NASCAR: Rusty Wallace Transcript Dodge Teleconference

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004.
Dodge Motorsports Teleconference
Charlotte Recap, Martinsville Advance
                      

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

 

NOTE: Wallace won at Martinsville in April,, scoring a .538-second
victory over Bobby Labonte. Wallace leads all drivers with seven wins at
Martinsville in 41 career starts. He also has 16 top fives and 22 top
10s at the .526-mile track in the Commonwealth.

 

OPENING REMARKS "We're out here in Arizona right now testing the No. 66
Duraflame Dodge for the race here in a couple of weeks. Boy, Saturday
night was a real heartbreaker. I probably had one of the fastest cars in
my life that night. I've run Charlotte many times and never had one
handle that well. We've been doing tons of shock absorber, chassis work
and it really paid off. We qualified the car 14th and drove it up to
third place and were still going. The lap times were incredible. Off
turn four Jeff Gordon lost it and when he lost it he went sliding up
toward the outside wall. I saw him sliding and I committed to the
bottom. When I went to the bottom his car hooked and flew right across
the racetrack in front of me. That was it. It knocked the nose off my
car and we spent many laps repairing it. We came back out and it really
ran great after that.

 

"I saw Gordon out here yesterday. They're out here testing with us at
Phoenix, him and Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray. He said, 'my car was
just out of control. When you hit the back of it and knocked the bumper
cover off of it, it took off like lightning.' He said, 'I wish there was
a way I could figure out how to race it without a tail on it.' He said
it handled much better like that. It was a tough deal to take, and I was
just shocked. When you go from 14th to third, I've had a rough year with
mechanical problems and things like that, to have that happen it stopped
me in my tracks. I was in disbelief. I thought I was in a dream or
something. Hey, that's racing. I've had bad years in my career and 2004
has definitely been a bad year when it comes to that. The thing that's
been unbelievable, it's not unbelievable, but the car is just so fast
every week. It drives great. It's running real, real fast, but we just
can't seem to close the deal. I'm not a quitter as everybody knows.
We'll work through this and that's it. Every single race is the most
important to me. We're going to Martinsville, site of my last victory,
which I'm excited about. I'm out here preparing for Phoenix in my Busch
car because I really want to run good in it."

 

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG DRIVERS TO BUILD ON FOUNDATION YOU AND
SOME OTHER VETERANS STARTED? "I think the biggest thing that I would
keep in mind is respect for the sport. It was nothing at one point and
we helped build it. When I started it was Bobby Allison, David Pearson,
Cale Yarborough and then it moved on to Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace,
Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte. Now it's going to Jimmie Johnson, Ryan
Newman, Jamie McMurray and guys of that type. I just think it's real
important not to lose sight of what it takes. You've got to be fan
friendly. You've got to take care of these fans. You've got to be able
to work hard. These cars are very expensive to run. You've got to spend
a lot of time with the media. You've got to spend a lot of time with
your sponsors, and you've got to spend a lot of time with the fans. If
you just spend all your time saying you don't have time for that, I just
want to drive my car, you're not going to be successful. You're not
going to be good for the sport. That's one thing I've done my whole
career. I've been one of the busiest guys on the circuit all over the
country trying to take care of it. I've been a vocal one, too. If I
don't like a rule that I think is wrong, I'll be the first to say it.
That's what I'm trying to instill in the guys that are driving around
me. Whether it's me trying to help Jamie make some personal decisions
about how to treat people or what to do, or my son Steven or Brendan
Gaughan or whatever."

 

WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN YOU SAW THE EMPTY SEATS SATURDAY NIGHT? "I did
see that, and I was kinda confused on why that was going on. I don't
have all the answers. It did concern me a bit."

 

DO YOU NEED LUCK MORE THAN SKILL SOMETIMES? "I wouldn't say that.
Definitely skill and preparedness is definitely No. 1 when it comes to
NASCAR racing, but luck does have a lot to do with it. You could be out
there leading the race, I remember Dover at the beginning of the year
and Kasey Kahne had the field mopped at Dover and he runs into oil and
crashes and knocks the wall down. That was bad luck. On the other hand,
he blew a right front tire out this weekend and was having a great race.
What was that? Probably a little bit of air pressure problem or camber
setting problem or it could be he just ran over a piece of debris and
caused it. I'm a perfect example of that, too. Driving along from 14th
up to third with one of the best cars around and of all people Jeff
Gordon, one of our sport's better drivers, loses it and flies back
across the track and takes me out. That was pretty wild. Luck is very
important. If I had my rathers, would I go for luck or would I go for
preparedness and a good team? I'd go with preparedness and a good team."

