Dodge Charger driver Rusty Wallace quotes from DIS Test.

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005
Second Session.


RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

"We unloaded on day 1 with two cars and one car ran a 49.70 and the
other car came off the truck at a 49.50. We started working on both cars
and made a decision that the faster car was faster. We've made many,
many changes, a lot of aerodynamic changes, a lot of chassis setting, a
lot of different things. Probably about 45 separate changes on the main
car, and I'm happy to report we worked it from a 49.50 and just a little
while ago we made a banzai qualifying lap and ran a 48.56. That puts us
pretty strong. If you look at the qualifying attempts out there that
would easily put us in the top six or seven right now with qualifying
speeds. Right now we're taking that car and it's being changed
completely right now to get fitted for drafting. When I go back out I'll
be just doing all drafting. It took me some nervous times in not getting
going to many changes and we've got it worked down to a .56. That was a
clean run. There was nobody on the track in front of me and we made sure
of that. That was everything we had in the truck to put in it for
qualifying, all the legal things. I was real happy with that run. The
guys assure me we've got some extra horsepower at home which should work
the car down to about a .35. That's what I know I've got in hand. Let's
see if we've got more when we get back."

 

WHY DO YOU WANT TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 SO BAD? "I haven't won the
Daytona 500. I got close many, many times. I love to go into my final
year knowing I've got a 500 under my belt. That would be a special
feeling. What would be my ultimate thing this year would be to win the
500 and win the final race at Homestead. That would be pretty hot if I
could pull it off. I can't think of anything we left unturned in two and
a half days now. We've worked harder these last two and a half days,
just really getting down and trying to hunt for things. There have many
things in the past, and I've said there's no speed there. We've turned
over everything. We did some things where the guys said, 'man, we've got
to go back. We've got a lot of cars to build at Team Penske. I don't
know if we can get all that done.' I said, 'look man, I want to win the
Daytona 500. You'd better work 24-7 to get it done.' It's not my problem
we've got three teams right now. My goal is to get the 2 car in victory
lane. We just had a little conversation with the fabricators and crew
chiefs. They assured me we'd get it back and get the work done. We saw
the car is faster this way and they want me in victory lane as much as I
want to be in victory lane."

 

IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU'LL RACE IN THE TRUCK SERIES? "No, not right now.
I've learned one thing. I lay awake at night thinking about racing. I'm
thinking, 'man, did I pull the trigger a year too early?' People like
Roger Penske and some of my good friends say just stick with what you're
doing. You're going out on top. You're very competitive. I want to go
out on top. I'm not going to close the door saying that I won't do some
testing for the team and try to help them. I won't close the door and
say I might help my own Grand National team out a couple of times.
Although that's not in the plans right now, I don't want to close the
door so I can't do it. One thing I'm very interested in that I do want
to do, I do want to run the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona. I've never done
that before, and it's something I do want to do. I'd like to do it in a
Dodge. Right now they've got an engine that's a little too big for that
series, and they're working at trying to get the rules figured out for
that right now. That's something I know I will do that in 2006."

 

COMMENT ON WHAT YOU'LL LOOK FOR IN THE CHARGER IN DRAFTING PRACTICE
"I'll look for basically two things. Does the car have the proper amount
of downforce? Where do I need to set the front fenders? I'll be marrying
the springs and shocks together to compliment that package. I'll be
looking really hard at the upper grilles to make sure it doesn't trap
too much debris and overheat the engine. I am concerned about that a
little bit, about how far the screens are set back into the grille. I
think it's an opportunity to have a problem, so we're going to work on
that area and make sure the hot dog wrappers and tire debris doesn't
pack up in there and make the engine overheat. It's got that look that
could happen."

 

COMMENT ON A PENSION PROGRAM FOR CUP DRIVERS "This got brought up about
five years ago before Dale Earnhardt died. Myself and Jeff Gordon and
Dale had a nice meeting with NASCAR. They were good enough to listen to
our thoughts. I think we had 10 people in that room that day and things
were rolling along pretty good. Then when Dale lost his life there was
so much attention and rightfully so, but the whole thing died. It was
very busy year after his death, looking at safety stuff and looking
at.... It just kinda took a back burner. This will be my last full time
year, and it's been brought up to me three or four times. They told me
about football, and those guys have a pension plan. I don't watch other
sports except NASCAR. I really haven't. I haven't had time and NASCAR's
comment would be you guys are independent contractors. I understand
that, too, but I wish there was some type of pension plan. Over 21
years, I think I've been a personality and I think I've helped build
this sport. I'd like to have something for it instead of all of it on
me, so yeah, I'd be politicking real hard for those guys to get involved
and you guys could help, too. I think we're deserving of it. Every other
sport has got it. We're the only ones who don't."

