Wallace flat lucky at Pocono
By Brett Borden
NASCAR Online
LONG POND, Pa. (July 23, 2000)

AUDIO/VIDEO

Rusty Wallace says his crew helped him get in front on Sunday. wav: 259 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Jeremy Mayfield says the track at Pocono got even. wav: 193 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Rusty Wallace explains the last lap at Pocono on Sunday. wav: 348 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Jeremy Mayfield explains his final lap problems. wav: 139 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Rusty Wallace collected his 51st career NASCAR Winston Cup Series win Sunday.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Rusty Wallace had to be both to pull out his 51st career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory Sunday. Wallace won the Pennsylvania 500 presented by America Online when teammate Jeremy Mayfield had a front right tire go flat on the last lap, giftwrapping the second victory of the season for the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.

"Jeremy ran super strong today," Wallace said. "I ran super strong today. Right there at the very end I tried to make the car turn better and I ran real good for about 10 laps and all of a sudden I started getting real free. Jeremy caught me and passed me, but once he passed me, (Jeff Burton) got behind me and tightened my car up and I got back to running good again. Then me and Burton got racing and all hell was breaking loose there and I was able to catch Jeremy on the back straightaway and then he had a tire go down and I got past him.

"I can't wait now to get to Indianapolis since I've had that great qualifying lap up there and the car ran strong. That's another week or so and I'm getting ready to go on vacation in about 30 minutes. This has made me really happy and it's going to make for a really nice vacation for me."

It was no vacation holding off Burton. Wallace and Burton battled long and hard for what they thought would be a runner-up finish. It was for Burton, as Mayfield fell all the way to 10th with his problem.

"It was going to get pretty interesting because I had hit Rusty all the way down the back straightaway ... well, hit him a few times and then he pulled away from me, but he really had a good run on Jeremy going into the tunnel turn."

Tunnel vision helped Burton pull out his fourth runner-up finish of the season, while Jeff Gordon came home third, his third top-5 in the last four races.

"This is a great run for us, and I feel like this team has really turned things around," Gordon said. "I see the chemistry really coming along. Pocono is a place where there's long straightaways, so you have to have a good motor. You've got to have a good aero package, but there's corners, not really the same as Indianapolis, buy maybe kind of similar. I think if there's any place you can compare to Indy, it's Pocono. I think this is somewhat of a preview."

If so, expect Dale Jarrett and Matt Kenseth to be in the hunt for the Brickyard 400, as they finished fourth and fifth, respectively, Sunday.

Bobby Labonte, Mike Skinner, Rick Mast, Jimmy Spencer and Mayfield rounded out the top-10.

Jarrett was able to leapfrog Dale Earnhardt into second in the standings. Burton jumped three spots into fourth and Wallace four spots into fifth.

Ward Burton, meanwhile, dropped three spots into seventh after finishing 28th, and Mark Martin dropped three spots to ninth after finishing 43rd.

VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW

"That was a whale of a finish, no doubt about that. It was Team Penske the last half. Jeremy's car was great and my car felt really good and he had a little problem at the end and I was able to take advantage. It felt good though, to finally get the 51st victory and get two this year. Now maybe people will quit asking me, 'Hey Rusty, when are you gonna get your next victory."

WHAT ABOUT PIT STRATEGY? "My guys were great on pit road today. The strategy that Robin did was awesome, to take two tires. We knew we got burned last time here at Pocono and we knew we needed two that time. What I underestimated was how quick Jeremy's car was gonna be. His car was really fast and my hat's off to him because he had a great car. That was real unfortunate at the end, but, you know, that puts Jeremy at two, me at two and Team Penske is doing pretty good."

THAT WAS A GREAT FINISH? "I tell you what, Jeff Burton was driving me hard and driving me clean -- on the bottom, on the top -- I'd block him off and try to pull back down and then that Penske horsepower took over down the straightaways and here we go again. I was like, 'Man, I wish the thing would hurry up and get over because it's about to wear me out."

MORE QUOTES

WHAT ABOUT THE BATTLE WITH JEFF BURTON? "He was stronger than me in turn one and I was able to hold my own across the tunnel and we were real equal on the last turn, so I kept messing up in the tunnel turn. I'd get too hot and get too high and he'd get underneath me. So the last couple of laps I said, 'man, just calm down, be patient' and that's what I did. I kept it on the bottom, but he was right up my tailpipe, I tell you that. He ran a great race today. A super team that 99 team is and I'd just like to thank all these fans for showing up and NASCAR in general."

YOUR CAR SEEMED TO SLIP A LITTLE MIDWAY, WHAT HAPPENED? "I tell you what, you can take a real hot-rod and put it behind about six or eight cars and it looked like a hobo out there running around. It just won't run with no downforce on the front end. When I got that clean air that thing took off. The car is fast, the motor is fast, but you get behind air and you just can't go, so that's the tough part here with these long, flat straightaways."

Additional stories:

Wallace wins stretch battle at NASCAR Pennsylvania 500 (ESPN.com)
Pocono Ford Pennsylvania 500 Quotes (Motorsports.com)

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SUGGESTED READING

Rusty Wallace : The Decision to Win

Official NASCAR Trivia : The Ultimate
Challenge for NASCAR Fans

The Official NASCAR Handbook

NASCAR : The Thunder of America

Rusty Wallace (Race Car Legends)

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