MBNA RacePoints 400 - Rusty Wallace Notes

WALLACE WOULD LOVE TO WIN MBNA NASCAR 400 FOR MELVIN JOSEPH

Miller Lite Dodge Driver Rusty Wallace Developed Strong Friendship With Late Dover Speedway Official

DOVER, Del. (May 31, 2005) - If Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace has his way, the car now known simply as PRS-054 will carry a special moniker after the running of Sunday's MBNA NASCAR RacePoints 400 at Dover International Speedway.

"We've been thinking about it since Melvin passed away a couple of months back and we think there's no better tribute we can pay to such a wonderful guy than to win the race and name our car after him," Wallace said of Melvin Joseph, a board member and Vice President and Director of Auto Racing at Dover International Speedway, who died suddenly on April 6. "I was very fortunate to really get to know Melvin well during the last 10 years and would love to honor him this way."

The 83-year-old Joseph had been active in the NASCAR community for some 50 years, first as a car owner and then in his involvement with the one-mile high-banked Dover, Del., racing facility. He is credited with being a leader in the design and construction of the track that held its first NASCAR race in 1969.

In 1955, Joseph's cars won both the NASCAR Sportsman and Modified Events on the sands of Daytona Beach, FL. In 1959, his car, driven by Banjo Matthews, won the race by an amazing 3 miles in the first NASCAR Modified race on the newly built Daytona International Speedway. Another racing highlight included owning one of the cars that Bobby Allison drove to many victories.

Joseph was the founder, owner and operator of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Co., Inc. since 1940 and M.L. Joseph Sand and Gravel, founded in 1990. He oversaw the 1994 repaving project at Dover International Speedway that transformed the asphalt surface into the current concrete layout. His ideas, innovations and dedication greatly contributed to the success of Dover Motorsports, Inc. His many accomplishments in the sport of auto racing led to his induction into the Delaware Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 2002.

"How Melvin and I became big buddies really came down to the time that the track was considering what to do with their resurfacing project," said Wallace, who'll be making his 43rd career Dover start in Sunday's 400-mile battle. "We won the fall race back in '93 and both races in '94. We were down at the Rusty Rudder (popular restaurant) in Dewey Beach before that fall race in '94 doing a special appearance for Miller Brewing. It turned out that Melvin was great friends with Jay Prettyman, the owner of the place back then.

"We had gotten through with our autograph session on the water side of the place and had come back in to have some dinner before we headed back to Dover for the night," Wallace recalled. "Little did I know it at the time, but they sat our group at a table right beside Melvin and the folks he was entertaining there that night. I had seen Melvin for years at the track, but really didn't know him all that well. I could remember him being there by the stage for all the pre-race stuff, the driver introductions and all. I remembered that he was the guy who always gave the command to start our engines at every Dover race that I could remember. I also knew that he was a really good friend of Bobby Allison. Everybody knows what I think of B.A. - I've always called him my hero - so I knew if Melvin was a big friend of his, he certainly needed to be a good friend of mine.

"Anyhow, it must have been Jay or one of the guys there who officially introduced us and the next thing I knew, Melvin and I were sitting together by ourselves over at another table talking about what they should do with their resurfacing deal at the Dover track," continued Wallace. "As it turned out, things were pretty much up in the air at that time. My old buddy (Dale) Earnhardt had really been doing some heavy politicking in trying to get them to use asphalt again. He was pushing hard for that. Melvin was aware of what they'd done at Bristol with the concrete and he knew how much I liked that new surface. He knew that however much Dale had lobbied for the asphalt, 'ol Rusty was gonna' give him an earful of the benefits of using the concrete.

"Right there that night, Melvin and I became really great friends. He used me as a sounding board for their resurfacing of the Dover track. Then, when the Dover group bought the land outside of Nashville and started making plans for their new track there, he kept me up to date with that entire project.

"Melvin would always come to Daytona during Speed Weeks and I'd always save him a parking space for his car right out there beside my coach," Wallace continued. "I'll never forget, just a few years back, when Melvin pulled into the coach lot in Daytona and said he had something that he just had to show me. We went into my coach and he unfolded all the plans for the new Nashville track. I mean this was way before anything was released about the details of the new track. He sat there and laid the whole deal out and I'll never forget him boasting about the new track being different from anything out there.

"He said, 'Rusty, this thing is gonna' be a mile-and-a-third - state of the art - something even you'd be impressed with. Yeah, and it'll definitely be concrete, not asphalt.'

"Melvin was a really cool guy and, like I said, I was so fortunate to get to know him like I did," Wallace concluded. "He'll certainly be missed around the racing circles and it'll really be strange being at Dover for the first time this weekend without him there. Rest assured that we'll be out there racin' our tail ends off, trying to win this one for Melvin."

Even though Wallace has yet to win with his PRS-054 Miller Lite Dodge, the car has certainly shown the potential to take him to Victory Lane in Sunday's race. The chassis was last raced at Homestead during the final race of 2004 where Wallace started 10th and finished eighth. It has been the workhorse on the intermediate tracks for the last two seasons.

"We've had a lot of great runs with this car," said Wallace. "But the truth be known, the fact is that the guys have completely torn it down since Homestead last November. It's been completely rebuilt as a 2005 Dodge Charger and is virtually a brand new racecar. The rolling chassis remains the same, but the body and everything else from the ground up is all brand new."

Wallace's career record on the "Monster Mile" boasts three wins, 10 top-five finishes, 20 top-10 finishes and five pole positions (leads all active drivers) in 42 races.

This weekend's Dover schedule calls for two hours of practice on Friday beginning at 11:00 a.m., leading up to the 3:10 p.m. single round of qualifying that allocates all 43 starting spots for Sunday's race. Saturday's final "Happy Hour" practice session is scheduled to start at 11:10 a.m. Sunday's MBNA RacePoints 400 is scheduled for a 1:35 p.m. EDT start and features live coverage by FX-TV and MRN Radio.

Notes of interest: