RUSTY
WALLACE RECALLS & RATES PAST EDITIONS OF
NASCAR NEXTEL ALL-STAR CHALLENGE RACE
-1989 Race Winner Has Participated In 17 Of The 19 Events Held To Date-
CONCORD,
N.C. (May 18, 2004) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace has participated
in 17 of the 19 editions of the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge race
entering this weekend’s 20th annual event at Lowe’s Motor
Speedway.
Wallace
was a member of an exclusive expert panel that recently rated the top
moments in the history of the race, formerly known as The Winston until
this season. Wallace ranked his top five editions in the following reverse
order, counting down from fifth to first (brief synopsis of the event
followed by Wallace’s comments):
(TIE) 5th -- 2000: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rose from the shadows with a
late charge from mid-pack to win the race in his rookie season aboard
the No. 8 owned by his father.
“This is really a special night for me,” the young Earnhardt
said. “I’ll never forget tonight and I’ll never forget
how proud I am of the team. You get up there on stage with your dad
and a lot of realizations come into play and come into mind, a lot of
flashbacks of old times.”
(see comments below)
(TIE) 5th -- 2002: Rookie Ryan Newman earned the final starting spot
in the 27-car field and held off a late charge from Dale Earnhardt Jr.
to claim the $794,326 first-place prize.
“That was just good, hard racing,” Newman said about his battle
with Earnhardt Jr. “He had four tires that were fresher than mine,
and that makes a big difference. He caught me with about two laps go,
cut underneath me a couple of times but couldn’t complete the pass.
We had to work hard for everything tonight.”
COMMENT:
“Cool deal to see Dale Jr. win with his dad right there - always
be a special night for the sport. Ryan’s night was extremely impressive
in that he accomplished virtually everything he possibly could there
that night - winning the heat, advancing to the feature, starting from
dead last and winning the thing. You had to say, ‘wow,’ after
that one. He’d already proved that he was a great qualifier and
you knew that it would only be a matter of time before he broke through
and won points-paying races. I lump those two races together because
really, it was those two guys’ coming out parties. It was probably
the very start of all that young guns stuff they’ve talked about
the last few years.”
4th -- 1992: With the race run at night under the lights for the first
time, Davey Allison won by a few feet as he and Kyle Petty crashed their
way to the checkered flag, with Allison spending the night in the hospital
with a concussion.
“The wreck at the end was just as much my fault as it was his,”
Petty said. “We were leaning on each other. I tried to chop him
off, but if I had cut across in front of him, I would have ended up
in the infield. At the end, he cut on me as I would have on him. We
clipped when we came across the line.”
Dale Earnhardt
was also involved in the wild racing, which led to the last-lap crash.
“I can’t wait until next year,” Earnhardt said. “I
turned Kyle down where he was dragging and sparking. He went into the
corner and tried to take what was his. That’s all there was to
it-good, hard racing. That’s what it’s all about. It was the
last lap.”
COMMENT:
“That was one where the finish should be on the highlight reels
forever. Crashing sideways into the wall there at the checkers - we
were all glad that Davey wasn’t hurt and it was a special memory
personally about him. He’s one of the guys that I’d jokingly
told about the way I’d like to be remembered in winning them -
flipping upside down and skidding on the roof sideways across the finish
line with sparks flying and the thing ablazin’ with the crowd going
ape crap. Well, he pretty damned near did just that there on that night.”
3rd -- 1985: Darrell Waltrip came from three seconds behind to earn
the $200,000 victory despite exploding an engine as he crossed the finish
line.
“I don’t know if anybody knew it or not, the motor absolutely
exploded when we took the checkered flag,” Waltrip said. “The
boys told me all along not to run it any harder than I had to because
it wasn’t going to run long.”
COMMENT:
“So cool and we’ll never know just what they really had under
the hood that day, will we? Probably something Junior’s guys built
that had a gazillion horsepower and didn’t have a prayer of being
close to legal. But, it really didn’t matter, did it? They got
the 200 grand, they got the big trophy and old D.W. got to celebrate
in Victory Lane. It had everybody talking for weeks after that one and
they are still wondering to this day about what that car had for an
engine.”
2nd -- 1987: Back in Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt posted a controversial
victory after bumping incidents with Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine.
The contact with Elliott sent Earnhardt through the infield grass without
losing the lead. Tempers flared after the race.
“Ernie (Elliott) walked right up to me and said, ‘That’s
really chicken s***,” said Earnhardt’s car owner Richard Childress.
“I told him if he wanted to keep his face looking the way it did
now, he better get the hell out of my pit stall.”
Bill Elliott was less pleased. “A lot of things were going on when
the green flag dropped,” Elliott said of a restart with a few laps
remaining. “Earnhardt cut me off there, and he cut me off again.
Then he ends up almost running me into the wall. That ended up knocking
the fender in and cutting the tire down. He hit me several times. If
a man has to run over you to beat you, it’s time for this stuff
to stop. What he did wasn’t right. When a man pulls over and lets
you by and then tries to run you into the wall, I’d say that was
done deliberately. I’ve been beat on at Watkins Glen, Talladega
and here by one car, Earnhardt’s. If somebody doesn’t do something
about this, we’re coming back next week and we’ll see what
happens.”
“This whole deal is between me and Bill, and it has nothing to
do with our teams,” Earnhardt said. “We knocked each other
around, but it’s all over now as far as I am concerned. But if
Bill still wants to do something about it, then I’ll stand flat-footed
with him any day.”
COMMENT:
“That’s about the nearest you could get to good old grassroots
racing. The only thing better would have been if it were at night. Earnhardt
was like a man possessed and he drove like an absolute madman. He was
always aggressive, even in the points-paying races, but the fact that
Humpy promoted this thing as a ‘no-holds-barred, winner-take-all’
shootout I think only worked to make Dale even more on the gas. He knew
he could get away with just about anything in that race - and he did.
When he went through the infield grass like that and just kept going
- that was absolutely amazing - one of the best pieces of driving I
have ever seen. I’m convinced that few drivers could have pulled
that off. They’d wound up either spinning the thing out and plowing
up all of Humpy’s grass or veering straight back across the track
and crashing big time into the outside wall. That race really helped
take Dale on up some notches when it came to his image of being the
man in black and all. The crowd went crazy, that’s for sure.”
1st -- 1989: Rusty Wallace nudged leader Darrell Waltrip as the pair
raced to the white flag, sending Waltrip spinning and Wallace to victory
lane.
“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. 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.”
COMMENT:
“Seriously, did you expect me to pick anything else? It was the
turning point of my career - and Darrell’s, too. 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. Man, it really did fireworks for my career. I was still a young
guy on the way up. I’d finished second to (Bill) Elliott in the
points in ’88 and hadn’t really stirred up any big buzz until
that day. 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 never
forget 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 even made a song about that day. That whole
season was so special for me and that team. We won the big all-star
race at Charlotte and went on to win the championship that same year.
Like I said, that day and that race was a very big part of the sport’s
history I think. I know how huge it was as far as the big picture goes
for me; that’s for sure.”
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 20th annual “All-Star” race - ran in
segments of 40, 30 and 20 laps -- carries live coverage by FX-TV and
PRN Radio beginning at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
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