great, but we lost over 100 points in that one race and with where I'm at now I could be sitting in second. 'If' doesn't mean a thing, though, I know that but that's how crazy this season has been. This guy has blown a motor, this guy turned over, this guy wrecked, this guy had this problem. Everybody has been having their share of trouble and you even look at a race like Talladega. Nothing went wrong with anybody, but you look up and Sterling Marlin is leading and the next thing you know he's 25th. You look up and Jeff Gordon is leading and the next thing you know he's 28th. You look up, I'm leading and I go back to 30th and make it back to 13th. It's nutty stuff."
UNTIL WINNING AT CALIFORNIA, YOUR BEST FINISH HAD BEEN THIRD AT DAYTONA. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT? "Yeah, I know. I would have lost money on that one, although I really expected to run really, really good at Daytona. We've run good there the last four or five years and it's been great for us. Even Talladega has not been bad, but this tire, though, really threw me for a loop. I'm knawing at it and trying to figure it out, but it's very hard to figure out."
WITH TWO EXTRA RACES THIS SEASON, IS IT GOOD TO HAVE A LITTLE EXTRA TIME TO TRY AND CUT INTO THAT POINT DEFICIT? "No, I don't know about that. I'm not going for that one. It might be nicer to have only 30 races, so if I'm leading the point standings at the end of 30, I don't have to go six more. I'm a big fan of about 30 races. I think that's fine."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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