 

COMMENT ON NASCAR DENYING EARNHARDT JR.'S APPEAL "The way I feel about
it is I understand what NASCAR is doing. I don't have to agree with it,
and I don't agree with it, but I understand it. The one that started
this whole mess was Janet Jackson. Everybody ought to go up there and
whip her rear end. I tell you, for pulling that stunt and causing this
whole mess in the United States right now. I think it's took the realism
out of our sport. It's took what people normally do. In fact, what Dale
Earnhardt Jr. said, I didn't even know that was a cuss word to tell you
the truth. I learned that. I just thought it was common language that
most people use and everybody in the world uses and something they do
every single day."

 

IS RETIRING THE MOST PERSONAL DECISION YOU CAN MAKE? WHO'S GOING TO BE
NEXT? "It's definitely the most personal decision. I'm comfortable with
my decision. I will tell you I'm accustomed to a style of life, and I
don't want to have my style of life altered much. A lot of that income
stops and you have to self-adjust. That's the thing I'm going to have to
get used to. I love racing. I love driving a car and meeting people and
being around different parts of the country. I really won't know what
that's going to feel like until Homestead next year. As far as being a
trend setter, and who will be next, Mark Martin has already named his
tour, but he's not going to quit racing. It's quite a bit different than
what I'm doing. Terry Labonte has already said he's going to quit
running fulltime, but he's going to run partial, so that's not the same
thing I'm doing, either. Richard Petty and my tour are real similar.
When Dale Jarrett finally decides what he's going to do in 2006 or 2007
he could be the next candidate to do a retirement tour."

 

HAVE ANY VETERANS TALKED TO YOU ABOUT THE RETIREMENT TOURS? "No, they
really haven't. I haven't talked to any of the veterans about it. I just
did what I thought was right, and what I thought was right was to retire
at the top of my game while I'm running up front. I feel like I'm good
behind the wheel."

 

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION OF THE NEW FORMAT NOW? "I've got to be careful about
what I say because I don't want to get in trouble, but I will tell you I
thought it was OK when it first started because I haven't been out of
the top 10 for 16 or 17 years until last year and I thought that was
fluke. I never thought it would happen this year, so I was fine with the
format. Then when I watched it unfold, the thing I was nervous about is
happening. All I see in every newspaper and everything is only the top
10. I don't see anything about any other driver at all. If I do,
somebody would have to really dig deep and prove to me it's out there.
The only time you see anything about another driver is when he does
something. I think NASCAR when the year is over will have to evaluate
what they're going to do and I think some things will definitely have to
be changed. No way in the world can you go next year with exactly the
way it is this year."

 

WHAT WILL BE THE CHALLENGES ENTERING MARTINSVILLE THIS WEEKEND?
"Everybody I've talked to who have been there testing say the track is
just great. It's super, super smooth and you're on the throttle a lot
longer up off the corner. The springs are a little bit different,
although I hear the normal setup is pretty close. You just have to
change one or two springs and everything else is really close. I really
don't know. I would think if you're coming off the corner as fast as
you're coming off that brakes are going to be very important. Now you're
going to have so much more speed entering turn three or entering turn
one you're going to have to really wow the car down. I expect the next
thing people are going to have to look at would be the brakes. That's
what I'm going to have to look at, make sure we've got plenty of
cooling. I always pay attention to it, but I think it's going to be even
more important because you're running faster down the straightaways."

 

WHAT WILL YOU BE LOOKING AT ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY FOR CHANGES GOING
INTO THE RACE? "My main thing I'll be looking at for sure will be tire
wear, whether we can get away with a couple of tires or will we need
four tires every single time. I'm also going to be looking at the shock
package we always run there and if it'll work on this track. The shock
package on most cars are tuned up for real rough racetracks and trying
to get all the bite you can. From what I hear, the shocks have to be
changed a little bit and the springs have to be changed a little bit. I
tried to get up there last week for a one-day test, and the weather had
me socked in. I couldn't get there."

 

IS BROADCASTING BECOMING YOUR NEW PASSION? "I don't know if it's  my new
passion or not. I'm doing a little bit of it right now, just kinda
testing the water. I would like to do it. I've hinted around to a couple
of networks. Pretty soon I'll get to talking more about it. I think
that's something in my life after racing deal. I still plan to pay a lot
of attention to Team Penske. I plan on being actively involved in Team
Penske, my Busch car, my car dealerships in East Tennessee and my son
Steven and his career coming up right now. Television is definitely in
line with what I'd like to do."

 

WILL YOU RUN YOUR BUSCH CAR IN 2006? "Right now, when I say I'm done
with racing after 2005 I don't plan to do any racing. I'm not going to
say I won't go out there and do some testing for the team, whether it's
road course or testing in general, but right now when I'm done at the
end of 2005 I'm done with competitive driving. I might change my mind."

 

HOW MUCH SAY WILL YOU HAVE IN WHO TAKES OVER FOR YOU? "I'll have a lot
of say. I'm part owner of the team. We'll look for a driver around
25-30. That's what the Miller Brewing Company would like to have.
They've agreed to sponsor the car for an additional two years after I
retire as long as we come up with a driver to fit their criteria, which
is fair. We can do that. We'll look for a driver that's actively
involved in the setup of the car, knows a lot about the chassis and
somebody who knows what it takes to be successful in the sport. Somebody
has got to be willing to work with the fans and media well. Somebody's
got to be willing to sit in an airplane and fly around the country and
service our sponsors."

 

TALK ABOUT THE TYPE OF RACETRACK YOU'D LIKE TO DESIGN "Why racecar
drivers don't design tracks is beyond me. I'm actively involved in
trying to build a new racetrack right now in Newton, Iowa. It's right
outside of Des Moines, which is one of the hottest growing areas in the
country. I was just up there, and it's beautiful. New everything,
beautiful golf courses. It's the heartland of America, the crossroads of
America. I think the racetrack that needs to be designed is a
seven-eighths mile racetrack. It needs to be shaped a lot like Richmond,
Va. The focus needs to be put on pit lanes, access for the fans in and
out of the racetrack, a lot of focus on the media, moving people around.
When I designed the Newton race track, which probably was 90 percent
designed with Paxton and Waters out of Indianapolis, they did Kansas and
California Speedway, we worked really hard on making sure hospitality
was in a certain place so drivers could get back and forth. There are
certain roads getting there. We made sure access for tunnels were in the
right location. We made sure our suites were in the right location. The
perfect track for my mind for excitement would be a seventh-eighths with
a lot of Richmond, Va., to it. I think that would make for great
racing."

 

WHAT ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS YOU'D MAKE FOR THE CHASE? "The one thing I did
like a lot that NASCAR said early was 'we think this is a cool format
and if it's not exactly right we'll be open to adjust on it.' I'm sure
that's where their thought process is. It looked like the popularity of
it really spiked going into Richmond. A couple of races out of Richmond
and right now it looks like it's flattened out for some reason. A lot of
the drivers that are fan favorites - Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray,
myself, Dale Jarrett, guys like that are out of it, and I think they
lost a huge fan base by that happening. Maybe the top 10, instead of 400
points, it's going to have to go back farther. Maybe it's the top 15.
There's going to have to be more room for everybody to get in. To be
quite honest, there's a lot of drivers in it right now that some of them
just don't have the popularity of some of the others I mentioned when it
comes to the fans."

 

COMMENT ON TEAMMATES WORKING TOGETHER ON THE TRACK "I just don't think
there's any way either one of them (Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson)
could have done anything different. They're both racing for the win.
They're both racing for the championship. I think Rick Hendrick, the
owner, thinks they're equally important. I don't think he thought Jeff
or Jimmie was more important. May the best man win at that moment, and
Johnson had the best car at the end. I was talking to him yesterday and
he said they made a couple of adjustments and they were knocking out
laps as fast as qualifying times. His adrenaline was up and all he was
thinking was get all the points he could. He wanted to sweep Charlotte
and he did it. If I'm out there leading the race right now and Ryan
Newman is running second behind me, I'm going to move over and give him
his five points. He's my teammate and he's got a shot and I don't. With
Jimmie and Jeff they're both going for it and they can't do that."