MBNA America 400 - Rusty Wallace Notes

WALLACE SAYS REGARDLESS OF DISTANCE, "DOVER IS ABOUT SURVIVAL"
-Miller Lite Driver Looking To Add To Success On The "Monster Mile"-

DOVER, Del. (September 21, 2004) - Leave it up to Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace to offer a unique perspective concerning the normal lengthy NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races held at Dover International Speedway.

"Let's put it this way - usually the TV crew is able to interview the top five finishers after one of our races," offered Wallace, who will make his 42nd Dover career start in Sunday's MBNA America 400. "The Dover races are so long that the fifth-place finisher doesn't have a prayer to get any post-race TV time. Heck, it's all they can do in most of the races there to even show the winner waving from Victory Lane. The Dover races are usually just that long.

"It's been quite a few races since they cut Dover from a 500-miler to a 400-miler and I don't think anybody has ever missed that extra 100 miles," said Wallace, who has three career wins and five career poles on the 1.0-mile concrete oval known as the "Monster Mile." "What it amounts to is that it used to be a brutal five-hour race and now it's a wicked four-hour race.

"Really, the strategy hasn't changed at all through the years. The goal has always been to be there -- still on the lead lap -- during the final 100 laps. If you can survive the thing for the first 300 laps, then you'll have a shot of having a great race day at Dover on Sunday."

There have been 14 races completed to date at Dover using the current 400-lap, 400-mile format and Wallace is correct in his assessment of races there being time-consuming.

While the 500-mile races held prior to the September 1997 lap reduction were considered by insiders as "five-hour endurance races," the distance of today's races still produce some of the longest afternoons on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup tour.

Mark Martin's popular Dover win back in June came in a race that took an unbelievable 4 hours, 7 minutes and 19 seconds to complete. His winning average speed was only 97.042 mph, the slowest in the history of the track.

Compare those figures to Sunday's race at Loudon, N.H., where only 2 hours, 53 minutes and 31 seconds were consumed from green to checkered flags. The average speed there on that flat 1.058-mile track was 109.753 mph.

With this Sunday's race carrying only a four-hour television broadcast window, Wallace wonders what the viewing audience will be in store for.

"They advertise a 1:00 p.m. start, but it'll be closer to 1:30 p.m. when we finally go green," Wallace stated with a grin. "The June race there was exceptionally long because a of scoring mess, a red flag and a ton of (11) cautions. But, something like that could very well happen again. So that gives 'em three-and-a-half hours to fit it all in. That could prove interesting. At least if we win, maybe we can give 'em the thumbs up on the in-car camera before the TV signs off and we can read all about it and see all the pictures in the Monday morning paper."

Wallace has a theory he believes is behind all the lengthy races at Dover.

"It's really not just the case at Dover, but at a lot of the places we go," he explained. "There's so many cautions, because there's just not the 'take and give situation' we used to have out there. It used to be that if a guy was a little faster at the beginning of the run, a lot of times you'd let him by because you knew you'd blast on back by him if your car was set up right. It's not that way any more and I can't put my finger on when all that changed. But today out there, it's all take and very little give. They'll race you so aggressively at a place like Dover when you're only 40 laps into the thing that you'd swear the flagman's already given the 10 laps to go signal."

Wallace and his Larry Carter-led Miller Lite Dodge team will be racing their "54 car" at Dover this weekend. The car was last raced in the June Dover event, where Wallace started fourth and survived two flat tires and several near-miss crashes to finish 13th. He raced the same car in both 2003 Dover races.

Wallace's overall Dover record boasts the three wins and five poles, along with 10 top-five finishes and 20 top-10 finishes. He is quick to recall his favorite career win on the "Monster Mile."

"We've had more than our share of great memories racing at Dover, that's for sure," said Wallace, who won three straight races there during the 1993-1994 seasons. "The fall win there in 1994 over (Dale) Earnhardt is one I'll always remember. We fought it out all race long and had the lead when the caution flag flew at the end. We were running out of gas and had a flat rear tire at the same time, but we still won the thing. There we were -- being pushed by the crew into Victory Lane, with the gas tank bone dry and a flat right rear tire with all the rubber shredded completely off the wheel. It was a special win that'll always stand out in my mind."

Friday's single round of qualifying at 2:40 p.m. will fill the field for Sunday's race. Saturday's final "Happy Hour" practice session is set for 11:10 a.m. until 11:55 a.m. This Sunday's 400-lap, 400-mile MBNA America 400 at Dover International Speedway starts at 1:00 p.m. EDT and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.

Notes of interest:

--Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace's strategy for Sunday's MBNA America is simple - survival. "It's been quite a few races since they cut Dover from a 500-miler to a 400-miler and I don't think anybody has ever missed that extra 100 miles," said Wallace, who has three career wins and five career poles on the 1.0-mile concrete oval known as the "Monster Mile." "What it amounts to is that it used to be a brutal five-hour race and now it's a wicked four-hour race. Really, the strategy hasn't changed at all through the years. The goal has always been to be there -- still on the lead lap -- during the final 100 laps. If you can survive the thing for the first 300 laps, then you'll have a shot of having a great race day at Dover on Sunday."

--Car 54 at Dover again on Sunday. The car was last raced in the June Dover event, where Wallace started fourth and survived two flat tires and several near-miss crashes to finish 13th. He raced the same car in both 2003 Dover races.it has been the workhorse on the one-mile tracks - led most laps & finished 6th at Rockingham spring of 2003 - outside pole & finished 6th Dover last spring - started 14th & finished 10th Dover last fall - raced once this year, at Rockingham where it started 4th & finished 7th.

--Rusty leads all active drivers with five poles in 41 races. He is ranked second all-time to David Pearson, who had six poles at Dover. Three of Wallace's Dover poles have occurred in the last 10 races there. He is tied with Mark Martin for the most front-row starts at Dover among active drivers, both with eight. Rusty has an 8.853 starting average in 41 races at Dover International Speedway, the best among all active drivers with more than one start there.

--Latest batch of Mobil 1 Penske team profiles features Rusty's jack man Dave Cox, Ryan Newman's rear tire carrier Trent Cherry and Brendan Gaughan's rear tire changer Rich Macco. Check them out at the Mobil 1 Racing site: http://www.mobil1.com/racing/index

--Entry blanks for this year's Miller Lite/Russ Catlin Motorsports Journalism Awards of Excellence contest will be distributed in media centers along the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup tour for the remaining 2004 races. In addition, you can download an entry blank on the www.trpr.com site or request via e-mail attachment from TR at trpr@ix.netcom.com

--Steve Wallace ready to tackle Bristol high banks again -- Following his violent accident in last month's Hooters Pro Cup Series Food City 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway, a resilient Steve Wallace will head back to the scene of his accident for this weekend's Food City 150 presented by Frito Lay, for the UARA-STARS series.

"The Bristol accident was definitely bad, but I took a lot away from it," said Steve. "It taught me a lot about safety and driver comfort features that we were able to incorporate into the late model car. We've basically rebuilt one of our cars specifically for this race and I promise you that it's the safest one out there. It's also going to be one of the fastest ones there too, that's for sure. I really think that I'm one up on the competition by having run at Bristol before. This racetrack is so different than most of the tracks the late models race. It's a really special place and I think that my experience there is going to make our team one of the favorites. It's going to be one heck of a race and I'm ready to go."

--"If you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places." -Andrew Mason