PIT STOP FOR 2FANS

2003-05-13T22:03:00.000-04:00

well my last day of work went by better then i thought, it was an easy day .
said good by to all my freinds but will be back to visit from time to time.

2003-05-12T23:02:00.000-04:00

[5/12/2003 10:40:36 PM | Robert Montroy]

2003-05-12T22:40:00.000-04:00

well its about time i post again, i was going to use this blog for some other reason but now i'm going to use it as a blog, tuesday is my last day of work as i'm moving to north carolina for a new start in life,i have job prospects that look good and maybe be able to get ahead again, saturday will be the day i shut down my pc for the move south, no more extreme cold weather thank god, leaving a job that i've been at for 18 years to start a new career hope everything works out for me. i'll miss all the freinds and family for awhile but with modern tech i can keep in touch with this thing called a computer.

2003-03-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

Rusty's teammate wins at Texas

1 #12 Ryan Newman
2 #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3 #24 Jeff Gordon
4 #01 Jerry Nadeau
5 #6 Mark Martin
6 #17 Matt Kenseth
7 #30 Jeff Green
8 #48 Jimmie Johnson
9 #97 Kurt Busch
10 #42 Jamie McMurray
11 #154 Todd Bodine
12 #22 Ward Burton
13 #88 Dale Jarrett
14 #2 Rusty Wallace

Points standings after Texas
1 Matt Kenseth
2 Kurt Busch
3 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4 Michael Waltrip
5 Jimmie Johnson
6 Jeff Gordon
7 Tony Stewart
8 Ryan Newman
9 Ricky Craven
10 Kevin Harvick
11 Bobby Labonte
12 Ricky Rudd
13 Mark Martin
14 Rusty Wallace
find more at Nascar.Com

2003-03-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

POINT STANDINGS AFTER BRISTOL RACE
1 Matt Kenseth
2 Kurt Busch
3 Tony Stewart
4 Michael Waltrip
5 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6 Jimmie Johnson
7 Ricky Craven
8 Bobby Labonte
9 Ricky Rudd
10 Jeff Gordon
11 Kevin Harvick
12 Joe Nemechek
13 Johnny Benson
14 Elliott Sadler
15 Ryan Newman
16 Dave Blaney
17 Rusty Wallace

RESULTS OF THE BRISTOL RACE

1 #97 Kurt Busch
2 #17 Matt Kenseth
3 #18 Bobby Labonte
4 #21 Ricky Rudd
5 #16 Greg Biffle
6 #40 Sterling Marlin
7 #29 Kevin Harvick
8 #48 Jimmie Johnson
9 #24 Jeff Gordon
10 #23 Kenny Wallace
11 #42 Jamie McMurray
12 #7 Jimmy Spencer
13 #99 Jeff Burton
14 #2 Rusty Wallace

find more at Nascar.Com

2003-03-20T19:13:00.000-05:00

Wallace trying to get up to the front again
Wallace says he's not frustrated, but is determined. (AP) Rusty Wallace will be among the 43 drivers to take the green flag Sunday for the Food City 500 at Bristol. The .533-mile bullring certainly couldn't come at a better time for the struggling former Winston cup champ, says Duane Cross. Wallace hasn't won since April 29, 2001 -- a streak of 67 races. However, he does have nine career wins at Bristol, tied for second all-time.

2003-03-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

Wallace in no mood to play nice at Bristol
By JENNA FRYER, AP Sports Writer
March 20, 2003

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) -- If someone bumps past Rusty Wallace to win at Bristol again, he might not let it slide this time.
``I'm not in much of a Mr. Nice Guy mood,'' he said. ``I just want to get the wins and the finishes for my team, my sponsors and my partners. It's getting ridiculous right now.''
It's been 67 races since Wallace made it to Victory Lane, a streak dating to April 2001 at California. The drought ended the record he shares with Ricky Rudd of at least one victory in 16 straight seasons.
It didn't have to be that way. Wallace was on his way to winning at Bristol Motor Speedway last August, only to have Jeff Gordon bump him out of the way with one lap to go.
``It might be a little controversial, but I don't care,'' Gordon said after the victory that ended his 31-race streak without a win. ``I think anyone else in that situation would have done the same thing.''
Wallace chalked it all up to two hungry drivers, and moved on. But the replay of the bump-and-run was played so many times -- at least a dozen times during the events surrounding the year-end awards banquet -- that Wallace grew irritated.
``I did get tired of seeing it over and over,'' he said. ``I get along with the kid pretty good, but I tell you that boy has cost me a lot of money. He caused me a lot of problems, no doubt about that.''
So Wallace heads back to Bristol this weekend, looking for his 10th career victory on his favorite race track. He won the first Winston Cup race of his career on the .533-mile bullring in 1986 and ranks second among all-time Bristol winners.
His crew would love to see him win Sunday, when NASCAR will be celebrating its 2,000th points race.
``It would be something to put on your mantel and have to talk about in years to come,'' crew chief Billy Wilburn said. ``For NASCAR to be around and have 2,000 races is a huge deal, and for us to win it would be great. For our team to win their first race this year and put this winless streak that everybody is talking about behind us would be bigger yet as far as I'm concerned.''
Wallace sure could use it.
He overruled Wilburn at Daytona, who wanted him to stay on the track and race against the rain. But Wallace pitted anyway, lost valuable spots on the track before the rain and finished 25th.
He enters Bristol 20th in points, with just one top 10 finish. Wallace insists the standings do not reflect the work ethic of his team or the strength of his Dodge Intrepid. After years of driving a Ford, Wallace says he is adjusting just fine.
``The car has been super strong,'' he said. ``I wish sometimes I could rerun those races and get the finishes we really deserve.''
The problem, he said, is that he's pressing so hard to win again.
``For me to go to Atlanta and be running fourth and getting ready to pass Tony Stewart and I get in the wall, was something ridiculous,'' he said. ``I did something I used to laugh at people for doing. It came from a little overdriving on my part.''
But Wilburn will take a little aggressiveness from a driver.
``I would much rather have a guy that's trying as hard as he can, running as hard as he can every lap,'' Wilburn said. ``That's what it takes to win, and that's what it takes to be up front and win this championship.''

2003-03-19T22:24:00.000-05:00

THIS WEEK IN NASCAR
NBS Bud Pole Qualifying
SPEED Fri. 1:30 p.m.

NWCS Bud Pole Qualifying
FSN Fri. 3 p.m.
PRN Fri. 2:45 p.m.

NWCS Happy Hour Practice
FX Sat. 3 p.m. (taped)

Channellock 250
FX Sat. 1 p.m.
PRN Sat. 12:30 p.m.

Food City 500
FOX Sun. 12:30 p.m.
PRN Sun. FX

Lucas Oil 250
SPEED Sun. 5 p.m.

* All times are EST

2003-03-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

RUSTY FINISHES 16th at DARLINGTON, ends up 20th in the points standing.

1 #32 Ricky Craven
2 #97 Kurt Busch
3 #77 Dave Blaney
4 #6 Mark Martin
5 #15 Michael Waltrip
6 #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7 #38 Elliott Sadler
8 #17 Matt Kenseth
9 #9 Bill Elliott
10 #20 Tony Stewart
11 #4 Mike Skinner
12 #16 Greg Biffle
13 #25 Joe Nemechek
14 #12 Ryan Newman
15 #21 Ricky Rudd
16 #2 Rusty Wallace

2003-03-12T21:20:00.000-05:00

"THERE IS ALWAYS A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING,"
SAYS MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE DODGE DRIVER RUSTY WALLACE
-Maybe Even A First Wallace Win At The Historical Old Darlington Raceway-

DARLINGTON, S.C. (March 12, 2003) - As the NASCAR Winston Cup tour heads to South Carolina's Darlington Raceway for this weekend's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, much talk will center on the fate of the track whose history with NASCAR dates all the way back to 1950. That ranks it first among today's participating tracks to host top-level NASCAR racing,
But perhaps that's only natural for a track located in a state with so many historical firsts. After all, South Carolina has the distinction of being the first independent government formed among American colonies (March 1776). It was the first state to succeed from the Union (December 20, 1860). And, it was the site of the first shot fired in the Civil War (Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.
One historical first that has yet to occur in South Carolina and at Darlington Raceway in particular is a race win by Miller Lite Team Penske Dodge driver Rusty Wallace. Entering this weekend's battle, his 39th career race on the treacherous 1.366-mile egg-shaped track, Wallace is hoping to change that fact.
"There is always a first time for everything," says Wallace, who is looking for career win No. 55 entering this weekend. "Maybe this Sunday holds our first-ever Darlington win; you never know. We're definitely going in there with the attitude that we certainly can win the thing, that's for sure. It would be extra gratifying to get the first win for Dodge this year, too.
"We've had so many great runs there that's it is kinda' weird that we haven't won one of 'em yet. We've certainly been close through the years, so close that you could taste it. Maybe racing there the very first time with the Dodge, which will be the case there this weekend, will bring us that little bit of luck we've needed to finally get over the hump and put her in Victory Lane."
Even though he is still trying to break into the Darlington Raceway win column after 19 years, Wallace's career record at the track sports 11 top-five finishes and 20 top-10 finishes.
Wallace's first Darlington top-five finish came, as unlikely as it might seem, in his first run in the prestigious Southern 500, held annually on Labor Day weekend. He recalls that race as if it was yesterday.
"We started Cliff Stewart's Pontiac in the top 20 (started 18th) and back then that was a pretty impressive starting spot for a rookie driver, especially on a track that is know to be as tough as Darlington," said Wallace of the Sept. 2, 1984 Southern 500. "We got out there and ran our own race, stayed out of trouble and came home fourth. I'd always heard that it was a case of survival, that you raced the track first and not the other competitors. That was the plan I used that day and it worked. I remember that Harry Gant cane home the winner and we were proud to finish fourth. Back then, they made a big deal out of being the highest-finishing rookie in the race and they even had a special trophy for it. We were so proud of that accomplishment back then
The record book shows that Wallace went on to run Pontiacs in a total of 20 races. During that period, he posted eight top-five finishes including a pair of seconds; his best finishes to date at the track. He had a total of 11 top-10 finishes in Pontiacs.
His Penske Racing South team switched to Fords for 1994 and ran them until the conclusion of last season. During those 18 races, he recorded three top-fives and eight top-10 finishes. Third-place finishes in the fall race of 1995 and the spring race of 1998 rate as his best efforts in Fords.
Wallace started 18th and finished seventh in last year's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400. He started sixth and finished 22nd in last September's race.
"In the spring Darlington race, I had a really fast race car the second half of the race," Wallace recalled. "At the beginning, I was so loose I couldn't touch the gas pedal. We kept making really big adjustments and finally got it a lot tighter, but I still needed a better setup to have been in a position to win. In the fall race, it was one of those deals where you wish you would have made another call. The bottom line is that we should have pitted there on the final yellow and taken on tires. We got tires at about lap 300 and then just did what the leaders did. My car just got too loose and it was all I could do to hang on. When everybody behind us pitted for tires toward the end, we had nowhere to go but back. Darlington is probably the worst place on tires and we should have stuck by pitting for tires even if we didn't have but 10 laps on them. We didn't and it bit us really bad. We had a solid top-10 - maybe even a top-five car - and not getting those tires really cost us."
Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, the fifth of 36 scheduled races on the 2003 schedule, will take the green flag at 1:00 p.m. EST. The 400-mile, 293-lap race will feature live broadcasts by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.

THE OFFICIAL RUSTY WALLACE WEBSITE
WWW.RUSTYWALLACE.COM
COPYRIGHT © RUSTY WALLACE, INC.
Rusty Wallace.Com

2003-03-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

NWCS Bud Pole Qualifying at DARLINGTON RACE WAY
FSN Fri. 2:30 p.m.
NWCS Happy Hour
FX Sat. 3 p.m. (tape)
NWCS Carolina Dodge Dealers 400
FOX Sun. 12:30 p.m.
MRN Sun. 12:30 p.m.

* All times are EST

2003-03-10T12:08:00.000-05:00

Rusty's Rundown: Slow start makes tough year
By Rusty Wallace, as told to Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive March 10, 2003

One of the toughest things in Winston Cup Series racing right now, with all the parity involved and with the cars running as equal as they are, it's awfully tough to come back from a slow start like we've had and some of the other guys have had.
Now I'm not saying it can't be done. It surely can be done. Look at Tony Stewart last year. But if you're off just a little bit at these first few tracks, and you get behind early, you might spend all year playing catch-up. And you surely don't want to be doing that. You want to be setting the trend, setting the pace, not trying to figure out how to get to a level that the other guy's at.
We're a little bit behind in the standings right now, but I'll tell you what: We had a great car at Rockingham and a good car down there in Daytona, but we didn't run the way we wanted to run at Las Vegas. There are cars throughout the series that have had great runs but also had bad luck. Like Jeff Gordon. He got caught up in a wreck at Vegas, and so did Dale Jarrett.
There were cars that have really come on that had some really bad first couple of races, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a couple other people. So you can see, as I'm telling you, it seems like nobody's gotten a grip of this thing and just ran with it. I really expect, as the year goes on, when we get to around 20 races into the season, that the same guys are going to start lining up again.
The same guys, on the established teams, are going to be up there once we start getting some points laid down. Right now, early in the year, you can be 100 points behind, or 150 points behind, and make it up fairly quickly. But I'll tell you, nobody wants to start the year behind in points, because instead of defending you always have to come from the back again.
It's made no easier by the fact that you have to have help, either. You have to have real fast pit stops and you simply cannot make mistakes. We made a tragic mistake at Las Vegas. We had a really good car there, but made a pit stop and I left pit road, and Billy Wilburn called me on the radio about five minutes later and said, 'Hey man, you're going to hate this, but we only got six gallons gas in the car. You're going to have to pit and we're going to lose a couple laps.'
That was a hard thing to take. But there are a lot of guys that go through similar problems. You've got to have a really good support team: Fast pit stops, good engines, and the driver's got to drive the hell out of the car. You can't afford to have any slip ups with how competitive it is.
And one of the biggest things -- that you obviously can't control -- is you've got to hope your competitors start having problems. Generally, that's necessary to make up ground. There are tracks I love to go to that helps make that ground back up. Whenever I get to go to the Bristols, the short tracks, I love it. When I get to go to the road courses, I love it. When I go to the Poconos and Dovers, I love it. But then there are places I've run well, but don't have the finishes to show for it, like Darlington.
See there, Darlington: I'm going into this weekend's race thinking I can't screw up, that I have to make this the race of my life to keep getting these points.
I think everybody's in a position right now that any bad luck really hurts. How'd you like to be my teammate Ryan Newman, who in the very first race of the year he's on his roof and finished last? Or a guy like Gordon who had the same problem happen a couple times this year, and they weren't even of his own doing?
And Junior had a couple tough weeks there to start the year. These are top-rate teams, teams that are ready to set the world on fire and immediately have problems. My team is in that bunch, too.
But you know what? I've watched this happen 1000 times and you get in a ditch and just have to dig yourself back out. I firmly stand on this: the good teams will always rise back to the top by the time it's all said and done. It's not easy, by any means. But it'll happen. Always does.

Rusty's Rundown appears weekly on NASCAR.com. For more info on Rusty Wallace, please visit his Web site at www.rustywallace.com.

2003-03-09T20:16:00.000-05:00

Rusty finished 15th at ATLANTA

1 4 #18 Bobby Labonte
2 30 #24 Jeff Gordon
3 37 #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4 24 #17 Matt Kenseth
5 8 #20 Tony Stewart
6 3 #38 Elliott Sadler
7 5 #7 Jimmy Spencer
8 27 #77 Dave Blaney
9 13 #25 Joe Nemechek
10 1 #12 Ryan Newman
11 23 #10 Johnny Benson
12 22 #32 Ricky Craven
13 20 #16 Greg Biffle
14 34 #40 Sterling Marlin
15 7 #2 Rusty Wallace

RUSTY stays at 22nd in the points standing
1 Matt Kenseth
2 Tony Stewart
3 Michael Waltrip
4 Jimmie Johnson
5 Bobby Labonte
6 Johnny Benson
7 Kevin Harvick
8 Jeff Gordon
9 Jeff Burton
10 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11 Joe Nemechek
12 Dale Jarrett
13 Ryan Newman
14 Kurt Busch
15 Dave Blaney
16 Ricky Craven
17 Robby Gordon
18 Steve Park
19 Elliott Sadler
20 Sterling Marlin
21 Ricky Rudd
22 Rusty Wallace

2003-03-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

RUSTY WALLACE will start 7th at ATLANTA

1 #12 Ryan Newman
2 #9 Bill Elliott
3 #38 Elliott Sadler
4 #18 Bobby Labonte
5 #7 Jimmy Spencer
6 #15 Michael Waltrip
7 #2 Rusty Wallace
8 #20 Tony Stewart
9 #97 Kurt Busch
10 #19 Jeremy Mayfield
see more at www.nascar.com

2003-03-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

WALLACE & MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK AT ATLANTA IN SUNDAY'S BASS PRO
SHOPS/MBNA 500

HAMPTON, Ga. (March 5, 2003) - Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace is hoping to add to his favorite Atlanta racing memories in the weekend's Bass Pro Shops/MBNA 500 and prove his team's resiliency after last Sunday's disappointing Las Vegas finish.
"We've been around the block enough times to know that stuff like that happens," Wallace said of the lap 176 crash in Sunday's UAW-Chrysler 400 at Las Vegas. "We got crashed out of the thing, we wound up finishing 40th and fell back to 22nd in the points. That's it, case closed - that was last week and there is nothing we can do about it.
"We know that there are still 33 of these things (2003 races) left, so we can knock out a couple of good finishes at Atlanta and Darlington and be right back in the picture," said Wallace, a two-time race winner and three-time pole winner at Atlanta. "We're looking to bounce back big time and know we're capable of doing just that.
"We've had a ton of good runs at Atlanta and probably enough memories there to fill a chapter of a book," Wallace concluded.
Among Wallace's Atlanta racing memoirs:
(1) Wallace's first career NASCAR Winston Cup start -- "I'll never forget my first-ever Winston Cup race," said Wallace of the (March 16) 1980 Atlanta 500 at the Hampton, Ga., track. "Don Miller (Wallace's mentor and now co-owner of Penske Racing South) helped spearhead the deal that saw us get a Chevrolet race car and some support from Roger (Penske) to run the spring race at Atlanta.
"We had a pretty 'rag-tag' bunch that we put together to race that weekend; some of my short-track guys, some of the Penske guys...a bunch of friends and neighbors. We qualified seventh and ran strong all day long. At the end, we wound up racing my hero Bobby Allison and Dale (Earnhardt) for the win. That was a really cool deal. I believe it was Dale's second career win (it was). And there we were finishing second (by 9.55 seconds) to Dale and just ahead of Bobby in our first-ever Winston Cup race. Dale had won the rookie deal the year before and went on to win the championship that year.
"I remember thinking back then, 'ha, this kind of racing is a piece of cake,' but it didn't take long for us to see just how fortunate we were at Atlanta and how difficult this stuff really is," said Wallace. "We ran Charlotte later that season and Roger was so enthralled in the open wheel racing back then that we put the stock car deal on hold for a while."
The record book shows that Earnhardt was forced to start 31st in his Rod Osterlund Chevrolet in the 1980 Atlanta 500 after problems in qualifying. A crowd of 62,500 saw Earnhardt take the lead from Allison with 29 laps to go and emerge with the win over Wallace. Allison finished third, with Dave Marcis fourth and Dick Brooks fifth.
(2) Winning the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup championship at Atlanta --"Who'll ever forget the final race of 1989 at Atlanta when we came out on top for the championship? I know we'll always remember it like it was yesterday," Wallace recalled. "You name it and it went wrong that day.
"The deal was that we had to finish within 19 spots of Dale (Earnhardt) to win the thing and gosh, did he make it tough on us that day or what? We started fourth and dropped back. We had something like an 80-point (78 points) lead going into that final race.
"We were pretty much in a defensive mode, but I was still driving as hard as I possibly could. We fell back and were among the first teams to pit under green. We went a lap down and then the caution fell for a crash. The day just got crazier after that. We thought we had a flat and didn't, and lug nuts began to tear through the left rear rim. Before we knew it, we're running three laps down and there's Dale up front leading the thing lap after lap. Heck, if it hadn't been for all the cautions (six for 36 laps), he'd have lapped the field that day.
"Anyhow, he won the race hands down...totally dominating the thing...and we came out of there with a 15th-place finish and won the championship by just 12 points over Dale. As sloppy as it looked that day, it was still the biggest highlight of my career. Dale ran us till our tongues were hanging out, but we were able to squeak it out in the points."
(3) The 1993 season finale; battling it out with Dale Earnhardt for the championship in a season which saw Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison lose their lives -- "Me and Dale had a helluva battle going on all year long, I'll tell you that," Wallace recalled of the 1993 season. "We'd won nine races going into Atlanta and had really closed in on the points until we had problems the week before at Phoenix (blown tire relegated him to a 19th-place finish, while Earnhardt finished fourth).
"Dale had a big lead on us going into Atlanta (only had to finish 34th or better) and we knew we had to throw everything we had at them there that day. I remember that Dale crashed in practice and had to go to a backup car. We did everything possible that day -- led the most laps, won our 10th race of the year and all -- but still came up short to Dale (who finished 10th in the race and won by 80 points) for the points title.
"When we took the checkered flag and the win, we turned that car around and Dale came up beside us. We did a backwards (Polish Victory) lap in honor of Alan (Kulwicki) and Davey (Allison), our fallen heroes that year. It was a pretty emotional deal and the fans went wild. There's still all kinds of pictures floating around everywhere from that day at Atlanta.
Wallace's overall Atlanta record sports the two wins and three poles, along with eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10 finishes in 41 career races. He started 38th and finished 16th in last spring's race and started fifth and finished 17th at Atlanta last fall.
Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Winston Cup event at Atlanta Motor Speedway is set to take the green flag at 1:00 p.m. EST. The fourth of 36 scheduled races features live coverage by FOX TV and PRN Radio beginning at 12:30 p.m. EST.
THE OFFICIAL RUSTY WALLACE WEBSITE
WWW.RUSTYWALLACE.COM
COPYRIGHT © RUSTY WALLACE, INC.

2003-03-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

2003-03-06T14:42:00.000-05:00

Notebook: Rusty a fan of Atlanta
By Lee Montgomery, Turner Sports Interactive March 6, 2003
11:09 AM EST (1609 GMT)

ATLANTA -- Rusty Wallace has some fond memories of Atlanta Motor Speedway, from winning his 1989 Winston Cup title there to battling Dale Earnhardt for the 1993 championship to his two Winston Cup victories to his three poles.
But a guy has to start somewhere, and for Wallace, that somewhere was Atlanta. He made his first Winston Cup start at the track in 1980 and nearly pulled off an upset victory.
Don Miller, one of Wallace's current car owners, helped Wallace get that start, spearheading a deal with Chevrolet and Roger Penske. Wallace was a USAC stock car driver back then, and a Winston Cup race at Atlanta was a big step.
"We had a pretty 'rag-tag' bunch that we put together to race that weekend -- some of my short-track guys, some of the Penske guys, a bunch of friends and neighbors," Wallace said. "We qualified seventh and ran strong all day long. At the end, we wound up racing my hero Bobby Allison and Dale (Earnhardt) for the win.
"That was a really cool deal. I believe it was Dale's second career win. And there we were finishing second to Dale and just ahead of Bobby in our first-ever Winston Cup race. Dale had won the rookie deal the year before and went on to win the championship that year."
Wallace's No. 16 Chevrolet ran at Charlotte later that year, finishing 14th. But Penske had other things on his plate and didn't hire Wallace full-time for another 11 years.
"I remember thinking back then, 'Ha, this kind of racing is a piece of cake,' but it didn't take long for us to see just how fortunate we were at Atlanta and how difficult this stuff really is," Wallace said. "We ran Charlotte later that season, and Roger was so enthralled in the open wheel racing back then that we put the stock car deal on hold for a while."

2003-03-04T18:53:00.000-05:00

PRE-RACE NOTES &
RACE INFORMATION:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After adverse weather interfered with the schedule here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday and again yesterday, great weather is in the forecast today. Under clear and sunny skies, the expected high temperature is in the low 60s.
Rusty and his Bill Wilburn-led Miller Lite team are confident that their Dodge Intrepid can be a factor here in today's UAW-Chrysler 400. Rusty clocked in with the 11th-fastest lap in yesterday morning's early practice and was eighth in the final session. They know the importance of great pit stops and strategy.
One of the Penske Racing crew members picked up an odds sheet at the sports book back at the hotel this morning. Busch showed as the favorite with 8/2 odds. For the record, Rusty's Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman was 7/1 and Rusty was 13/1.
read more at www.rustywallace.com

2003-03-04T18:49:00.000-05:00

A QUOTE FROM RUSTY
found at www.rustywallace.com

RUSTY WALLACE -
"I'm okay, but the car is junk. It was just one of those racing deals down there in turn one. The four car was in there low and got a little loose. He tapped me and away I went. It wasn't a good day for us. We got way behind there at the beginning. Something happened and we only got six gallons of fuel in the thing under the first stop. Than forced us to pit again after only a few laps and put us two laps down. We were able to make up one of them and I think the way the car was running, it was a top-five or top-10 car. But we got crashed out, and here we are in the garage, out early. The thing is that these Goodyear Tires are just so hard that they don't wear and with the aero situation we have out there, it's easy for things like this to happen. I'm lobbying really heavy for NASCAR to get some of the spoilers off these things and get us some softer tires. It'll make the competition much better and you'll see fewer of these things happening that we got caught up in here today. Oh well, we'll just have to write this one off and head back to North Carolina to get ready to get back after it in Atlanta next weekend."

2003-03-04T18:46:00.000-05:00

Next race at Atlanta

NWCS Bud Pole Qualifying
FX Fri. 8 p.m. (taped)
PRN Fri. 2:45 p.m.
NWCS Happy Hour Practice
FX Sat. 11 a.m.
Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500
FOX Sun. 12:30 p.m.
PRN Sun. 12:15 p.m.

* All times are EST

2003-03-02T18:46:00.000-05:00

Skinner points finger at himself for big wreck
By Lee Montgomery Turner Sports Interactive March 2, 2003
6:27 PM EST (2327 GMT)

LAS VEGAS -- Mike Skinner took the blame for a hard crash that took out several cars in Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The lapped cars of Skinner and Wallace were racing through turn 1 not long after a restart when Skinner's car kicked loose and bumped into Wallace. Wallace's No. 2 Dodge spun and slammed the wall, and in the smoke from the two spinning cars, Jeff Gordon, Larry Foyt and Kurt Busch sustained damage.
Wallace, who lost two laps when he had to pit under green after his crew was able to get only six gallons of gas in the car, was trying to get back on the lead lap when he moved to the outside of Skinner.
"I'm passing the 4 car on the outside going into 1, and I don't know if I just didn't give him enough room, or else his front end pushed up or he got loose or whatever, but he got me in the left-rear quarterpanel," Wallace said. "I know he didn't mean it. It was just one of those racing things, and that was it."
Skinner pointed the finger squarely at himself.
"Rusty jumped up on the outside of me," Skinner said. "I felt the back of the car coming around a little bit, and I got a little loose. I got into Rusty and caused the wreck. It was my fault, as far as I know.
"I've been on the receiving end of that deal a bunch of times. I don't like being the guy that gives it. It's just a mistake."
The inside groove through turns 1 and 2 wasn't the place to be, as Steve Park slipped and punted Dale Jarrett in a similar-looking crash. But Skinner said the low groove worked fine, as long as your car handled, and it had nothing to do with the crash.
"Rusty pulled the air of the car a little bit," Skinner said. "It wasn't his fault at all. It just happened. We're both trying to race hard and trying to get our lap back. I didn't even know he was out there. Next thing you know, he's out there. It pulled the back end of the car around a little bit. We had to go up the racetrack, and we hit

2003-03-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

POINTS POSITION
1 Michael Waltrip
2 Matt Kenseth
3 Jimmie Johnson
4 Jeff Burton
5 Tony Stewart
6 Kurt Busch
7 Kevin Harvick
8 Ricky Rudd
9 Johnny Benson
10 Dale Jarrett
11 Mark Martin
12 Joe Nemechek
13 Bobby Labonte
14 Robby Gordon
15 Ricky Craven
16 Steve Park
17 Ryan Newman
18 Dale Earnhardt
19 Sterling Marlin
20 Jeff Gordon
21 Jamie McMurray*
22 Rusty Wallace

2003-03-02T17:46:00.000-05:00

Oh well week 3 is not a good one for Rusty, the #4 car (Mike Skinner) seem to have hit the #2 car and caused a big wreck which took out Rusty and a few others.

2003-03-01T00:22:00.000-05:00

I ADDED MORE PICTURES, CHECK THEM OUT

2003-03-01T00:20:00.000-05:00

QUALIFING ORDER FOR SUNDAY'S RACE AT LAS VEGAS

1 #18 Bobby Labonte
2 #24 Jeff Gordon
3 #12 Ryan Newman
4 #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
5 #97 Kurt Busch
6 #43 John Andretti
7 #99 Jeff Burton
8 #20 Tony Stewart
9 #15 Michael Waltrip
10 #48 Jimmie Johnson
11 #01 Jerry Nadeau
12 #42 Jamie McMurray*
13 #19 Jeremy Mayfield
14 #30 Jeff Green
15 #7 Jimmy Spencer
16 #10 Johnny Benson
17 #17 Matt Kenseth
18 #41 Casey Mears*
19 #45 Kyle Petty
20 #22 Ward Burton
21 #31 Robby Gordon
22 #29 Kevin Harvick
23 #38 Elliott Sadler
24 #154 Todd Bodine
25 #2 Rusty Wallace
26 #25 Joe Nemechek
27 #88 Dale Jarrett
28 #49 Ken Schrader
29 #6 Mark Martin
30 #9 Bill Elliott
31 #14 Larry Foyt*
32 #74 Tony Raines*
33 #23 Kenny Wallace
34 #40 Sterling Marlin
35 #77 Dave Blaney
36 #5 Terry Labonte

Provisional
37 #32 Ricky Craven
38 #21 Ricky Rudd
39 #1 Steve Park
40 #4 Mike Skinner
41 #0 Jack Sprague*
42 #66 Hideo Fukuyama
43 #37 Derrike Cope

Did not Qualify
44 #16 Greg Biffle*
45 #102 Brandon Ash

2003-02-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

RUSTY WALLACE / BILL WILBURN - DODGE TELECONFERENCE

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
"I was real happy with the way the car ran at Rockingham. We qualified eighth and led the most laps. At the end of the race the track was just kind of changing colors on me. I could see that. It was really blackening up. Some of those long runs really killed the handling on the car. It went away and I fell back to sixth. I felt it was an incredible run for the first time out with the Dodge and for having no practice on the track because of all the rain.

"Even at Daytona in the 125, discounting the carburetor problem, that
thing finished fourth there. We went to the back of the pack for the Daytona 500 and I was able to get the car from 38th up to sixth on lap 10 or something like that. It really rocketed up through the field. I'm really impressed with our Dodge program. All the technical guys have been helping us real hard. We've got an all out assault on trying to make those
restrictor-plate cars run better right now. We've got a lot of testing we're doing with the engine and things like that. With all that said, it's been pretty
good.

"We've been to Daytona and we knew what the differences were down there
and learned what we needed to do. When we went down there to Daytona, I
thought we were going to be really good. We were good in race form, but the car wouldn't run by itself and we didn't qualify good. We learned a lot about Daytona.

"We went to Rockingham, and that's a track that's really a handling race track. It's not like a California or Michigan or Vegas where it's super fast and aerodynamics is everything in the world. It's more mechanical at Rockingham where you've got to work the chassis, so we've got one of those races under our belt this week. I saw a lot of positive things. Even Jamie McMurray winning the Busch race yesterday in a Dodge was pretty
impressive, too.

"Now we're going to go to Las Vegas. That's a track that takes a lot of horsepower. They've got super long straightaways. It's a very smooth track and it has a lot to do with aerodynamic balance. We'll look at that. We'll go to Atlanta, and that's a super high speed, high-banked track, so I'd say after Atlanta is over, we've pretty well run the gauntlet on everything. Then if there's any complaining going on, you'll hear it. I think you're going to hear some things after Las Vegas. Some teams won't be happy with their car.

"I've been pretty much doing the same thing my whole life. I've been eating
right and I'm a pretty active guy as everyone knows. I feel great, although I have bought some new weight equipment. I built a new building at my home. I built a little exercise room. I've put some parts and pieces in there, a treadmill and an Ultimate Bowflex. I exercise my neck, but it's the same kind of stuff I've always done. I feel real good in the car. I've never fell out of a car in my life. I feel sharp. Although I guess if you exercise more and more you might find some things inside you didn't know were there.

I'm glad he (Dale Jarrett) is doing that. Obviously it's working for him. He
ran a great race. Between what I did in the first part of the race and what he did in the second part of the race, us old 40-year-old guys did pretty good.
I'd say I work out probably once a week. "I've never taken any supplement or anything. I've had a lot of people tell me to start taking vitamins, but I haven't even done that. I don't take anything. Zero. If I'm sick, I'll take some antibiotics or whatever. I had a tooth hurt me yesterday. I went to the dentist and he fixed me up with some type of amoxicillin or something. It makes your stomach taste like crap, I know that. I took that stuff, but other than that, I drink a lot of coffee. I eat a lot of pasta and chicken. I drink a lot of water and iced tea, just kind of normal stuff. I don't take any supplemental weight loss things or energy drinks or energy-type things.

"If you guys remember, about four or five years ago at Darlington, the late Dale Earnhardt had a big problem at Darlington. He had to take some kind
of medication, I forgot what it was, and then he followed it up with some
kind of big-time energy drink. That's what he told me later on, it just made
him nuts, so he got off of that right away.

"I see a lot of new guys I'm just starting to drive with run around with packed up energy drinks and bananas and that kind of stuff. They're really loading their bodies up with things that are just kind of normal to me, but nothing out of the ordinary. Our cooler has Gatorade, water and Pepsi in it. There's always coffee, but no supplemental stuff that I'm aware of.

"I think it's real important to let everybody know about the bodies of the cars and NASCAR's new ruling with the single template. I think we're all going to be paying close attention to how the cars run there. I heard a ton of stuff about how strong the Chevrolets are at Vegas. There really wasn't any Dodges out there in abundance to run with them. There were a lot of Chevrolets there. When we went into Rockingham I thought the Chevrolets
were going to be incredible. They were OK, but they weren't anything like I thought they were going to be. A Ford won. The Ford and Dodge are real
close in design. But they are going to be three key races because of brut
horsepower, brut speed and brut aerodynamics.

"We'll have to see how we stack up because in this sport you've got to
fight for your right. If you know you're not right, you've got to get talking right away. You've got to call NASCAR and say let's look at the wind tunnel data, let's take some of these cars to the wind tunnel, let's see how equal they are. Obviously if we get to Vegas and there's a huge upset in makes of cars versus other makes of cars, that'll make you raise an eyebrow. If we go to Atlanta and it happens again, then you're pretty confident you've got something to talk about.

"There have been so many of them (celebrities) that have come by. I guess some of the Country and Western stars, I really love those guys.

I love to listen to them. Brooks & Dunn, they come to the race track and hang out and that's a lot of fun. A lot of stick and ball people come by, and now
some of the rock stars are starting to hang out with Dale Junior and Tony
Stewart. I personally can't sit here and think of the one that did it for me.

"I shouldn't even have said what I said because it was kind of a joke. A
lot of people are still trying to separate ages on the race track. Instead of calling us all race car drivers, they tend to say the younger guys and the older guys. I don't know why the hell they do that. I don't know if it's good for sales or good for media or excitement or something. I personally don't like talking like that. I just wish they would call us all race car drivers. It's pretty obvious when you see good talent out there. I think Jamie McMurray has done a good job. He hasn't had just one great race. After Charlotte was over, he had another great race, and another race at the end of the year and he followed up at Rockingham with another great race and finished fifth. He's obviously got some natural talent. You've got a kid like Tony Stewart who's got a lot of natural talent and a guy like Ryan Newman. Those guys week in and week out put the numbers on the board, not just one time here and one time there and not at just one race track. These guys do it across the board.

"That track has always presented me a challenge as far as the car goes of making it turn good. That's a real tight race track. The front end is always
trying to break loose on it. It's one of the tracks we go to where the aero
push situation is really, really bad. I'm campaigning that NASCAR cut the rear spoilers off and soften up these tires as fast as they possibly can. It'll definitely help tracks like Vegas and Homestead, Fla., Michigan, California. It's already pretty good racing, but it'll make it better racing. That's the biggest thing we're going to fight when we get to Las Vegas, those front ends taking off on the car. Qualifying is a whole different animal. Once you're in the field, you can take that tape off the front grille, and soften the springs up and stiffen the rear springs up. You can do all the things the guys normally do to get the cars handling good.

"That makes me feel real good (that Sterling Marlin's Dodge won at Vegas last year), because this is the first time I really hammered down with all 43 guys at the same race track with me and compared my horsepower. My
Dodge engine was a stump puller. It really had a lot of horsepower. We were
seeing a little bit more horsepower on our dyno than we were seeing with the Ford. It was really the third or fourth time we built the Dodge engine,
although all the development we ever did with the other cars we put into that Dodge engine. It came right up to speed to where we wanted to see it, but you've got to get on the race track and see how it runs. It really ran good. All the testing we've been doing at Louisville, Ky., has shown the same thing. The testing Ryan has been doing has been all positive, so I think we've
got a great car. I don't think, I know we do. Now we've just got to make sure nothing breaks on it.

"I haven't heard any time line (from NASCAR about possibly cutting rear spoilers). I know the rumblings are getting stronger inside the NASCAR trailer about it. Within the next month, we might see something starting
to happen. It'll definitely be after we get through with the downforce tracks to see how we're stacking up.

"You guys might have seen a lot of stuff on the internet claiming I
started a lot of discussion this weekend claiming the Chevrolets were cheating at Daytona. I didn't say it evidently the way it was written. I just want to clarify that. Some team members insinuate that I was talking about them,
and they made comments about it. I'm not making comments about any
Chevrolet team. I want to put that on the record today. I just thought there were a lot of peculiar things going on and NASCAR has informed me they're going to be wide open and looking for everybody at Talladega. I'm not going to say it was Chevrolet. I think peculiar things were going on with Ford and all kind of different makes that didn't make sense with the way they qualified
and the way they ran in the race and things like that. I did say the word Chevrolet. I didn't just mean it was Chevrolets. I saw a lot of peculiar things across the board, and the NASCAR guys did, too. They just informed me
that they'd be looking at them really hard at Talladega.

"I'm going to be leaving tomorrow morning for Vegas and start working with some sponsors and play some golf tomorrow. I'm going to play some golf
with Kurt Busch on Thursday. Benny Parsons is going to play with us. We're
going to try to win out there with this new Dodge. I need a win bad as everybody knows."

BILL WILBURN (Crew chief No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
"We started the race off Sunday (at Rockingham) in really good shape. We took the lead I guess 25-30 laps into the race. Everything was looking pretty
good. We never made a really long run. There were quite a few cautions early in the race. The first time we made a long run the car got a little loose and we lost track position. We weren't able to short pit quite like we wanted and never were able to gain track position back late in the race. The car ran really well. We got it tightened up enough for him late in the race where he could make a decent finish out of it. Track position played out of our hands from the middle to the end. Other than that, it turned out to be a pretty decent day.

"Vegas will be the third different type of race we've had. We've had speedway racing. I kind of look at Rockingham as more of a short track
type of race. Vegas will be a true intermediate type of track. There'll be
some stiff competition. I know Sterling will be good out there. I look for Kurt Busch to be really strong again. I look for the 12 car to run well there, along with probably another half dozen to a dozen cars that will be competitive enough to win that race. Based on our tests over the winter, we should have one of the cars capable of winning that race.

"I beat myself up every week when we don't win. When we leave the shop
with cars we feel that are capable of winning the race and definitely have
a driver that's capable of winning. We finished second four times last year and that's as close as you can get without winning. I leave the shop every week with the intent on winning that race. I wasn't looking at it as 16 or 17 or 12 or who ever many years it might have been. I look at every race we go to and don't win, we've fallen short for that week. I beat myself up quite a bit up over it. We're plenty capable of winning. We should have won, and I have intentions of winning with this team this year. I know Rusty knows that. He needs a win bad. We need it for our own personal reasons, but we need it for our sponsors and morale of the team. We're going to win races his year. We're capable. We've got the resources. I will just guarantee wins this year. Period.

"Hopefully if things go well at the big track Friday and Saturday, we'll go over for the (World of Outlaws) races Friday and Saturday night. Johnny Hererra is driving the car. We've got Westvaco as our main sponsor and a handful of other people are helping us out. We're excited about that program. We had some good races last year, and we're going to try to run 60 races this year. We'd like to get involved with the Mopar people and try to put something together for next year if possible. Right now we run Chevrolet engines and Goodyear tires and Maxim chassis. Everything's in order. They're in Vegas now and we'll start Friday night. Hopefully we'll start the season out with a win just like we did last year.

"It's exciting. It's a lot of fun. You don't go spend a week at one location. You pretty much spend a day and you race and move on and go to the next location. It's a different type of racing. The races aren't as long. The focus is a little different, but for 30 or 40 laps or whatever the feature is, it's pretty much action packed. I think you can leave just as fulfilled as one would want to see in a race. If you go watch the Outlaws or any sprint car racing, it's pretty exciting.

"I look for a person who will be dedicated and have a strong work ethic, along with talent mechanical wise. We look for people who have a pretty strong education with engineering backgrounds and things like that along with race experience. I still say race experience goes a long way. I don't think you can bring people in who don't have a racing background and
expect them to bring the things you're looking for to your team. I think
experience is the most important aspect that I look at. I look at guys that have experience with other teams. You go out and you just can't hire guys
away from teams unless they come to you with some kind of interest. We don't make it a practice to go and hire people away from other teams. I just look for people with experience and make sure they fit in with the group of people we already have here at Penske Racing. When you work seven days a week and you're side by side with somebody, you've got to pretty much be able to get along with them as well as work with them.

"It's hard to sit down with a person, man or woman, and find that out in an
interview. We spend a lot of time looking at people at the race track and people's history. You see a lot of these guys every week and you might see
a guy you'd look at in the future if something came available. Then there's just as much on the other side of the coin and you might not be interested in that person.

"I think the day is coming, and some women are out there. There's a girl
at DEI that works in the engine department and there's a girl at Petty Enterprises that's an engineer. A lady works at Jasper with the 77 car. Women are involved at all different levels. As far as going over the wall and working on the pit crew, I don't know that there is one right now. I'd say it's probably not far from that happening. There are some capable women
out there, capable of performing the duties, carrying tires. I don't know if
you could get one to be a jackman or a gasman, but there's definitely some capable of doing those jobs."

THE OFFICIAL RUSTY WALLACE WEBSITE
WWW.RUSTYWALLACE.COM
COPYRIGHT © RUSTY WALLACE, INC.

2003-02-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

Cup Bud Pole Qualifying
FSN Fri. 6 p.m.
PRN Fri. 6 p.m

Happy Hour Practice
FX Sat. 6:30 p.m.

UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 At Las Vegas
FOX Sun. 2:30 p.m.
PRN Sun. 2:30 p.m.

* All times are EST

2003-02-23T21:49:00.000-05:00

Rank Driver Behind
1. Kurt Busch Leader
2. Dale Jarrett -31
3. Jimmie Johnson -33
4. Mark Martin -39
5. Michael Waltrip -54
6. Matt Kenseth -67
7. Jeff Burton -83
8. Ricky Craven -90
9. Tony Stewart -91
10. Kevin Harvick -97
11. Rusty Wallace -97

2003-02-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

Strong run ends without victory for Wallace
By Lee Montgomery, Turner Sports Interactive February 24, 2003
3:06 PM EST (2006 GMT)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- For 219 laps in Sunday's Subway 400, it looked like Rusty Wallace's long losing streak was going to come to an end.
Wallace's led 182 of those first 219 laps around North Carolina Speedway, easily pulling away from the field. Even when Wallace dropped from the lead on pit road during cautions, his No. 2 Interpid roared back to the front to re-take the top spot.
Rusty Wallace finished sixth in Sunday's Subway 400. Credit: Autostock
But during a long green-flag run past the halfway mark, Wallace's car dropped like a bad song on the pop charts. He went from first to ... well, he pretty well disappeared from the leaderboard.
Wallace rallied to finish sixth. He was disappointed and encouraged crawling out of his car.
"It's a little bit of both," Wallace said. "It's encouraging we ran so strong. There were times when I would look in the mirror and couldn't even see the second-place car at the beginning of the race it was running that good."
But as the laps piled up, so did the rubber on the track. Wallace noticed it, and he knew he was in trouble.
"Uh, oh, something's weird going on here," Wallace remembered he said to himself.
He wasn't wrong.
"I could feel it trying to mess me up a little bit," Wallace said. "It was getting loose, it would spin a tire, then it would push a little bit.
"As the day went on and the track got rubbered up, I could see it changing."
Wallace rocketed to the lead from his eighth starting spot on lap 27, slipping past Ricky Craven. He led four times for 182 laps, the most of any driver Sunday.
"That thing was a damn bullet," Wallace said. "It was just flying. The motor ran great, the thing was handling perfect." All good things must come to an end, of course.
"About three-quarters of the way through the race, I could see the track getting real black," Wallace said. "I had the thing really turning good. It just got too free on me. It got so loose you could hardly touch the throttle."
Wallace and crew chief Bill Wilburn worked to correct the problem, but the damage was done. Plus, he was stuck in traffic, making getting back to the front even more difficult.
"We tightened it up on a couple pit stops," Wallace said. "It would tighten it up, but it made it lose the front end. I couldn't fix both things."
But Wallace wasn't pulling his hair out in the garage area. He knows he had a good car, especially considering this was Penske Racing's first event on a non-restrictor plate track running a Dodge. Good things could be coming, and maybe that losing streak will come to an end soon.
"It was a good run for the first time out," Wallace said. "It was a good evaluation for the first time in a Dodge on a downforce track. It had a lot of power, handled good and proved it could lead."
But it hasn't proved it could win. Yet.

2003-02-23T09:33:00.000-05:00

Rusty Starting 600th Race On Sunday At Rockingham

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
NOTE: Wallace will make his 600th career start in Sunday's Subway 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at North Carolina Speedway. Wallace will be making his 40th start at Rockingham, and he leads all active drivers with five wins at the 1.017-mile track.

"That's a lot of races, no doubt about that. That's pretty special. I hope I
win. The first win was incredible. It was at Bristol. I think I qualified
24th. I took the lead halfway through the race, and I couldn't believe I won
my first race at a track that wild and hard to run at. I thought it was a
fluke for a little while, but we went on six or seven races and I won again
at Martinsville. That was 1986. I won my 50th race at Bristol, and I've won
here at Rockingham five times. This has been a good track for me in the
past. I'm glad I'm starting my 600th here.

"If I wasn't competitive I wouldn't run. We're running great. Even with the
problems I had at Daytona last week, we ran super strong. I started 38th and
on the sixth lap I was running eighth. That was pretty cool. On the fourth
lap of the race, I passed the pole sitter. We had that little hot rod
running pretty good. I made a decision to pit because we had oil all over
the windshield. I didn't know if it was going to rain or not rain. If it had
gone back to green we were going to be in trouble. I came down pit road
running seventh and came back on the track running 25th. I've never given up that many positions in my life just because of a crazy call, but it
happened.

"I like Rockingham. It's very hard on the tires, but it's not as hard on the
tires as Darlington. That's the very worst track on tires. It's close to
home. I've won a lot here, and I've always had good cars here, so I'm
looking forward to it.

"Whenever you can go somewhere and start 39 times and win five of them,
that's pretty strong. I pride myself in that. Some of those races I won here
happened too long ago. I want to get some more current victories going on
right now. If we can have a year like we had last year and win a couple of
races, it would be fabulous. We'd be right there to have a shot to win the
championship like we were last year, and I believe we've got a team and a
car we can do it with.

"One of the biggest reasons we switched to Dodge is we believe we can make this product better. We think we can get in victory lane with this car, so
I'm real excited about it.

"I'm glad to be at a non-restrictor plate race. I did have fun at Daytona. I
didn't like qualifying. The way we qualified, it turned out bad. I really
did like the way the car drove in the Bud Shootout and the 125. I finished fourth in that race, and I ran great in the Daytona 500. When you look at where the 2 car finished, it doesn't look that great, but I did like the way we ran in the race.

"It's like real racing here, but you can't judge everybody off this race
yet. These are new bodies. For us it's a new body, new engine, new
combination, new body rule. For everybody else, it's all new template rules
and a lot of new stuff. I think we've got to get through Rockingham and Las
Vegas. Las Vegas is a real smooth, high horsepower track. After those two
races, I think we can get a good idea of where we're at. Then, I think
you're going to hear the manufacturers start complaining again about who
might have a better nose or a little better tail section. We're all running
the same long templates, but the front and back of these things are
completely night and day different. We need to look at that.

"I don't know why they (Chevrolets) were so good at Daytona. They had more power and a little less coefficient of drag. Four or five of them were
cheating really, really hard and didn't get caught. The NASCAR guys know it,
and they're out for them when they get to Talladega.

"I am a little nervous because I haven't tested here. This is all new for
me. I'm a little comfortable because my teammate, Ryan Newman, did test
here. He's got a lot of knowledge about the laps he ran. The cars are pretty
identical. If we do get rained out and can't have any race practice, then
I'll be relying on his setup to bail us out. I won't go back to last year's
stuff because I wasn't happy with the way my car ran the last race. I'll be
looking at his stuff and making decisions.

"I wish they'd do away with qualifying and get all the practice we could
today. We know we're probably going to lose everything on Saturday. I wish
they'd tell everybody we were going to shoot for race practice and scrub
qualifying. That would be smart for everybody, I think. We'd start on last
year's points, and I'd be up front. That'd be the way to go."
THE OFFICIAL RUSTY WALLACE WEBSITE
WWW.RUSTYWALLACE.COM
COPYRIGHT © RUSTY WALLACE, INC.
Photographs © Steven Rose, Motorsports Memories Phtography
"Kick Start My Heart" © Mötley Crüe. Used with permission.
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2003-02-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

Who's cheating? Not us
By Lee Montgomery, Turner Sports Interactive February 24, 2003
3:06 PM EST (2006 GMT)

Rusty Wallace created quite a stir when he claimed some Chevrolet teams were cheating at Daytona last weekend.

Rusty Wallace
"I don't know why they were so good at Daytona," Wallace said. "They had more power and a little less coefficient of drag. Four or five of them were cheating really, really hard and didn't get caught. The NASCAR guys know it, and they're out for them when they get to Talladega." Chevrolet teams denied it, of course. Dale Earnhardt Inc. vice president Ty Norris told the Associated Press that Wallace "must be talking about somebody else. Our guys put a lot of effort into it and don't get complacent about our plate racing."

2003-02-23T00:17:00.000-05:00

No practice for Winston Cup, Busch race was rained out til monday,hopefully the Winston cup race wont be.
With any luck I will be watching it. GO RUSTY GO!!!

2003-02-21T22:07:00.000-05:00

Rusty is in the eighth position to start the race at Rockingham on sunday,unless he gets busted for another bogus reason.

2003-02-20T21:29:00.000-05:00

POLE QUALIFING:Tommorrow at 3:00, hope Rusty can win or get a good position.

2003-02-19T22:38:00.000-05:00

I ADDED PICTURES TO MY LINKS, CHECK THEM OUT!!!!

2003-02-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

WHEN YOU WANT SOMETHING YOU CAN'T HAVE IT,
WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU DON'T WANT IT!
IF YOU NEED SOMETHING YOU DON'T HAVE IT,
IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED IT!
WHEN YOU'RE THERE YOU DON'T WANT TO BE,
WHEN YOU'RE NOT THERE YOU WANT TO BE!
IT'S LIKE HAVING YOU CAKE AND EATING IT,
WHEN YOU LOOK FOR SOMETHING AND CAN'T FIND IT,YOU GET IRRITATED.
WHEN YOU DON'T WANT IT YOU'LL FIND IT.

2003-02-16T20:17:00.000-05:00

2003-02-16T18:40:00.000-05:00

Rain shorten race at Daytona, Micheal Waltrip wins, Rusty 25th position, too bad he took a pit stop just before the rain.

2003-02-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

Today is the big race "Daytona 500", How will the #2 car do?

2003-02-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

1 day til the Daytona 500, can't wait.