Conversation: Rusty Wallace

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- One might beg to differ, but Rusty Wallace's victory at Martinsville Speedway last weekend was good for NASCAR. With the sport going mainstream, it's good for folks to know that there are still some veterans who can get the job done.

Wallace is one of them, as he broke a three-year losing streak with that victory. He excited not only some veteran fans but a few veteran drivers who were happy to see Wallace get back to Victory Lane.

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NASCAR.COM sent Lee Montgomery to talk with Wallace about that victory and all its ramifications. Wallace, as usual, is a terrific interview, and he always speaks his mind. His answers might not be what you expect to hear, but he doesn't pull any punches. And that's good for the sport.

Q: So how did you celebrate Sunday night? Did you and (wife) Patti go home and knock down some Miller Lites?

Rusty Wallace: Yeah, kinda we did. My mom and dad live really close to me, within five minutes, so mom was going to have us all over for dinner after the Martinsville race. She's getting dinner ready to go as the race is running. All of a sudden, she stops making dinner, and she's watching the race and gets totally wound up in it.

I end up winning the race. So when it was all done, we flew home, and mom had two or three bottles of wine there and some Miller Lite, and we just hammered down and had a big ol' time enjoying ourselves. It was all family. The kids were all there, mom and dad and myself. We didn't go anywhere.

I had several phone calls come in. People were saying, "Hey, if you want to go out tonight, I'll be up at Race Rock," or, "We'll be over here." I don't know. I guess if I was a little younger, I'd be out whooping it up, partying all night long and passing out and everything.

To be quite honest, I was so doggone happy, I was kinda tired. Just to have a great dinner and do a little bit of slight drinking, and then, shoot, at 10 o'clock, my eyes were in the back of my head, and I was out of there. I was like, "Holy smokes, this big weight's finally been lifted off my back." People can quit bugging me and talking about my age and talking about everything in the world that I know doesn't have any effect on what's going on with the car.

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It's all about getting along with your team and having the right people surrounding you and driving hard. It's not like stick-and-ball, I've always said that. It's not like stick-and-ball. It's about how much you know about the cars and about how much you understand about them and all that.

I didn't lose faith in myself, and I kept working to get all the people I needed around me rallied behind me to get the right team. I really believe I've got that right now.

Matter of fact, as we're doing this interview, we're at Talladega, and yesterday we didn't have a good qualifying run. We went from heroes to hoboes in nothing flat. But it was good, though. Now the guys are saying, "This will never happen again. We're going to go back, we're going to cut this body off, we're going to get this restrictor-plate program going, and we're not going to make you look bad like that again." They were really apologizing and taking blame, if you want to call it that.

(Crew chief) Larry (Carter) assured me that we're going to get this program right on restrictor plates for qualifying, at least. I'm out there practicing, and practice goes great. That's how restrictor-plate is. But you want to get a good qualifying run. Generally, if you qualify good, it means you've got enough horsepower to keep the car up front, coefficient of drag's good, the power's strong, you can lead a little easier.

It humbled 'em, it cycled 'em in a good way to let 'em know they're going to go back and get the thing right.

Q: Sounds like the emotion after last Sunday was some relief. Was that the overwhelming emotion or was there just celebration? What was it?

Wallace: It was a lot of celebration. It was relief. It wasn't just, "Hey, we just won. That's great. Let's get out of here, let's go home. That was great." This was like a big period after a 40-mile sentence. Finally, it's done.

A lot of things happened. First of all, we won. Second of all, we moved into the top 10. Third of all, the team got on the winner's circle. And fourth of all, it stopped all the questions, "When are you going to win? When are you going to win? Are you too old? Are you washed up? Are you done?"

I had every 47-year-old guy in the world come by me: Dale Jarrett, Bill Elliott.. Bill Elliott met me in here and gave me a big ol' bear hug. He's squeezing me, "I knew it. (Darn it,) it's great." Ricky Rudd, he was flipping out. He was loving it. Those guys were just getting tired, you know, getting tired of getting the jabs.

	Wallace: "I think there's definitely more wins. I feel real confident there'll be more wins." Credit: Autostock

We came from an era where it was a lot of country-and-western, it was a lot of rock-n-roll, it was a lot of different things, the people who helped build this sport, the fans sitting in the grandstands who watched it. All of a sudden, the new age started, and it completely alienated all the country-and-western people and all the people who had been sitting in the grandstands forever. They feel like they're sitting there all by themselves, going, "What's going on here?"

If it's not hip-hop and new this and new that -- I honestly believe it's starting to turn. I'm telling you what, oh my God, the outpouring of fans after I won that race has been unbelievable. It's a miraculous feeling. I've told everybody around me, "You know, I love the fans." And I've had it before when I've got 'em so upset they wanted to kill me. I don't want to go through that again right now. They know that I appreciate them pulling for me a whole lot.

I told Patti a couple nights ago, "You know what? This is great right now. Do me a favor. Don't let me screw this up. If I start to be a jerk, whack me." So we unloaded the other day, her and I came down for a function, and I get out there. Enterprise Rent-A-Car piled all kind of cars and pictures and junk in the rental for me to sign. I'm going, "This is a bunch of crap." She grabbed me by the neck and shook me. She said, "Just sign the stuff." I said, "OK." "Shut up and sign the stuff." I said, "All right."

I said, "I don't mind signing autographs. Honey, I love it." But when they start piling your rental car full of it before you even get to the track, that's a little nuts, isn't it?

But, nah, I'm real happy. It was a small racetrack, but it was a real, real big win because of the circumstances. It was very dramatic that day. Whether it's a big track or a small track, when you look up and there's not one empty seat anywhere, and when the race is over, the people are still standing there, that was pretty strong. I really appreciated it. And I won't forget it for along time. I've won 55 now. Definitely ranks up there as the best or one of the best.

Q: I've got to tell you. One of my favorite stories as a sports writer is seeing guys come back from some whatever kind of adversity. You clearly have done that. Was there ever any moment then or since where you were like, "Well, (forget) you. I won't," to all the people who said you were washed up? Did that emotion ever come out?

Wallace: You know, that never did. I promise it never did. Things have changed so much. Hell, they almost had me convinced that I couldn't win. I'm like, "You know, my body doesn't feel that." I'm looking in the mirror and I'm going, "No, man, I'm not going for that. It's just that the frickin' thing is pushing the front end or I had a bad pit stop. It's just that simple. You've just got to get the thing handling right and get the pit stops right and get everything right, and that's it.

I looked up last week, it was Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin and Rusty Wallace hauling (butt,) leading the race. I go, "Well, this is something. Three 47-year-old guys bumper-to-bumper." It doesn't make a difference where it's at.

No, I never had any vindictive feel at all like that. I didn't. I swear I didn't. After awhile, you feel like you're treading water. Then finally you get your people right, and now you feel like you're one of the boys again, you know? You feel like you're in the club.

Q: So what's next now that you've won? Is a championship within reach for you now?

Wallace: Well, how can it not be, you know? Every year I go, I'm like, "I'm going to win the championship." I've had people, where I'm standing side-by-side with Ryan Newman, and they look at Ryan and say, "Boy, you're going for the championship now, aren't you?" They're not even considering the 2 car.

But I'd probably be the same way because he's won eight and we didn't won nothing. I was like, "Hey, OK." But that's not the way. It bothered me a little bit. I'm like, "We'll get it right. We'll get the people right." Now, we're eight, we've won, and we've been qualifying really, really good almost every week -- discounting this joint (Talladega) -- but every week we've been solid.

I think there's definitely more wins. I feel real confident there'll be more wins. I've got all the confidence in the world that I can win that championship just as good as anybody else out there. We've got the resources, we've got the money, we've got the great sponsors, we've got me -- which I feel like I'm on top of my game -- the pit crew's good. There's no reason we can't do that.

I could understand last year. But now, I don't understand why people wouldn't say, "That 2 car can win that championship."

Q: Winning also had to be a big boost for Larry. He knew he could win before, but now he can say, "I have won." How much better can he get?

Wallace: Well, he can get a lot better. Here's another guy who, when we hired him, they're all like, "What in the world did you do that for?" A lot of guys did say that. I was definitely looking for a crew chef who had the wow effect. When we hired him, they go, "Oh, wow, that's the right guy."

	Credit: Autostock

(Penske Racing general manager) John Erickson kept saying, "We don't need that. We need the guy who's going to work with you." I said, "What are my sponsor's going to think? 'What in the world did you do? What'd you do that for? I really think this is a good guy for you?'" John's the one who found him. It wasn't me. John Erickson found him. He said, "OK, I'm going to set it up. I want him to come in, and you talk to him."

It was in my office, and here comes Larry. He didn't say one word, and I said, "That's my guy." Didn't say one word. He had the presence. He wasn't four-foot tall, a little squeaky, skinny kid. I needed a frickin' monster to come in and say, "Hey, I'm going to run this show." I needed a Buddy Parrott back. That's what I personally needed.

Q: And Larry's been that way so far?

Wallace: Yeah. All the guys want to work for him. They don't give him any lip, they work hard, and they're supporting the hell out of me. They've got welders and crap. They're not talking anything about me cutting the whole damn mirror out of the car, all the brackets (at Talladega). They're like, "Hey, whatever you want. We don't care." Whatever it takes."

Larry's like, "OK, boys, get this done. Hey, boys, clean this up. Hey, knock that off. Let's go. Come on. I want you suckers in bed at seven o'clock. Don't give me no lip." He's just knocking it out. They love him. Todd Parrott (Elliott Sadler's crew chief and Buddy Parrott's son) came over to me. He said, "Reminds you of the old man, don't he?" I said, "Yeah."

Q: Does he tell you to go to bed at seven o'clock at night?

Wallace: No. No, he doesn't. I'm using that as an example. The guys respect him like that.

Q: And you clearly respect him, too, as far as setups and the way things are run in the pits and stuff.

Wallace: Yeah, I do. I do. The thing I look back on, one of my best friends is Billy Wilburn. We went for two years, and we just couldn't click. He's a great guy, a wonderful guy. He still works for our organization. We golf and hang out together. But we just couldn't jell together. I told him, "Hey, you and I are best friends, but we just can't no longer like this." He said, "OK, I got it."

I even tried to bring him back to change tires for me. He tried it, and he was fast as lightning, but he said, "You know, I'm out of the rhythm of this thing. Find another guy." So we found another guy and are working good. But he's been great through the whole thing.

Every time I'm patting ol' Larry on the back and telling him how great he is, I don't want to be throwing stones at Billy, either, because Billy's a great friend of mine.

Hey, it's all people. You've got to get 'em to mesh.

Q: We've talked about the pit crew and the difficulties you had earlier this year. Are you confident that what you've got now is going to be fine the rest of the year?

Wallace: I am right now. I don't see any train wrecks around the corner. I'm happy with everybody. All the guys, a lot of them, it was their first win. I don't see any problems right now. As long as those guys and myself don't get too big for our britches and we understand this is a tough deal and a lot of them don't think they're more valuable than they were and they want to go jump around to different teams -- it'd be a bad mistake if they tried that -- if everybody stays put and everybody stays happy and everybody stays pulling the car in one direction, we can pull it across Victory Lane.

Q: Did you find time to play golf last week?

Wallace: Yeah, I did. Where'd I play golf last week? I forgot where I played. Played somewhere. I was going to go today. But I got in the car, I was going to go at two o'clock today, and I got to thinking, "You know, I've got to make sure this mirror's right," and I had some radio stuff I needed to and I had some interviews I wanted to do, and I felt that tenseness coming on me. "Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry." I don't like that feeling. (Forget) it. I'm not playing golf today. I didn't like that feel. I felt like I was working to have fun. I didn't want to work to have fun.

Q: How long have you been playing golf? And how did you get interested in that? And how good are you?

Wallace: Oh, I'm not worth a (crap.) I'm about an 18-handicap. My best score was about an 84 two weeks ago out in Arizona. Generally, I'm around a 90.

I started playing a couple years ago when NASCAR said that practice is over at noon on Saturdays. When it was over at noon on Saturdays instead of running after the Grand National race and have Happy Hour, that left us all day Saturday with nothing to do.

I said, "Hell, let's do something." So we started golfing and fell in love with it.

Q: Is that relaxing to go out there? Are we seeing a more mellow Rusty Wallace these days?

Wallace: Nah, no more mellow. It just gives me a chance to get out of the rat race. I'm not good at having a clock on me all the time, you know? Be here at 8:31, practice starts at 11:20, gets over at 3:05. Why can't it be 11 and 3? Why does it have to be 11:20 and 3:05?

Then do this, and then do that. When I get on the golf course, it's like the world completely stops. All I see is lush, beautiful greens. "Mr. Wallace, would like to have a glass of water or a Coke?" instead of, "Hurry up! Come here! Do this!" It just feels good to get out there and relax.

I don't get competitive on the course much. If I hit a golf ball in the woods, I don't go in the woods and dig through the rattlesnakes to find the son of a (gun.) I just say, "Goodbye, golf ball." I just get another one out and go." Sometime I keep hitting them until I get the shot I want, and then I hit that one. I'm not into all that.