 

HOW HAS NASCAR CHANGED? "NASCAR has changed for the better. It's rock
'n' rolling so good you've better sign up to the fact that it's the hot
thing to do. It's real easy for me, a guy that's 48 years old right now,
I've seen everything in the world happen like a lot of these guys have.
The points system drew all kind of excitement toward the end of the
year. That was good. The only bad thing was I wasn't in it. I wish I had
been in it. With me not being in it I found the focus was on those top
10 drivers. I've got to figure out how to get in the top 10. On the
other hand, because some of the top teams that weren't in it didn't get
the recognition, I think something's got to be adjusted so the Dale
Jarretts, the Rusty Wallaces, all of Richard Childress' teams, the
Evernham teams, those are big sponsors and those sponsors need the
coverage. We've got to figure out some way to marry all that into
everything instead of just the top 10, but I've seen a lot younger kids
get in right now. I've seen guys that have a lot of talent with really
good racecars and engineers to help speed up that learning curve. That's
new. That wasn't how it was when I started, but that's the way it is
nowadays. I understand it. I wish I had had that. I maybe could have
learned it quicker yet, but I like the promotional things that are going
on. We can go anywhere right now and the normal race fan will recognize
Rusty Wallace, whether it's in a restroom or restaurant. It's been a
good ride for me, and I really enjoy it. I can't say anything negative
about it. I really can't. I question a lot of decisions, just like the
pension thing. Those are things outside of growing the sport. Those are
just maintenance problems to take care of the people."

 

HOW ARE YOU ADJUSTING TO THE HANS DEVICE? "I am adjusting well to it. I
really am. I knew all along I needed to do it, but every time I put it
on I'm so uncomfortable wearing the thing. I woke up this morning
getting ready to come to the track and I had a bruise on my shoulder
right around my collarbone where it's just laying on it. It's sore to
touch right now, but I'm going to have to get some padding on there and
get this thing adjusted where I can wear it. That's it. I want to be
able to drive my guts out this year and feel safe doing it. If there's
some other safety things that make sense for me, that's cool. I'm real
happy that NASCAR yesterday let me, I've got a bar behind my head. It's
called the rear loopbar. It comes all the way across. The bar comes
diagonal behind me. In order for me to wear the HANS, I had to slide the
seat forward an inch and a half so the relief area can be left there for
the HANS to clear. That's put me an inch and a half forward and the
window opening for me to get in and out was closed up an inch and a
half. I found myself really having a tough time getting in and out of
the car. I asked Mr. Darby if he'd like me take the bar out and relocate
it farther back. He said he'd never done it before but said go ahead and
do it. All those little things I'm having to do to make myself feel
better in that car. You can get yourself safe, have all the wraparounds,
but man, if that thing is upside down on fire you've got to be able to
get out of that thing, too. I'm not going to say they did the right
thing by doing that (outlawing the Hutchens device). I've been down this
back straightaway end over end 23 times. I've wrecked at Talladega. I
think that was a 28-time end-over-ender that put me in the hospital and
the motor flew out and the body flew off. I walked out of that. I hit
the wall head-on at over 200 mph at Pocono, Pa. I had a right front
failure going in after running over a piece of debris. I've had some of
the most horrifying wrecks in the history of NASCAR. When they tell me
I'm doing it wrong I question them after surviving that many wrecks.
There's been so many people that have had hard wrecks and it's been good
for. I've got a lot of my peers coming up to me telling me it's OK to
run this thing (HANS). So, with all the test data and soft walls, when a
guy hits the wall at 200 mph and you see it bend in a foot, you've got
to know that's better. I finally just signed up for it. I'm not saying
the Hutchens is bad. I think it was good, too. It's just probably not as
good at taking a front impact as the new HANS is. I've got more mobility
inside the car with my Hutchens. I still felt like it was a safe piece
also."

 

ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS BEING YOUR FINAL DAYTONA 500? "I think about that
when I'm quiet, but when I'm on the racetrack it's the same thing -
change a shock, change a spring, go fast, do this, do that. I'm always
wide open thinking about the car. I've got to tell you, when I wasn't
racing here and wasn't testing, it was like 'do I have this in order?
What do I want to do? Do I want to do television? Do I want to be more
involved with the team?' The neat thing is I've got the option to do all
those things, probably. When I got to the track I didn't even think
that. I wasn't thinking that at all.  I was just thinking get that old
hot rod running fast because I don't' want to come down here and look
stupid in the Daytona 500. I want to win the damn thing. That's my
goal."

 

COMMENT ON CHANGES IN DIS INFIELD "I think all the extra eyes (fans) are
great. There's two ways to look at that. If you're a driver, you think,
'man, this is good. As soon as I get out of the car....' But if you're
not a driver, you're thinking 'man, this is the greatest thing in the
world.' I will promise you when I'm not a driver I will promise you this
is the greatest thing in the world. I'd want to get as many  people
surrounded around the cars and teams as I possibly can to let 'em get a
feel of it, to let them really get turned on about racing, support
Miller Lite and support all these sponsors I've got up and down me. If
you don't connect with the fans they're just not going to do that, and I
realize that. I want to do it. I got out of the car yesterday and I
thought, 'self, I never thought I'd be at Daytona and have a big picture
window in front of my car and a flip down door where they could stick
stuff through. That was going on and I found myself getting out of the
car walking up to everybody and waving at 'em. I didn't have a problem
with it. If you're in a real ill mood and your car is handling like crap
and you're running like crap and you're having a rough day, that might
not be a fun thing to do. I've got enough of a personality that I
appreciate it when somebody stands out there and wants my autograph.
It's OK with me."

 

WILL YOU FEEL NOSTALGIC GOING TO SOME TRACKS FOR THE LAST TIME? "I was
telling someone the other day I'm going to have a problem not going to
Bristol because I really look forward to going to that track. I've won
there so much I really get excited about it. I'm going to have a tough
time leaving there, and from what I hear there's going to be a lot of
things the tracks are going to do for me, especially the second half of
the year. That's probably going to be an emotional time then, and I'll
probably want to get in the car and win that race and really close it
out on a high note. I don't know how I'm going to react to all that yet,
but we'll see what happens. That last race will probably be tough, but I
feel like I've really got my life in order in the car and out of the
car. I think I'm pretty organized or I wouldn't have pulled the trigger
and made the decision to do this."

 

WOULD RUSTY WALLACE THE CAR OWNER HIRE RUSTY WALLACE THE DRIVER? "I
would say that Rusty Wallace would be ridiculous not to hire Rusty
Wallace the driver because Rusty's got such a wealth of knowledge he's
gained his whole career. Rusty Wallace isn't old age Rusty Wallace.
Rusty Wallace is on a computer 24-7 at the racetrack going through my
chassis setups. I am a new age driver. I'm an older driver, but I'm new
age when it comes to all that stuff. I think I've had some great, great
runs. I don't know if there's many people out there that support the
sponsors and support the sport and race fans and work as hard off the
track building the sport and taking care of all these 25 sponsors I've
got on my uniforms that nobody in the world has got as many as I do. And
by the way, every one of them is signed up again for three years, so
yeah, I'd hire Rusty Wallace the driver."

 

IS THERE ANYBODY IN THE IOU CATEGORY FOR RUSTY WALLACE? "There really is
not. There's no one I would even think about 'hey I owe you one. I'm
going to get you.' I would never do that. I wouldn't want to hurt
anybody. I want to go out clean. I want to go out respected. When I'm
done I want my peers to look at me and say, 'that Wallace was a hell of
a driver. He was fun to drive with. He was a fun personality, a guy I
like being around and if you'd give him an inch he'd take a mile.' I
want all that."

 

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN YOUR SON STEPHEN? "I see a lot in him right now. I
really do. It's getting real serious with him. He ramped up real quick.
His learning in racing is wide open. I knew he was going to be excited
about it. Stephen right now builds his own cars, he builds his own
shocks. He sets up the car. He paints it. He drives the truck. He does
all kind of things. If I told him right now if he wanted to go racing
next week he'd have to do everything himself, he'd say, 'OK, no
problem.' And he'd go win the race. I think when it was all said and
done he had 62 Bandelero wins. We put him in the legend cars, and he did
great there. We took him out of that and put him in the short track
cars. He won there. This year we upgraded him to the UARA Series because
you couldn't run NASCAR at his age. Stephen won the last four out of
five races. He won Bristol. He won Nashville. He won the rookie of the
year title. He set numerous track records. He was the winningest driver
and the most poles. He said he wanted to go to Myrtle Beach (to race). I
told him we were going to run him in Hooters and I didn't want him
taking those cars down there and tear 'em up. He wanted to know if he
skipped Myrtle Beach if he could go to the Snowball Derby. I funded the
whole thing, and he worked about a month on that car. He went down there
and there were 114 guys. He qualified third and won the race. Not only
did he win the race, he led 214 laps out of 300. He was the youngest kid
in the 37-year history of the Snowball Derby to win the race that young.
We're moving up to the next step and put him in a Busch style car. He's
17, so he can't run Busch. We're putting him in the Hooters Pro Cup
Series. My old crew chief Barry Dodson, Barry is running Stephen right
now. He's pretty wild still. I've got to keep a noose around his neck,
and Barry is pretty good at that. They're going to be testing in
Lakeland, Fla., next week and I'm going to run him at Memphis, Tenn., in
my second Busch car, and I'm also going to run him at Phoenix, Ariz.
Team Penske is looking at running him in two ARCA races this year, too.
The goal is to get as much seat time as we possibly can so we can move
right along. I talked to Brian Vickers father a lot about it. I asked
him how he got Brian up to speed doing this, and he said it was all
about seat time. He just kept running and running, figuring everything
out. There's no slowing Stephen down. There's no way to slow him down,
so that's what he's going to be, and I'm going to support him."

 

COMMENT ON VARIOUS RULES AT DAYTONA "The worst rules and best rules are
just an opinion. The rules we had with the gurney thing in the back and
that little roof strip, it made the cars draft so good and they run so
tight. They were stuck like glue. The bad thing about it was you
couldn't get away from anybody. You were bumper to bumper and it was
just uncomfortable racing. It was great racing for the fans. The
comfortable racing was when you could run back four or five cars and
feel the draft and run up and pass cars. I really liked the slingshoting
stuff. That happened a long time ago when the cars were dirtier and the
spoilers were different and they could slingshot past somebody. That was
a lot of fun. In the old times you'd follow a guy and set him up lap
after lap. You'd see the guy lay back and you'd fly right past him. I
like that stuff. That was pretty neat. Right now, it's pretty generic.
At least we haven't changed any rules from last year to this year here.
We've got a new nose design, but in the wind tunnel there's no
difference whatsoever. It's a new look. It's very very close in
performance, a couple counts of drag and a couple counts of downforce.
It depends on how you build the cars to the plus side or negative side,
but it's very, very minimal."

 

HOW DEEP SHOULD THE PENSION PLAN GO? "I'm not going to be greedy, but I
am going to say my mind. I've been out here doing this, and I think the
pension plans need to start with the drivers. A lot of guys support
NASCAR, but I don't think anybody has supported NASCAR harder than I
have on the track or off the track. Anything I can do to build the sport
and make it better. I think it's ridiculous we don't have one. I think
it needs to happen quick, and then I think it needs to trickle down."

 

COMMENT ON NEW SAFETY INNOVATIONS "I think the NASCAR research guys are
going a great job doing what they're doing, mandating things, doing this
and doing that. I think the next thing that happens will be crush zones,
inside the car. I've still got a concern if you hit real hard driver's
side first. What's right there along side you to act like a spring or
pillow? I think the driver's side development is the next thing we need
to work on. Yeah, we've got a crush zone in the back and right front and
left front, but what if you hit driver's side first? That's what could
knock your lights out. The only thing that helped that is outside the
car soft walls. That really helped. I wish there was something we could
do now between the driver's door bars and the door to create some kind
of zone right there."

 

HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS TIME TO QUIT? "I don't like the word retirement
because I'm not retiring. People retire when they're 65 or 70 years old.
I'm 48. I knew that because so many people asked me when I was going to
retire. I wish they would quit asking me that question, but they kept
bringing it up. The Miller Brewing Company, I could see all the
breweries are trending toward the younger people now. The brewery wanted
me to do younger things that I really didn't want to do. That was one
little thing, but the other thing was I'd won a lot of races. I wanted
to be on top. I didn't want to go spiraling downward. I wasn't going to
do it until I felt I was able to do it. I feel like I'm able to do it
now and still live a great life. The decision because wanting to go out
on top, 

seeing the new age things being so hot right now, and I'm not new age
when it comes to that stuff. A lot of that made my decision. My wife was
interested in me stopping. The comment of 'hey baby, it's time to come
home.' I've heard that."

 

DO YOU THINK THE NEW AGE DRIVERS WILL RACE AS LONG AS YOU DID? "I don't
think so. I don't think they'll run as long as I will. I haven't talked
to Jeff, but Jeff made a comment last week and said Rusty is going to do
his retirement tour. He's 48 and I can guarantee you one thing. I won't
be racing when I'm 48. These guys are making a lot of money now. A lot
of things are happening. I feel for guys like Richard Petty and Cale
Yarborough and Bobby Allison and Donnie Allison and David Pearson. Guys
like that made the sport and didn't get to enjoy what we had. It was
amazing. When I started it paid $500,000 to win the championship. Then
the first year I won was '89 and I won a million dollars. Now, the kid
won $5.8 million last time. Who would have ever thought the sport would
come that far. I don't see 'em going that far. I really don't."

 

COMMENT ON POTENTIAL OF THREE WALLACES IN DAYTONA 500 FIELD "I think
that's really, really huge. I'm really excited about the opportunity for
Kenny making the Daytona 500 and Mike. I've been so worried about Mike
because he's such a great driver. It's amazing how he hasn't been able
to hook himself up a solid, first-class ride. He's so much a better
driver than most of the guys we run with. He really is. He's an
incredible talent, fearless, the whole thing. I'm glad he got this ride.
He helped build that 4 Busch team and then lost that ride. That was very
mind-boggling to me, but I'm glad he's got this opportunity with
Morgan-McClure. I hope they get the sponsorships they need to run the
whole season."

 

WHY DO YOU WANT TO RUN THE 24 HOURS OF DAYTONA? "A lot of the great
drivers have run it, and I'm one of the only guys who hasn't. I'd like
to put that in my record that I've done that. I want to be well-rounded
and do that. I've got so many opportunities to run it. People always are
trying to get me to do it, and I just see it as another thing that takes
more time and more effort leading into the Daytona 500 week. I know the
Daytona 500 is so important, and that's why I haven't done it. I got to
thinking, I'm not going to be running Daytona, so I can put 100 percent
focus on that, have a great time running it. Jimmy France has been
wanting me to run it. That's one reason. Dodge might get an engine for
it, that's another reason. It's just something I haven't done that I
want to accomplish and do. I don't know who I would even think about for
a teammate. It'd be fun. I like Max Pappus a ton. It would be good to
see him in there. I could see Jamie McMurray. The list goes on. I could
see Ryan Newman in there. I could see Brendan Gaughan. I really love
Brendan. He's a cool guy. Then again, you've got to have somebody who
understands that racing to help us along. We've got to have one hotshot
in there for sure."

 

COMMENT ON YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RYAN NEWMAN "We haven't had a
conversation. I need to have a conversation with him. I think he's in a
position where he's a good driver. He's doing really good. He wants
things. I'm not going to say he's demanding about things, but there are
some things he emphatically believes, him and his crew chief. When I put
the car owner hat on, me and Penske built this thing and this is what I
want. Above all, what I want is some respect. I remember when this thing
was a dirt field with 20 guys working and now it's a team bringing a lot
of money in, employing a lot of people. I'm not in the mood for dealing
with no respect. I felt like we've done a lot for him, and I want him to
realize that, and I want him to race me like his teammate and owner, not
just some other driver that he doesn't like. We've gone through all the
stumbling blocks and we're working it out. I think we're working it out
amongst ourselves. We're really not saying anything, but I promise you
before the Daytona 500 we'll sit down. I'll be the one to ask for the
meeting. I just don't feel like it's going to come from the other side
of the camp. I'm going to do it and diffuse it all and try to get at
least this last year working together."

 

COMMENT ON MEXICO BUSCH RACE "I kind of treat it the same way we did
when we went to Japan. It's kind of a fact finding mission. It's a way
to bring worldwide attention to the sport of NASCAR. That's one thing.
It's a Busch race. I own a Busch car, one of the best ones out there I
feel. It's a race that I did not sell to Miller High Life Lite or to
Topflite golf. So, I'm going to announce a new sponsor next week, a real
exciting sponsor for that one single race, and I'm going to drive it.
I'm real pumped up about it. I wish I could go down there and test. I'm
going to talk to Jeff (Burton). NASCAR asked me to do the test, but when
they found out I was going to drive.... Jamie wanted to drive, and I
said, 'no, I want to drive that one.' He's still on me everyday to let
him drive, but when NASCAR found out I was going to drive they couldn't
let me test. They can't let a driver who's going to be in the race do
the test. I'll get real prepared. We'll probably go down to Cheraw, in
South Carolina. I hear the track is dead flat, no hills, no nothing,
where I can shake it down and learn some things about it. I want to be
one of the drivers who races Mexico. It's kind of like why do I want to
run the 24 hours of Daytona? Because it's something I've never done, and
I want to do it. This is an opportunity to do something I've never done,
and I want to do it, too. I don't know if I'll be one of the favorites.
The sponsor I'm going to have is not a Mexican type of sponsor, but I
feel like I'm one of the favorites. I've won a lot of road races in the
past. I'm real focused on doing it. I think I've got a really great hot
rod to take down there. We've cut the body off it twice already. It's
going to be a real cool looking car when we get it down there, and I'll
be trying to get all the information I can. NASCAR has some tight rules
on that deal with the spring rate you run and the gear ratios and that
type of stuff. There will be a lot of things you can't do, but to me
it's kind of a fun thing."

 

 

#######