Post Race Quotebook "The guys at Penske South built me a brand new Hopkins car and we put it together, took it to the wind tunnel and it ran great there. We put a good setup under the car and we were able to get four out of five poles here at Bristol. The amazing thing about it is that every one of the pole positions came with a completely different chassis setup and today's race was a different chassis setup. Bristol has always been my favorite race track. I guess everybody's gotta have a favorite track and this is it for me. I kind of know what I want the car to feel like at Bristol and we keep making the changes until we get it. I told the guys that it's amazing that all these different cars have different setups all the time and we just do what it takes to make the car run up front." HOW HECTIC WERE THE LAST FEW LAPS HOLDING OFF THE 6? "It was pretty hairy. It wasn't an easy victory. I thought it was gonna be easy for a while there when some of the guys had their problems and I was able to pull away from Mark. But at that restart I was thinking to myself, 'I'm putting the same type of tires, the same air-pressure on.' I varied the left-front air-pressure a little bit to try to get the car to turn better and get it to run faster on restarts, and that did help me. I thought I could pull away from Mark and I couldn't shake him. I just could not get away from him. Maybe more laps I could have pulled away from him, but 18 laps wasn't enough to shake him. He drove me really clean. He didn't get in the back of me going into turn three. I drove that car in the corner good and straight just in case it did happen, but he did a good job. It was a tough one because I was trying to pass lapped cars. I was having a tough time with lapped cars today, especially at the end of the race, but I was able to get around them all and got the victory." TALK ABOUT THE PASS ON MARTIN WITH ABOUT 150 TO GO TO TAKE THE LEAD. "I knew that if you're gonna pass somebody you've gotta do it while you've got good, sticky tires. I knew Mark was strong and I knew if I was gonna get back around him, I just had to do it as quick as I possibly could. So when I caught him coming off of turn four, I just had a good head of steam. My nose was right up under his bumper and he really pulled over and just let me go by. He needed to get five points. He got his five points and when he got those five points he wasn't gonna fight no more it looked like and I was able to get back around him." WITH FOUR TO GO YOU CAME UP ON BUCKSHOT JONES. WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS? "It was just a lapped car at that point. The lapped cars were racing the leaders pretty hard and I just had to make a move. I started to go around the top side, he looked like he was going to the bottom and going to the top. I went to the top, I dove to the bottom, and as I was going to the top Mark was gonna fly underneath me and I pulled back down and I pulled down so abruptly that he ended up tapping me in the rear end a little bit. So it was a real tight deal. It was a real exciting race and I'm glad I won the thing. Heck, we were in victory lane and one of the first guys to victory lane to congratulate me was Jack Roush. He said, 'I don't ever do this to anybody, but you guys are really cool and I want to come down and congratulate you for a great win today.' So that feel pretty good to me that Jack came by." HOW MUCH SWEETER IS THIS RACE TODAY AFTER WHAT'S HAPPENED PREVIOUSLY? "This race is a real sweet one because when you look at the attendance of this place -- 120-140,000 people -- that's pretty big. And to be so dominant in the past here at Bristol and have crazy things go on like this race last year. Leading the most laps and had a cylinder go down on me, and then, talk about crazy luck, I'm following Ricky Rudd and a piece of lead falls out of his car and blows a right-front tire out and I drive it wide-open into the wall and destroyed the car. You went from a hero to a hobo in nothing flat on that deal, so it feels good to finally bring it to the end." Wallace dominates, then
hangs on, at Bristol BRISTOL,
Tenn. (April 11, 1999)
For the 18 laps following the final restart, longtime rival Mark Martin was plastered to his rear bumper. This was racing at its highlight-film finest, racing like it was intended to be. No one in the 130,000-strong crowd dared blink. There wasn't anything Martin didn't try to get around Wallace. He went high, ducked low and maybe even made a little contact here and there. Nothing worked. Wallace somehow held on to score his first win of the season. The win was the 49th of Wallace's NASCAR Winston Cup Series career, and 7th at Bristol. Wallace moved from 11th in the division's standings to 8th, 173 points behind leader Jeff Burton. "Mark Martin -- that's the guy I'm thinking about," Wallace said in Victory Lane. "He got four sticker (tires) at the end, and was really mowing me down. But I had to hold on. He got there and I held him off. "This car .... it's a brand-new car. Penske South built it for me, and man, did it run. That engine was strong. She's a hot-rod. We named it 