Brickyard 400 - Rusty Wallace Notes

WALLACE SAYS BRICKYARD WIN WOULD NARROW HIS "HIT" LIST TO ONE
-Miller Lite Dodge Driver & Three-Time Runner-Up Says It Would Add To Making His Career Complete-

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 3) - Rusty Wallace admits that his days driving the Miller Lite Dodge are numbered and is quick to point to a couple of accomplishments he feels would make his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup career complete.

"I've been saying for a few years now that before I hang it up, I'd love to have trophies from the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 - they' re the last two on my 'hit list,'" said Wallace, the 1989 series champion and 55-race winner. "We'll get another shot at Daytona next February and right now, we're fully focused on finally getting us an Indy win. I've said all along that those are the biggest races and carry the most prestige. Man, it'd be great to finally close the deal at Indy.

"We've been so close to pulling it off at both tracks - and it's particularly true in the Brickyard 400," continued Wallace, who has finished out of the top 10 at Indy only once (in 1997, when a blown engine took him out of the race) and has five top-five finishes and nine top-10s to his credit. "We've been the bridesmaid there so many times that it makes you stop and ask if the racing gods are all working against you. We keep on getting close and the wins are snatched away from us at the last moment. Somebody last year referred to us as 'Runner-up Rusty' and we're out to change all of that this weekend at Indy."

Wallace has finished second in the Brickyard 400 on three occasions, the most recent being in the 2002 edition of the racing classic.

"I've said it last year and I'll say it again that we've been so close to winning the thing that we could almost taste it," said Wallace, whose 8.5 average finish in the 10 editions of the Brickyard 400 is bettered only by Bill Elliott's 7.7. "We're bringing a strong car again to Indy, the one we debuted and almost won with at Bristol, and we had a pretty darn good test with the thing a couple of weeks back."

Wallace recently recalled his three Indy runner-up finishes:

1) The 1995 edition of the Brickyard 400 in which Wallace started 24th, led twice for 22 laps and led as late as with only 30 laps to go en route to a runner-up finish (by a mere 0.37 seconds) to winner Dale Earnhardt Sr.:

"Now that's certainly a race that really sticks out in my mind as one of the biggest fish that ever got away," said Wallace. "We didn't qualify that well, but once the race started the car took off like a rocket. The guys gave me great pit stops all day long. We got to the front and set sail, led a ton of laps and stretched our lead out before having to pit under the green. We had another quick pit stop, but just as we were on our way out of the pits, two cars in front of us collided. That slowed us down enough that Dale got the lead away from us. It came down to a battle between Earnhardt and us. We made a charge and reeled Dale in, closing the gap, but we just ran out of laps. It was a shame because we had them covered. We had the thing won before those two cars got together and blocked pit road in front of us."

2) The 2000 Brickyard 400 when Wallace led with only a handful of laps remaining, only to be overhauled by Bobby Labonte:

"It was another tear-jerker," Wallace recalled. "We had almost a half straightaway lead pretty late into the thing before the 18 car (Bobby Labonte) got by us and went on to win."

Wallace did enjoy a two-second lead over Labonte with some 50 laps remaining, but Labonte's pressure was too much for Wallace to hold off in the final laps. After a Lap 121 pit stop for four tires, fuel and a minor chassis adjustment, the stops cycled around on Lap 123 with Wallace and the No. 18 car running neck to neck. Bill Elliott was third, but more than four seconds behind the lead duo. On Lap 130, with 16 cars still on the lead lap, Wallace led Labonte by only 0.233 seconds, with Elliott in third some 4.5 seconds behind.

Wallace, continuously hounded by Labonte, held off the charging Labonte until Lap 147 when the No. 18 dove underneath Wallace entering turn one to take the lead. Once the pass was made, the race for the win was practically over. Wallace, relegated to second, was mostly concerned with holding the runner-up finishing spot. Labonte led the final 13 circuits and came home with a 4.229-second victory over runner-up Wallace. Elliott finished third.

"That last set of tires just made me too tight," Wallace explained. "Bobby caught me, got around me and I just couldn't do anything with him at that point. We had a great car all day long. Man, it was really flying. I just couldn't do anything with him. He was right on my bumper all day long and I knew if he ever got around me he might get away from me, but I was tight for about the last third of the race -- just too tight. He got underneath me. I drove it in too deep going into turn four there to try to hold him off. My power started taking over at the end of the straightaway, but there's no way to go side-by-side into turn one. We could do it everywhere else, but not turn one. I knew I had to get the thing freed up in order to beat him, but it just didn't happen. I wanted to win the thing so bad for Roger, not really for myself but for Penske. It was another one of those woulda-shoulda-couldas."

3) The 2002 edition of the Brickyard 400 where Wallace started 35th, but immediately charged to the front and used pit strategy to play a big factor in the outcome of the race:

In that race, Wallace used a two-tire pit stop on lap 128 to get his best track position of the day. Mark Martin led on the Lap 133 restart, with Tony Stewart second, Wallace third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Elliott fifth. Martin was caught up on the outside and both Stewart and Wallace quickly got around him after the green flew again. Wallace got to the inside of Stewart and took the lead on Lap 137. Elliott pressured Wallace and finally got around on the inside to take the lead with 10 laps remaining.

A Lap 153 caution, the eighth of the day -- this one for debris in turn two --bunched all the cars up again. The importance of track position, coupled by the mandate of a single-file restart saw no takers hit pit road during the yellow. Elliott got a great jump on Wallace, but Wallace got a great restart over third-place Matt Kenseth when the green flag flew again. The top three stayed the same for the final circuits, with Elliott energizing a 1.269-second winner over Wallace and Kenseth finishing third.

"It was yet another one of those really great second-place finishes where with just a little luck we could have put our name on that big trophy," Wallace offered. "We went from 35th up to 10th in nothing flat. We four-tired it and got way in the back -- two-tired it and got back up front. It was another 'close, but no cigar experience' for us. I fought a real tight car all day long. We two-tired it and took a bunch of bite out the last stop and the old hot-rod took off then. We took the lead and I really thought we were gonna win it, but I got a little loose up off of two and Elliott got me.

"It was a bitter pill to swallow, but I was so happy for Bill Elliott winning the thing," Wallace said. "He and I go way back and he's definitely paid his dues. I even went to Victory Lane to personally congratulate him on his big win. But at the end of the day, it was yet another one that got away."

Wallace and his Larry Carter-led team will be racing their "73 car" this weekend at Indianapolis. The car debuted at Bristol in March, where Wallace started fourth and finished second, even without power steering. It was raced only once since; at Michigan in June, where Wallace started 10th and led the race, but was relegated to a 22nd-place finish after dropping a cylinder with 100 miles remaining.

The 11th Brickyard 400 activities get underway Friday with NASCAR Winston Cup Series cars on track for a two-hour practice beginning at 2:00 p.m. NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying starts at 10:05 a.m. on Saturday. The green flag will wave to start the 11th annual Brickyard 400 at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Sunday and the race features live coverage by NBC-TV and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.