WALLACE AND MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE READY FOR MARTINSVILLE

-Look To End Victory Drought That Dates Back To 1996 Season-

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 9, 2001)

Who would have ever thought that 10 races would go by since Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace visited Victory Lane at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway?

"I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that happening in my wildest dreams, but that’s what the record book says," said Wallace, the leading active driver on the paper clip-shaped Henry County, Va., short track with six career wins, 15 top-five finishes and 20 top-10 finishes in 35 races. "The bottom line is that the record book says that we haven’t won at Martinsville since ’96, but the fact is that we should have won about half of those races since then.

"We can’t go back and run all those races again, they’re now all missed opportunities," said Wallace. "But what we can do is learn from all of that and go back with the best preparation we can and put the big numbers on the board again.

"That’s why we spent last Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 1-2) of last week testing at Martinsville. The last few races there we’ve had some problems with brakes, shocks, not choosing the right springs. The place has been really good to us in the past and we’re really looking to regain our spot at the top of the competition there.

"One of the biggest things we’ll face this time that’s different from every other time we’ve raced there concerns the new pedestrian tunnel down in the fourth turn. It’s a great new addition for the track and I was happy that Clay (Campbell, track president) let me do the official ribbon cutting for it last week. But the bottom line is that it’s added a little ripple and slick spot there that we haven’t had to consider before. That alone probably made the testing worthwhile I think. Let’s put it this way, it was enough that we wound up changing our shock package around a little because of it."

Wallace is certainly correct in his claim that his victory total at Martinsville could certainly be greater. I f there’s ever been a "woulda-coulda-shoulda" track for any driver, there’s no better example of such than the recent years for Wallace at Martinsville Speedway.

Some of the scenarios that unfolded in Martinsville for Rusty since his last win there on April 21,1996:

1) The fall race of 1997. "We were leading on a restart after a caution with only about 15 laps to go," Wallace recalled. "They (NASCAR officials) said I jumped the start and they black-flagged me for a stop-and-go penalty. There I was leading the thing and about to win and they black flag me. We went from leading and winning it to being the last car on the lead lap (finished 15th)...hero to a hobo just like that. Then, after the race I said some things they didn’t like on the radio broadcast and they slapped me with a fine. " Wallace paid off the fine in pennies the next week at Charlotte.
2) In the fall race of 1998, only four laps into the event, a crash up front stacked the cars up. Wallace got into the back of Mike Skinner and punctured his radiator. He lost 18 laps making repairs. He returned to the race and turned laps continuously 15/100ths of a second faster than the leaders and made up four laps during the remainder of the race.
3) In the spring race of 1999, Wallace led the most laps (six times for total of 177 laps) and led as late as with only 47 laps remaining before worn tires relegated him to a seventh-place finish.
4) In the fall race of 1999, Wallace started 20th and due to flat tires and pitting out of sequence, he made up a total of four laps en route to a fourth-place finish.
5) In the spring race last season, Wallace started on the pole and led 232 of the first 253 laps before popping a right front tire as he led the field into turn one. He was able to head straight down pit road without making any contact. He lost two laps and fell to 32nd. Turning laps three-quarters of a second faster than the leaders, he passed leader Dale Earnhardt Sr. on lap 273 to get one of the laps back. When Earnhardt pitted on lap 299, Wallace was back in the lead lap. He was back in the lead on lap 326. But a series of late-race cautions saw Mark Martin stay out and use track position to win, while Wallace was caught in traffic after pitting for tires and could only get back up to 10th when the laps ran out.