Rusty Wallace: The Decision To Win

During a press conference this morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Rusty Wallace unveiled his new book entitled, "Rusty Wallace: The Decision To Win."

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus -- "I lost the championship by 12 points to (Bill) Elliott in '88, which was a real disappointing deal and when it was all said and done, I realized how when you work that hard all year long and you lose the championship by that little...and that year we won six races and had a lot of poles and everything was great...it just came to mind that you've got to lead the most laps and do this and do that. But I was watching TV one night and this lady tennis player got on there and she said, 'I really struggled with my life and I sat down and finally made the decision to win.' And the decision to win was a whole lot different than saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna go out there and do our best job and we're gonna try to win and all that. The decision to win back in '89 was a lot of things. First of all, I said, 'Guys, we've gotta do everything we possibly can. If we've gotta work until 9 o'clock to get this special qualifying motor in, we've gotta do it. If I run one week and this is the best motor and we want that motor for next week, I need you working 24 hours around the clock to rebuild it and get it to me.' In '89 that happened. I made the decision to win. I sacrificed my family life. I was always on the road. I didn't see the kids much at all. Barry Dodson, all the guys, were grinding, grinding, grinding and the decision to win was a way different deal than saying I'm just gonna try to do it or do it. We sacrificed a ton of things that nowadays you just can't afford to sacrifice, but we did a lot of sacrificing and we won the thing. And after I won that title, that decision to win always stuck in my head about how much we sacrificed and gave up to go for that championship. And no matter how hard I try right now, it's different nowadays. You guys have to admit this sport has gotten busy, it's different, there are a lot of people and to do what we did back then is unexpected nowadays, although we try to do that. Bob (Zeller) did a hell of a job going all through the records. This book has been going on for eight months and there are some funny pictures and some current pictures and some stories. Hopefully, there will be a lot of fans that can see the inside of what's going on. Unfortunately, it's only a small percentage of what's really happened, but it's some of the highlighting moments and some of the neat pictures and stuff. I think the photography is great and it's a good deal. Everything in it is about as accurate as it can be. The thing is I forgot a lot of the stuff I accomplished. Bob would ask, "Do you remember when you got in the big argument with A.J. Foyt in College Station and he almost knocked you over the pit wall?" No, I don't remember that one. I'll never forget I went down to College Station, Texas in 1979 when I was going for the USAC championship and I was the young kid on the block and I rolled into town and they said, 'Hey Rusty, you think you can beat A.J. Foyt at his home track?' And I said, 'Hell, I don't know why I can't, I've beaten him all year long.' Let me tell you, that was the wrong thing to say in Texas, but I did do that (laughing). The book's got a lot of stuff in it and it's exciting."

WHAT WAS IT LIKE RELIVING A LOT OF THIS STUFF? "It's amazing because I can't believe how much I've dropped. There's so much stuff I've done and you forget a lot of these things, but they're pretty hysterical when you look back at 'em. Before I came Winston Cup racing in '83 I had just finished winning about 215 short track races, so I won over 200 of those ASA races and All-Pro races and short track races and everything and then you come on to Winston Cup and I got my doors blown off for two years. I didn't know if I could drive anymore, I couldn't believe it. I used to confide in Neil Bonnett, 'What do you think Neil? You've races with me, why can't I drive these cars?' He said, 'Don't lose confidence in yourself. It's the equipment, you've gotta work on the equipment and you've gotta understand it.' I'll never forget Neil. He had me on the top of the truck at Daytona Beach just preaching to me and that's a pretty cool deal. To sit back right now, I know the competition's tough, but to sit here and say I've got a championship, a rookie of the year, two driver of the year titles, an IROC championship and 49 wins, it makes me really feel good that I've at least accomplished that much. I look back and it's a lot and everyone knows it's harder to do it now. This year I've got one win and four poles and I'm wishing I had a whole lot more wins. It's a tough deal and we've got two races left, so maybe we will we'll see."

YOUR BUDGET THAT CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR WASN'T THAT MUCH COMPARED TO TODAY, RIGHT? "We won the championship on $500,000 that year. That's all Kodiak had to give Raymond Beadle and Raymond Beadle ran the thing out of his pocket. Unfortunately, in 1990 he had some major financial trouble and had to get out of the sport, so he sacrificed a lot. Raymond was the type of guy that everytime you needed something he'd say no problem. We could get it, but then we had to figure out how to pay for it because Raymond would not stop saying no problem."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHANGES THIS SPORT HAS GONE THROUGH SINCE 1980, ESPECIALLY WITH THE NEW TV DEAL? "It is unbelievable and it just finally feels great that we're in this sport where I always thought we deserved to be. Yesterday at the driver's meeting with everybody he told all the drivers that we're finally on an equal playing field with the NFL and the NBA and I never thought I'd see ESPN and TNN out of this sport, but I guess they were all at the bargaining table and didn't step up. That's unreal to think that it's just two networks right now. He (Helton) said to the owners that you're gonna see $100 million of brand new money that you've never seen before, so that was pretty staggering."