Advance Auto Parts 500 - Rusty Wallace Notes

WALLACE LOOKS TO KEEP CHASE MOMENTUM GOING AT MARTINSVILLE
-Defending Advance Auto Parts 500 Champions "Racing Smart," Says Crew Chief Larry Carter-

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 5, 2005) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace took exception to a major newspaper reporter's line of questioning after qualifying third at Bristol last Friday. The subject wasn't last weekend's Food City 500, but rather Wallace's quest to remain in the top 10 in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings and be a participant in this year's "Chase For The Championship."

"I absolutely do (see myself qualifying for The Chase)," Wallace said after being told by the writer that he was not expected to be in the mix for this year's championship during his final "Last Call" season as a driver. "I understand why they think that based on last year's points and what happened, but I know what happened last year and how our car is running this year. I expect myself to be in the top five, top eight at least. I feel that good about our cars. That's a disturbing statement you just said, but hopefully we can change some people's minds. A lot of people have a lot of opinions."

Another major team player that took offense to that line of questioning is crew chief Larry Carter.

"I don't know who said that to Rusty and who was asking the questions, but after reading his response, I know it'll really keep him fired up," offered Carter on Monday, as his team prepared for Tuesday's test at Texas Motor Speedway and this weekend's Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway. "Rusty drove his guts out there at Bristol on Sunday and I hope that writer was watching closely. Stuff like that keeps us all fired up.

"It very well could have been a situation of not what the writer said, but the way they said it," Carter continued. "Regardless, the bottom line is that Rusty's shown so much determination to stay right there in the thick of things this season and it's really motivated the entire team to stay on top of their game.

"We're headed back to Martinsville where we won this race a year ago," said Carter, enjoying his second season as leader of Wallace's Miller Lite Dodge team. "We're bringing the exact same car (PRS-070) that we won the race with last season and look to be there up front again on Sunday."

While it may appear to be the same driver, same car and same crew that Carter is returning to Martinsville with this weekend, he contends that is not entirely the case.

"It may look like everything's the same from the outside, but if you're part of this bunch (a team member), working and living with 'em week in and week out, you can feel that there's a big difference," Carter contends. "If you're not an insider, you really have to scratch the surface to see just what I mean.

"I really feel that we have our total act together this season," continued Carter. "Rusty's been up on the wheel all year long, the pit stops have been good and we've been taking great cars and engines to the track each and every week.

"Every time out this year, we've been racing smart. We've gotten all we could out of each race so far. When we've had problems, we've been able to regroup immediately and maximize what we have left for the day.

"I can't help but think back of what we did at Daytona - bringing out the backup car and getting a top-10 finish out of it," Carter said. Or what we did at Las Vegas - unplugging that shock and getting a 12th (-place finish) instead of a 22nd. We dominated at Bristol during the first half of the race and, even when we had the tire problem and went two laps down, we kept coming back. Even after getting held two laps on pit road, we still came back and got a 13th-place finish out of it.

"You might say that we have good damage control or are doing a good job minimizing the fallout this year," added Carter, "but I like to think of it as maximizing the opportunity. Whatever you want to call it, I think we're a top-10 team week in and week out and people shouldn't be surprised to see us up there at the end of the year."

The statistics certainly back Carter's theory. After five races had been completed last season, Wallace was 23rd in the point standings. Entering this weekend's return to Martinsville, he is tied for eighth. Last year at this time, his average finish was 22.0. This year he has a 14.4 average finish in the first five races. Going into the sixth race last season, Wallace had yet to lead a single lap. He has led almost nine percent of all total laps for the 2005 campaign. He is among the five drivers who have ranked in the top 10 in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings after every race this season.

"One thing is sure and that's Martinsville offers us the perfect opportunity to make believers out of a lot of people," Carter concluded.

Carter is certainly correct about that. After all, Wallace is the active statistical leader at the .526-mile track with seven wins, 17 top-five finishes and 24 top-10 finishes in 42 races. He has led 3,585 laps, which ranks him third on the all-time list (behind only Cale Yarborough's 3,851 and Darrell Waltrip's 3,616) and almost twice as many laps as any other active driver.

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A brief recap of last year's Advance Auto Parts 500, won by Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace and ending a 105-race winless streak, follows. Wallace's victory marked the first Dodge win at Martinsville since Dave Marcis scored his career-first (then named) NASCAR Grand National victory in a Dodge there in September 1975:

Wallace started the April Martinsville race from the 17th starting spot. He launched a patient march up through the field and was in the top 10 at Lap 70. He was up to third 100 laps later.

Perhaps the strangest incident of the year occurred during a yellow flag with less than 100 laps remaining when a hole developed in the Turn 3 concrete. A huge piece chunked out of the track and caused considerable damage to the front end of Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet. NASCAR officials were forced to red flag the race to address the situation by placing an epoxy mixture in the hole.

An hour and 17 minutes passed before the cement had dried and the action on the track resumed. Wallace was fourth on the Lap 302 restart and up to third when the 10th yellow flag of the race flew with 75 laps remaining. After the restart, he disposed of teammate Ryan Newman for the second spot on Lap 434 and wrestled the lead away from Jimmie Johnson on Lap 449. Wallace built up a 3.5-second lead before a three-car crash bunched up the field again on Lap 456. But when the green flag flew for the final time with 38 laps to go, Wallace took off. Bobby Labonte made a late race charge to challenge Wallace, but the 1989 champ wouldn't allow this win to slip through his grasp. At the checkers, it was Wallace taking a popular seventh career Martinsville win by four car lengths over Labonte.

"It's been so long, and we've been so close," Wallace said immediately after winning last year's race. "The fans have been behind me for so long, and this one is for them. We finally got this Miller Lite Dodge in Victory Lane like it deserves to be. We've been running great. I want to thank Larry Carter (crew chief) and my entire Miller Lite racing team. The engine was good. The brakes worked good. I had a great time. I'm going to go home and have a cold Miller Lite and think about it. That's pretty cool."

"It has been a tradition with our team to name our cars after their first win," Wallace said of his "PRS-070" Dodge. "Usually we name the cars immediately after the race, but we hadn't won in so long that we wanted to come up with a really special name for this car. We'd been trying to get our friends at Bell Helicopter Textron to name one of their new models 'The Predator' for some time now. It was really my chief pilot, Bill Brooks' idea. He said that the predator was the ultimate hunter and it strikes like nothing else. He thought that would be a cool name that the fans would love. This was a brand new car that won right out of the box. The car never touched a racetrack until we got it to Martinsville. That's quite impressive and that's the story behind the name we gave the car."

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Wallace started last fall's Martinsville race on the outside pole and was running second with six laps remaining. But a run-in with teammate Ryan Newman cleared the way for a Jimmie Johnson win and relegated Wallace to the 10th finishing position.

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Friday's 3:10 p.m. qualifying session will determine the starting field for Sunday's Advance Auto Parts 500. This being a "non-impound" race, unlike last weekend at Bristol, the NEXTEL Cup teams have two 45-minute practices on Saturday, with the final session beginning at 11:10 a.m. Sunday's Advance Auto Parts 500 (500 laps, 263 miles) has a 1:20 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.

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Notes of interest: