WALLACE AND MILLER LITE TEAM PENSKE HOPE FOR PHOENIX SURGE

-Goal Of Top-Five Points Finish Can Be Aided With Strong Performance In Sunday's Race-

PHOENIX (Oct. 23)

Miller Lite Team Penske driver Rusty Wallace, currently seventh in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings, feels that it is realistic to get up as far as third in the final standings. He is
looking for a strong run in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway to propel him further in that direction.

"We can pretty easily get to the top three if we have a good rest of the season," said Wallace who holds the PIR qualifying record of 134.178 mph (26.830 seconds) set in qualifying for last year's race. "We're seventh in points and only 139 out of third going into this weekend and a good run at Phoenix can really launch us up there.

"It seems like Phoenix has always been a great race for us to make up ground as far as the points go and we're looking for big things there this time around," said Wallace, whose PIR career record boasts one win, six top-five finishes and three pole poles in 13 races. "It seems like Phoenix has always been good to us when we needed it most. I just love racing there.

"We didn't test at Phoenix this time around and will have to rely on Ryan's notes to start off from," Wallace said of Penske teammate Ryan Newman, whose team did test on the 1.0-mile track. "Unlike a lot of tracks where the new Goodyears have given us fits, Phoenix is a lot like Richmond and I think we'll be able to adapt pretty fast there."

There is definitely a correlation between Wallace's Phoenix performances and his position in the final Winston Cup points standings.

The last year that Wallace finished in the top five in points was 1998 when he finished fourth. He won the Phoenix race that season. As a matter of fact, it was the only win he posted that year. Wallace readily recalls the importance of that win.

"The 1998 season was one of the most consistent years of my entire career," said Wallace. "We led the points for quite a few races and had tons of seconds, thirds.top-fives (15 top-five finishes and 21 top-10 finishes), but what we really lacked were the race wins. We got down to only a couple of races left (four races) and really needed a win to keep our streak going. We dominated the thing all day long and won it in the rain. It certainly helped us in the points, but even more important was keeping that streak alive."

The "streak" to which Wallace refers is his continuous winning seasons. His Phoenix win made it 13 consecutive seasons that Wallace had won at least one race. That streak is now the longest active winning streak in the sport and stands at 16 consecutive seasons.

Wallace finished fifth in the points standings during the 1995 season and a fourth-place Phoenix finish helped bolster that cause.

"I remember 1995 as special because it was Robin's (Pemberton) first year as our crew chief," said Wallace. "We won two races that year and really came on strong during the final half of the season. We had something like 10 straight top-five finishes (actually nine in the final 11 races) and finished fifth in the points. That Phoenix race was key in the total effort, that's for sure."

The Phoenix races have also offered Wallace a much-needed boost even when the chips were down. During the 1997 season, Wallace encountered an unbelievable 11 DNFs yet miraculously finished ninth in the points that year.

"We blew more motors that season and had so many DNFs that we felt like Houdini with our finish in the points," Wallace recalled. "What we did was almost impossible. But it must not have been impossible because we did it. We dominated the Phoenix race until (Dale) Jarrett came out of nowhere to beat us. We finished second in that race and it pretty much sealed the deal for us to finish in the top 10 in the points that year."

In last year's Checker Auto Parts 500, Wallace started from the pole and led five times for 86 laps en route to a fourth-place finish.

This weekend's schedule calls for practice on Friday from 10:25 a.m. until 12:20 p.m. preceding the 1:30 p.m. single qualifying session that allocates all 43 starting spots for Sunday's race. Saturday's activity includes 45-minute practice sessions before and after a 200-mile NASCAR Grand National Series event. Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 (500 kilometers, 312 laps) has a 12:30 p.m. MST starting time and features live coverage by NBC-TV and MRN Radio.