Race 2 Win: Nextel All-Star Challenge

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Nextel All-Star Challenge - Rusty Wallace Notes

WALLACE RECALLS '89 ALL-STAR RACE AS CAREER'S "DEFINING MOMENT"
Miller Lite Dodge Driver Has Participated In 18 Of The 20 All-Star Races To Date

CONCORD, N.C. (May 17, 2005) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace has participated in 18 of the 20 editions of the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge race. This weekend's schedule calls for the 21st running of the highly-anticipated annual "no-holds-barred" racing extravaganza at Lowe's Motor Speedway and will mark Wallace's final appearance in the event. To date, his record sports one win, five top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes and $987,154 in money won. He has started from the first starting spot on three occasions, including last year's race.

All records aside, Wallace counts his win in the 1989 All-Star race - or rather how he won it and the controversial aftermath - as perhaps the most notable single event of his illustrious 22-year career as a driver in stock car racing's most prestigious series.

"Regardless of all the wins, top-fives and top-10s, the poles and the money, that win in the 1989 All-Star race at Charlotte - the circumstances and all - it was probably the single most monumental event in my career," said Wallace, who went on to claim that season's points title, also. "One thing is for sure and that's the fact that it was the most defining moment for me as a driver.

"I mean until then, I was pretty much still an unknown - just one of the younger drivers who sort of blended into the crowd," Wallace continued. "There wasn't a whole heckuva' lot of people who knew that much about me back then. I was just a short-track hot shot who'd grown up through the ranks, paid my dues and was starting to win races in the big league and be a factor in the points deal.

"We had Kodiak as a sponsor back then. They were a smokeless tobacco company and they did very little - really none at all - promotion with me and the team. They just more or less sent in their sponsorship check and said, 'here, just paint our logos on the sides and hood of the car and have at it.' Don't get me wrong - they were great folks to us and we certainly appreciated their support - but they just didn't use the driver and the team in promotional work like all the sponsors do today.

"Just about everything I'd done up until that incident with D.W. (Darrell Waltrip) in that race had gone pretty much unnoticed by what you'd label the mainstream media. I mean, yeah the sports reporters and the racing papers - they all had covered the three wins we'd already had that season. They were already looking at us as serious championship contenders and a lot of that had to do with coming so close to winning it the year before, when (Bill) Elliott beat us by just a few points (lost title by 24 points).

"When I got into D.W. there coming down for the white flag and then went on to win the race, it changed everything," said Wallace.

A quick look back at the details of the 1989 All-Star race:

Wallace started his Kodiak Pontiac in the third starting spot. He appeared to have the car to beat from the drop of the green flag in the first segment. He stormed on to win the first segment handily.

Wallace's car experienced loose handling conditions in the second segment, allowing Waltrip to blow by and claim the second segment, setting up a showdown in the third and final segment.

After determining that they had reversed the mounting of tires during the second segment - his team had put the right front on the right rear and the right rear tire on the right front - Wallace and crew knew why they had handling woes in the second segment. They adjusted accordingly and were ready for the final scamper to the finish.

As the pair raced to the white flag, Wallace stuck the nose of his Pontiac under Waltrip's Chevrolet as they exited the fourth turn. Contact was made between Wallace's right-front and Waltrip's left-rear-quarter-panel, sending Waltrip's car into what is still referred to as the "Tide Slide," designated so due to Waltrip's car sponsor at the time.

"It was an ugly, ugly win," Waltrip chirped. "I hope he chokes on the $200,000, that's all I can tell him. He knocked the hell out of me."

"We just ran out of room," Wallace replied. "I got under him and we touched. I backed out of the throttle and he spun. I didn't intentionally hit him." Waltrip, however, wasn't finished talking.

"A lot of guys let greed overcome speed, and that's what happened today," he said. "I got spun out. A guy drove down underneath me and drove up into me and spun me out. It was blatant. I had him pretty well covered. I just didn't want to make a mistake, but I guess I made one, letting him get up there."

"It was the turning point of my career - and Darrell's, too," said Wallace. "I don't think there has ever been in the history of our sport, a situation where in a split second the roles are reversed like that - totally reversed. Darrell became the hero there in that race and I became the villain. D.W. didn't have the greatest fan appeal back then - he was a driver who the fans either loved or hated - it was just that simple. Well, that day he became the good guy and that image lasted with him all the way until he hung the helmet up. He always got cheered from that day forward. And as loud as they were cheering for him, they were booing me even louder, it seemed. Man, it really did start the fireworks for my career.

"I was still a young guy on the way up," continued Wallace. "I was just a pretty non-controversial guy who'd come from the short tracks and was on his way up the ladder in the big league. Not only did I become a marked man and our teams get in fights and all, it carried over into my personal life, too. We got threats - it was some serious stuff that came down after that one.

"I'll never forget having my daughter Katie, who was only about five years old at the time, ask me, 'Daddy, why are there policemen with guns sitting outside our front door?' We actually had to have bodyguards and extra security around the clock for me and my family. It was just that heavy of a scene after that race. It definitely put my name and face on the map and I got booed for years to come after that one. I'm just so grateful that I was finally able to get back in the good graces with all the fans and have them all know that I really am a good guy.

"I'll always remember the aftermath of that race, with Darrell telling me to choke on the 200 grand, Todd Parrott and some of my team punching it out with Darrell's team on pit road and getting suspended and all hell just about breaking out. It was something they talked about for years to come and John Boy and Billy (popular syndicated radio show hosts) even made up a song about that day. After winning the championship that season and pledging to be the best champion that I could, the fans still were booing the heck out of me. Even after living up to my promise, the fans continued to boo me. To tell you the truth, it wasn't until about '93 that we got it all turned around and got back in good graces with the fans."

Friday's 7:10 p.m. qualifying session calls for drivers to make three laps and include a four-tire pit stop in determining the starting field for Saturday night's race. The 21st annual "All-Star" race - ran in segments of 40, 30 and 20 laps -- carries live coverage by FX-TV and PRN Radio beginning with coverage of the preliminary events at 7:00 p.m. EDT.

Notes of interest:

Rusty spent all day Monday (May 16) doing promotional work in the Chicago area. Among the activities he enjoyed was throwing the first pitch at the Chicago White Sox/Texas Rangers Major League Baseball game. Texas won the game 7-6 on Kevin Mench's solo drive in the ninth inning, his second home run of the game. "It was a pretty good pitch that I threw, I thought," he said on Tuesday. "The biggest thing was to get out there and not embarrass myself. They all said I did just fine and that was all I wanted to hear. We had a really fun time and you can have a blast visiting Chicago."

Rusty calling for an "expendable" racecar for Saturday's NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge - "You know that Rusty's really going all out to win this one, when he tells us to give him an expendable car - one that we can do without in the future," crew chief Larry Carter said of the PRS-043 Miller Lite Dodge the team will use at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend. "Rusty knows that this will be his last all-star race as a driver and there's nothing he'd like more than to win him another one to go with that big win back in '89." The "43 car" debuted at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the May 2002 Coca-Cola 600 where Wallace posted a 10th-place finish. In nine races since, a third-place finish at Kansas Speedway in 2002 rates as its best performance to date.

Miller Brewing Company will be celebrating Rusty's final season racing by inviting legal drinking age race fans to Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday (May 21) for a landmark free concert by the Black Crowes. As part of the Miller Lite Rock'n Racing Concert Series, the show is set for Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the Lowe's Motor Speedway infield between Turns 1 and 2. Rusty will be present at the concert, addressing his loyal fans and introducing the Black Crowes.

"When you're through changing - you're through." -Bruce Barton

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