NASCAR WCUP: Rusty Wallace Interview: Ready for Michigan
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 5, 2001
Rusty Wallace, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Taurus, heads into this weekend's race at Michigan International Speedway with five career wins at the facility-including a victory last August. In addition, he won his first career pole there in 1987 and earlier this year captured the NAPA 500 at California, a track very similar to Michigan. Wallace is currently tied with Lee Petty, and Jeff Gordon for seventh place on NASCAR's all-time win list. Both Wallace and crew chief Robin Pemberton are optimistic about the team's chances this weekend.
RUSTY WALLACE-2-Miller Lite Taurus-YOU'VE DONE WELL AT MICHIGAN, WINNING FIVE RACES-AND YOUR FIRST POLE WAS AT THAT TRACK. "Yeah, Michigan's a great track. I like that because it's real wide, you can run two or three wide around that race track. In fact, we'll run three wide, and sometimes four wide, in the front straightaway and then taper two wide in the corners and it's so smooth and, like a lot of tracks, though, it takes a good-handling car and a lot of horsepower, and I think were going to have both of those when we get back there. We won the race the last time I was there, and I feel good about my shot going back."
MICHIGAN AND CALIFORNIA, WHERE YOU WON EARLIER THIS YEAR, ARE SIMILAR, YET NEVER COMPARED... "They're different banking. Michigan's 18 [degrees in the corners] and California's 14. It's four degrees flatter and that's the reason that you gotta run a little stiffer spring, it seems like, at Michigan versus California. With that in mind, there will be a lot of guys thinking about that. Michigan has always been good for me. I had a couple of years there where I really struggled, but last year we got back on track, I ran real well."
WHAT WORKED LAST YEAR WHEN YOU WON THE SECOND RACE AT MICHIGAN? "Last year, second race, it was handling really, really good, but the engines were super strong, too. And I expect another strong engine when we go there this week. I've been looking forward to that engine just as strong, if not stronger than what we had in California, which was good. I'm very optimistic going into that race because of the horsepower and because of the handling we had last time, and the things we learned at California. You can compare some things from California, there's no doubt about that, but not all."
YOU'RE TAKING THE SAME CAR BACK TO MICHIGAN THAT WON LAST YEAR. "Yeah. It's a car called "Mad Max." It's called PRS-25. It's a car we won there with last time, the car we won California with, and we had in Charlotte and didn't get a ding on it, so we're taking it right back to Michigan."
WHAT'S THE STATE OF THE TEAM RIGHT NOW, WITH BEING IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE AND ALL? "Well, I'm really worried. I'm closer than I've been in a long time in the points, I'd like to have more wins and some poles by now, and I'm sure some poles will happen before the year's over, but we won that big race in California and ran real good in Daytona, ran real good in Richmond, all top-10s about everywhere else and I'd like to be consistent in the top five a little more often, but, I'll tell you, I don't see anybody out there showing big strength. Some of the guys who were strong early had some problems and some who are strong right now-everybody's swapping back and forth, I guess I'm saying. I don't see anybody standing out, blowing everybody off. Nobody's doing it yet."
ROBIN PEMBERTON, crew chief-2-Miller Lite Taurus-THE 2 TEAM WON THE LAST RACE AT MICHIGAN LAST AUGUST. WHAT WAS WORKING THAT DAY? "A little bit of everything. You know, it was a good chassis, the horsepower was great, it was the same car we had there the first race. The first race we kind of got blown off, we know we missed it on the set-up, so we went to work and came up with the stuff for the second race that seemed to work out."
RUSTY HAS WON FIVE RACES THERE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT TRACK THAT PLAYS INTO HIS ABILITIES? "Like I always said about him, he picks at the chassis real hard and makes good decisions on what springs he thinks he needs to make it drive right. And, he loves that place. He drives it super deep into the corners, and you give him the horsepower, he'll use it all up. He likes that place. It's nice and fast, the facility's nice, too, for his driving."
A NUMBER OF DRIVERS LIST MICHIGAN AS A FAVORITE TRACK. IT'S VERY SIMILAR TO CALIFORNIA YET THE TWO TRACKS ARE RARELY COMPARED... "They're not the same."
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? "Probably 30 years. Something like that. I don't know exactly what it is, but California is a little bit different and with the new pavement that was laid there for the new construction, it's just had new grip to start off with. And not going through the winters like a Michigan has to with the frost and the heaving and all that stuff, so it'll keep California a little more consistent for more years. But the race tracks, they're close and you can run almost the same set-up but it's not the same."
THAT THE TEAM IS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE, DO YOU WALK INTO THE GARAGE SAYING YOU'RE WHERE YOU WANT TO BE? "Yeah, we want to be a couple of spots further up, but we're okay, we're taking every day as it comes. We just want to be real thorough and not take ourselves out if we can at all help making the right decisions on pit road and springs and shocks and all that stuff, and pit stops are good, and trying to be not conservative, but just thorough."
DOES THAT MAKE IT FUN TO COME TO THE TRACK EVERY DAY? "I don't know if it's ever fun to come to the track. It is, it's where we work, and it is fun at times, but there's a lot of extra pressure involved-the better you run the more pressure that's involved."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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