Rusty Wallace Transcript from Dodge Teleconference

Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004.
Dodge Motorsports Teleconference
Michigan Advance
                          

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

 

NOTE: Wallace, a 48-year-old St. Louis native, has more wins than any
other active driver at Michigan International Speedway with five. He
also leads all active drivers with 15 top fives at the 2.0-mile track in
the Irish Hills. Wallace will also compete in Saturday's Busch race at
MIS. It'll be his first Busch start since Oct. 19, 1997 at Fontana.
Wallace's last double dip weekend with Cup and Busch came at Lowe's
Motor Speedway on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, 1989 - Wallace's championship Cup
season. He has 34 Busch starts with eight top fives. He finished second
at Daytona in a Busch race in 1989 and second at Darlington in Busch
competition in 1985.

 

THREE OF YOUR WINS AT MICHIGAN WERE IN MILLER-SPONSORED RACES. COMMENT
ON THAT. "I've thought about that. Maybe we should make 'em all Miller
races. This is an important weekend for me. I'm running my personal
Busch car that I own. We tested up there last Monday and Tuesday. The
Cup car is in really good shape, so I'll be double dipping this weekend.
It'll be a real busy week, but we'll be up for it."

 

WHAT'S YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS OF RUSTY WALLACE RIGHT NOW? "My thought
process right now, I've had an unbelievable year. Yeah, we finally got
back to victory lane, but I would have never thought we'd had this many
DNFs with crazy things going on. This past weekend we had ourselves in
great position and then lost the transmission. At Sears Point we ran out
of gas. We blew a motor at Michigan. It goes on and on with the crazy
things that have happened, but the good thing is the performance has
been there. The car has been running great all year long. We just can't
seem to close the deal. I don't know what it is. With 14 or 15 races
left to go or whatever we've got I feel like we're going to win some
more races this year and move on up. Mathematically we're still in it,
and I'm not a quitter, so we're going to keep digging and try to get
ourselves in the top 10."

 

COMMENT ON REPORT THAT NEXT YEAR WILL BE YOUR LAST "I'll tell you this.
Right now, my mind is 100 percent on racing. If I do make that call, one
of these days, you guys will be the first to know because I want to
celebrate it in a proper way and have a good time. Right now, I'm not
prepared to talk about retirement."

 

BUSCH FIELD AT MICHIGAN LOOKS LIKE AN ALL-STAR FIELD "Yeah, the Busch
race will be pretty tough this week. The reason I'm running it, Jamie
McMurray is driving my Busch car all year long and he had two previous
commitments he had to do for the newly-designed Chip Ganassi team. That
was to run Phoenix and Michigan. I was going to have to put a driver in
for those two races, and I said to heck with it, I'll do it myself. I
was able to go test at Michigan and got the car running good and racing
good. I did a lot of qualifying attempts and got it feeling good there.
I feel like I'm prepared. Bobby Labonte is going to be there. Kevin
Harvick is going to be there. A lot of Cup drivers are going to be in
it. It's going to be a fast and furious Busch race, no doubt about
that."

 

HOW DO YOU BALANCE YOUR TIME? "That's a great question. I'm not doing a
real good job at it right now. I find myself doing a lot of things I
probably shouldn't do. I say yes to a lot of things because I'm trying
to do all the right things for my career and sponsors. Aviation has
helped me a ton, being able to move around the country and get things
done. Many times I've made two or three stops in one day because of
aviation. I'm trying to do more quality things instead of just a ton of
things. I'm trying to integrate things also and sit back and see which
ones are important."

 

COMMENT ON CONFLICTING SPONSORS IN VICTORY LANE "To me when you win a
race it's all about victory. It's never crossed my mind to guard this or
knock this off or do this or that. Personally, I think you're getting a
little cocky when you do things like that. I think it needs to be
celebrated. You need to have your crew with you and your family with you
and have a big time doing it instead of worrying about turning it into a
commercial event. I'm not all for what's been going on with that stuff."

 

ARE YOU JUST RUNNING TWO BUSCH RACES? "I'll be running the Busch race in
Michigan and Phoenix. We'll be at California with our Busch car, but
Jamie McMurray will be driving it."

 

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TESTING BUSCH CAR? "I learned a lot of things. I got
to work with every single one of my employees. We've hired 'em all and
they're all great guys, but I've never got to interact with them on a
test basis or right there at the racetrack looking at everything making
sure it's looking good. This time I'm driving the car, and I got to say,
'let's change this spring or let's change this shock.' I got to see
every one of them work, and I was really impressed with what I saw.
Blake (Bainridge, crew chief) did a great job. We had a really intense
two-day test session at Michigan. I came back and Roger Penske called me
and asked me what I learned. He asked if I learned anything for the Cup
car. I said, 'I don't know, but I learned a lot of things.' Now I
understand why these guys like to run Cup and Busch. There are things
you can learn. The cars have different wheel bases and different
horsepower, but now they've got the weight closer. I was able to make
changes that I think can cross over to the Cup car, and it might benefit
it."

 

COMMENT ON JAMIE McMURRAY DRIVING YOUR CAR WHEN YOU DO FINALLY RETIRE
"Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi are my personal friends. Those guys are
great people, and I would never do anything like that even if anybody on
my team would want me to do that. I'm honored enough that Chip was able
to let Jamie drive my Busch car. No way would I go back down the road
and try to steal Jamie from Chip and Felix, and that's just the way it
is. All the internet reports, everybody can go update their reports
right now from what I just said. Jamie's got a contract with Felix for
the next two or three years at least. Once his contract runs out, maybe
we'd be interested, but no way in the world am I going to get in a
bidding match to try to steal Jamie away from those guys. Felix and Chip
are just too doggone good friends of mine."

 

ANY INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT WHEN YOU CHANGED TEAMS? "After I won the
championship (1989) my first opportunity was to drive for Junior
Johnson. I was going to drive for Junior and at the last minute decided
to start our own team with Roger Penske. It's been real successful and
turned out well for us. Everybody is always trying to position
themselves to get the best driver in the car they can, at the right
price, too. Right now I'm in the car. I'm driving the No. 2 car for at
least a couple more years. Our stable of drivers is safe right now."

 

IS THERE A LOT OF BEHIND-THE-SCENES TAMPERING WITH DRIVERS? "A lot of
these things with McMurray got started because he's driving my Busch
car. Everybody just put 2 and 2 together and came up with 12. A lot of
rumors got started like that just because Jamie is driving my car. They
think I'm going to retire right now and stuff like that. There's no
truth to that. As far as behind the scenes, I really can't comment on
that. We really don't have any behind the scenes type stuff to talk
about."

 

COMMENT ON RACING UNDER THE LIGHTS AT DARLINGTON "It's going to be
exciting when they turn the lights on at Darlington. It's going to be
much better to race at night there. The track will be cooler. It's going
to be not as slick. That place is always miserable during the day there.
I think it's the hottest place in the world when we run that Southern
500. One of the last times down there I lost 11 pounds. It was 104
degrees when we started the race and I'm thinking I'd rather be dead
than be here right now. When they said they were going to put lights up
and run at night, I was all for that."

 

DO YOU THINK DARLINGTON HAS LOST SOME OF ITS MAGIC? "Yeah, I'd say it
has. It's a place I enjoy going it. It's fun, but look at the new
California Speedway or Texas Motor Speedway. They're big, big
superspeedways compared to Darlington. Darlington is still the same
track. There's a lot of nice people down there, and it's a real
historical track to run on, but it's in dire need of some work. The
track needs repaving really bad. It's awful rough, real course on tires.
It's getting there, putting the lights in. I don't think it's going to
be capable of supporting two races a year with all the competition it's
got out there right now. ISC owns the track, and I think they made the
right call doing what they did. They would have made the wrong call if
they had taken all the races away, but I'm glad we've got a big race
down there. It's a fun place to race, and when you win there you really
feel like you've done something."

 

ARE MECHANICAL DRIVERS A DYING BREED? DOES THAT TAKE SOME PERSONALITY
OUT OF THE SPORT? "Some drivers don't have much of a personality and
they'll be that way for a long time. Unfortunately their careers won't
grow because of that. I'm a mechanical guy. I don't know how to race
other than that. I try to make a lot of the chassis calls. That's one
thing I liked about McMurray when he came over to the Busch team. He's
really mechanical. He's really into the shocks and springs. He knows
exactly what's in his car. He's really involved in it. A lot of guys are
really good drivers but they've put it 100 percent with the crew chief
and engineers and stay out of it. I just can't do it that way. I'm not
going to agree that that's a dying breed. I think the tougher the sport
gets that these guys are going to have to get back in the game and
understand more about the cars rather than saying, 'I don't know, but
I'm a great driver, fix it for me.' "

 

DO YOU THINK IT'S BECAUSE SOME DRIVERS DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK ON THEIR CARS
EARLY IN THEIR CAREERS? "Mark Martin, myself, McMurray, Matt Kenseth,
those guys all grew up in the American Speed Association (ASA) circuit
and we drove our own trucks and trailers. We designed our own cars. We
built them, packed wheel bearings, understood the shocks, really knew
all about the car. Some of these drivers coming in now from other forms
of racing have never done that before. There's nothing wrong with that.
It wasn't put in front of them. It wasn't how they had a race, but it's
how we had a race. It's how we taught ourselves to do that. If you're
going to be a consistent up front running in this sport, you've got to
be well rounded and understand all that stuff."

 

ELABORATE ON WORKING WITH BLAKE BAINRIDGE AT BUSCH TEST "Blake Bainridge
is a crew chief a lot of guys haven't heard about. He's worked with Joe
Gibbs and a lot of other teams. He's part of the Alabama Gang down there
with Bobby and Donnie and those guys. I heard about him, interviewed him
and hired him. He's 24 or 25 years old and a real new-age style crew
chief, really into computers and engineering. I got to work with him the
first time, and I'm glad I got to work with him. I had a lot of
questions about him, but when I worked with him at Michigan, he was
making changes and suggesting changes that I drove and felt. It was
really cool. I'd never experienced it. I've got a winner in Blake
Bainidge, no doubt about that. I got to take a look at it first hand. I
hope we can go to Michigan this weekend and have a really good run with
that Busch car for Blake and the team. We've really built a world-class
Busch operation. Now it's time to lay some numbers on the board. We're
in the process right now of putting a lineup together for next year to
run the whole Busch Series. We'll probably use two drivers to do it.
Blake and Barry Dodson will definitely be the guys leading it. Barry is
our general manager and Blake is the crew chief."

 

HOW DID BLAKE REACT TO YOU DRIVING THE CAR? "He was excited because
Billy Parker is the kid I hired to start with. He's a great kid. He's
good, but we wrecked some. We had a tough time explaining to Billy how
the car was handling. We had a couple of wrecks, four or five wrecks,
and I finally said to keep the team morale high and sponsors happy we've
got to make a driver change right now. I really believe in Billy, but
when I got in the car and Jamie got in the car it was a breath of fresh
air for Blake. He felt he had two guys who could drive the car, and he
got it rolling."

 

WHAT WILL BE THE TOUGHEST THING TO LET GO OF WHEN YOU RETIRE? "This
retirement thing from racing is going around in my head all the time. I
guess the toughest thing I'll have to give up is the pure enjoyment of
racing. I love racing and I still love racing. I feel like I'm at the
top of my game right now. You wouldn't know it from the poor finishes we
have because of mechanical problems, but the performance of the car has
been good. What will happen, I'll have to weigh what's going on. My kids
are growing up. Steven is racing right now. I've got the car business
I'm heavily involved in. We're building a new state of the art new
Penske race shop. I won't to be more involved with that. There will be a
time when it crosses. You think about things like that. Right now, I
finally broke into victory lane at Martinsville and after that I knew I
could win a lot more this year, I would have never thought I'd go to
Talladega and get caught up in a crash. Go to California and get caught
up in a crash, blow a motor here, blow a motor there. I never dreamed
I'd be 17th or 18th in the points. I thought I'd be eighth or better
easy, but it didn't happen. Right now I'm clawing my way back to the
front. My main goal right now is to make hay out of every single year I
can, but I don't' have all the answers about the retirement thing. It'll
be something I'll talk to Penske, my wife, Don Miller and we'll have big
discussions about it. I don't plan on quitting right now. I'll go for
another couple of years, but I'm not guaranteeing anything after that.
That 38-race schedule will wear a person down. There's a lot of life out
there rather than living in a motorhome every weekend at a racetrack."

 

COMMENT ON UPCOMING RACE AT BRISTOL "I don't think it can get any
wilder. The night race at Bristol is always a wild race. I know I'm
taking a new car there. Ryan is up there right now testing. My Busch car
was up there last week testing with Jamie driving it. I'll take the new
car with the same setup I almost won the race with. I know I'll have to
adjust a little bit on it, but I'm going to run the race like I'm
oblivious to the points. I'm going to drive hard and be on my crew to
make some good stops. Larry knows he's got to make some great calls.
Track position is important. You can pass at that place like you can't
at some other places, so that will be good."

 

COMMENT ON LAST 10 RACES. WHAT WILL ROLE OF GUYS WHO ARE OUT OF THE
RUNNING BE? "You'll see people probably letting their teammates by, but
you're not going to see any blocking. If you try to block, you're going
to get your butt knocked off the racetrack. That's just the way it's
going to happen. There's no blocking going to happen in this deal.
There'll be a lot of who-do going on like letting your teammate go and
racing another guy harder, but as far as blocking, that won't work."

 

COMMENT ON CUP DRIVERS IN BUSCH RACE "We're out there pounding the
pavement hard for sponsorships and stuff. These sponsors don't want to
get involved with anybody unless they know the car can run up front.
They want to be involved with good drivers. That's just the way it is.
These things take megabucks to operate. It's really, really hard to sell
sponsors. The sponsors want it all. They want to know they've got a good
owner and driver and when they go to the racetrack and they're going to
invite 300 or 400 guests, they want to know their car is going to be in
the race. I'm looking at it in a whole different light than I used to
look at it, and it's purely financial. Those sponsors don't want to go
out and run second. They want quality people in there, and it's
different now."

 

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