'Banker' because it's good on these high-banked tracks and she brought home the money today." Rookie Tony Stewart enjoyed a tremendous run for the first three-fifths of the event, the only driver all afternoon to pass Wallace for the lead on the race track. On lap 340, however, all that changed. Jerry Nadeau spun in the second turn, and Wallace barely slipped through unscathed. Stewart wasn't so lucky. He got clipped by Ricky Craven, and in the process, third-place Jeff Gordon also got turned around. Both pitted several times under the ensuing caution to make repairs. Despite fairly substantial damage, neither lost a lap due to the incident. The race went back to green on lap 351, and Wallace passed Martin for the lead a circuit later as they headed into Turn 1. On lap 413, Dale Jarrett got under Martin for 2nd place as they roared down Bristol's short frontstretch. The leaders pitted under the final caution on lap 476, and Martin's crew got him out 2nd behind Wallace. The race was on. Buckshot Jones' damaged car presented a pick as they headed into Turn 3 on lap 496, but both were able to flash by without incident. The checkered flag fell with Wallace about a quarter of a second ahead of Martin. "We didn't run good enough to win the race, and got close to winning it anyway," Martin said. "Our car seemed to be pretty quick on that last set of tires. We had a couple of runs at him, and just couldn't quite make it stick." Jarrett wound up 3rd, followed by John Andretti and Jeff Burton in the top-5. Gordon came back from his incident to take 6th, while Ted Musgrave, Kyle Petty, Ward Burton and Dale Earnhardt rounded out the top 10. It took Wallace 2 hours, 51 minutes and 16 seconds to complete the event at an average speed of 93.366 mph. There were seven lead changes among five drivers, and seven cautions for a total of 57 laps. Wallace fastest at Bristol
once again BRISTOL,
Tenn. (April 9, 1999)
Wallace won his 3rd straight Bud Pole at Bristol and the sixth of his career at the fabled track. He turned a track-record lap of 125.142 mph in his Miller Lite Ford Taurus. The performance netted Wallace his first Bud Pole of 1999, and the 23rd of his career. And with brother Kenny having claimed the Bud Pole for the fall 1997 Bristol race, today marked the fifth consecutive Bristol Bud Pole for the Wallace brothers. The elder Wallace's lap was barely good enough to hold off Gordon, who was just .02-second slower, qualifying at 124.979 mph in his Dupont Refinishes Chevrolet. The two rivals will share the front row for the fourth time since the beginning of last season and for the second straight year in this race. Wallace said his all-new Penske-built Taurus had the measure of the difficult Bristol track. "It's a brand new car that Team Penske built me and it's running great," said Wallace. "I tightened the car up a little bit for qualifying and I actually thought I pushed too much, (but) it was a good lap." Gordon, who is recovering from injuries he suffered in a crash at the PRIMESTAR 500 at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, said he was happy with his effort. "With where we started this morning to where we ended up, I'm definitely proud of that lap," he said. "I was in a little bit of pain. I was sore on that lap. I'm getting everything I could out of the car." On the second row for Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup Series Food City 500 will be Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart. Labonte's Interstate Batteries Pontiac ran 124.484 mph, while Stewart's speed was 124.283 mph in the Home Depot entry. The success of Wallace and Gordon at Bristol was perhaps predictable, given their respective records here. But a little further back in the field, there were strong performances from several drivers who've had difficult seasons so far. Ricky Rudd qualified 5th in the Tide Ford, one spot ahead of the Square D Chevrolet of Kenny Wallace. Rounding out the top-10 were Bobby Hamilton's Kodak Chevrolet, Mark Martin's Valvoline Ford, Ricky Craven's Hollywood Video Ford and Kenny Irwin in the Texaco/Havoline Ford. Darrell Waltrip, who is out of provisionals until next week, got the Big KMart Ford solidly in the field at 12th place, the first time he has qualified for a race on the first day since last July at New Hampshire. Waltrip starts two spots ahead of Kyle Petty, who has two DNQs and two 43rd-place finishes in the Hot Wheels Pontiac so far this season. And Dave Marcis put the RealTree Chevrolet safely in the field by qualifying 22nd. Only the 25 fastest cars made the field Friday. Bud Second-Round Qualifying will be Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Among those failing to qualify in the first round were PRIMESTAR 500 winner Terry Labonte, seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and points leader Jeff Burton. Something new is old
tactic for Rusty
"We're bringing a brand spanking new race car to Bristol," said Wallace, a six-time Bristol Motor Speedway race winner who will debut his new 'PR-23' Ford Taurus at BMS this weekend. "We won the pole positions for both Bristol races last year, but came up shy in wins. We've had a ton of good luck debuting new cars in the past and hopefully we can turn that trick again this Sunday. Wallace does indeed have history supporting him about his success with new cars. Remember his famous cars named 'Midnight' and 'Midnight Rider'? He debuted both cars in winning fashion on short tracks and, in Penske Racing South tradition, designated names for them during his Victory Lane celebrations. "We've been quite fortunate winning races with new cars and most recently we were able to do that at Phoenix last fall with the Bristol car's twin," said Wallace, who also has five career poles at Bristol. "We won with that new car (PR-22) at Phoenix and named it 'Streaker' because the win advanced our winning streak to 13 consecutive years. "We're hoping to do the same thing at Bristol. After the last few races there, it'd really be nice to get back and get the wins that we've been missing out on." Wallace's last win at Bristol came on Aug. 24, 1996. But, the statistics in the races held since then do not begin to tell just how close he has come to additional wins. Much was made of the 1997 edition of the Food City 500 and Wallace remembers the race as if it happened yesterday. "That was the famous 'love tap' episode with (Jeff) Gordon," Wallace said. "To have won the pole and led the most laps (4 times for 240 laps) and see a win slip away the way it did, it's something that's hard to forget." Wallace had taken the lead for the final time on lap 415 and led the race until the last turn of the last lap when a 'punt' from the rear applied by Gordon got Wallace out of shape enough to allow Gordon to pass for the win. "Even though it wasn't too fun in finishing second that day, it was quite amusing to hear all the fans later calling the place the 'scene of the crime' and all," said Wallace. "It's one of those things that you file away mentally and hope to be able to respond accordingly given the chance in the future." Last year's Food City 500 was yet another case of 'the big fish that got away' for Wallace and his Miller Lite-sponsored Ford Taurus team. "We had the win last spring within our grasp before our problems struck," said Wallace. After winning the pole position (lap of 15.440 seconds/124.275 mph), Wallace dominated the event, leading on six occasions for a total of 220 of the first 397 laps before the potential win started to slip away. "We led until about a hundred (laps) to go," said Wallace. "The engine went sour. We lost a cylinder and slid back. We were just trying to hold on and get a good finish. We were running behind (Ricky) Rudd when a big chunk of metal came out from under his car. I ran over it, cut down a right-front tire and creamed the wall down there in Turn 1. We fixed the car and got back out there, but it was a big disappointment losing out on a win like that." Wallace's Robin Pemberton-led crew made repairs to the Ford which allowed him to return to the track, log some laps to pick up points and avoid being listed as a DNF (did not finish) on the results sheet. Although he completed only 446 laps and was relegated to the 33rd finishing position, his 220 laps at the point were the most of any driver for the day. It marked the final race that the team used Penske South race engines in 'non-restricted' events. Wallace again won the pole last August at Bristol with the fastest qualifying lap of 123.554 mph (15.530 seconds). He led in the early going before a broken bleeder-valve on the right-front brake assembly forced him to pit for repairs on lap 121. He lost a lap in the process, but got back in the lead lap with the aid of 'teammate' Jeremy Mayfield and a much needed caution brought out by Ernie Irvan's spin on lap 197. He was 15th on the lap 206 restart, moved into the top 10 on lap 285 and into the top five on lap 312. Mayfield's backstretch spin on lap 436 brought out the final caution of the night. On the lap 442 restart, the running order was Mark Martin leading, with Jeff Burton, Wallace, Dale Jarrett and Mike Skinner rounding out the top five. Although Wallace was able to get around Burton momentarily for the second spot, Burton got back around on lap 452. The top four spots remained the same for the final 48 circuits, with Gordon moving into the fifth finishing spot. "It was about as hot as I've ever seen it anywhere in the Bristol race last August," said Wallace. "After we had the brake problem, it took great pit work to get me back out there without losing any more ground than we did. We fell all the way back to 39th and to make up a lap and get all the way back up to third wasn't all that bad of a race for us." |
RUSTY INFOMAIN PAGETEAM ROSTER CAREER PERFORMANCE ALL-TIME WINS NASCAR WINSTON CUP LINKS
Winston Cup Weather Rec.Autos.Sport.Nascar Image Archive SUGGESTED READING
Rusty Wallace (Race Car Legends)
Visit Rusty's official web site: |
Rusty Wallace won from the Bud Pole at Bristol for the 3rd time
in his career. 
Rusty Wallace celebrates his third straight Bud Pole at Bristol
Motor Speedway. 
Rusty Wallace will debut his new race car, PR-23, at Bristol Motor
Speedway this Sunday.
