Credit: Autostock

Rusty: I'm not ready to say farewell just yet

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Rusty Wallace said he will race in Nextel Cup for "at least a couple more years," denying reports that he will retire after the 2005 season.

The 21-year veteran of the sport turned 48 last Saturday, but Wallace said he has some good years ahead of him.

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"Right now I'm in the car," Wallace said on a conference call. "I'm driving the No. 2 car for at least a couple more years. Our stable of drivers is safe right now."

Several media outlets have reported that a farewell tour for Wallace of some sort is planned for next season and that an announcement is coming within a couple of weeks. But Wallace denied that, too.

"Right now, my mind is 100 percent on racing," Wallace said. "If I do make that call, one of these days, you guys will be the first to know because I want to celebrate it in a proper way and have a good time. Right now, I'm not prepared to talk about retirement."

Rusty Wallace

But Wallace spent a lot of time talking about it Tuesday after reporters pressed him for an answer.

Wallace has 55 career victories and won the 1989 NASCAR championship. He has been racing full-time since 1984 and has spent the last 14 years with Roger Penske. This season, Wallace started his own Busch Series team with an eye toward the future.

But he's not ready to give up on the present. A winner earlier this year at Martinsville Speedway, the optimistic Wallace said he thought he would be among the top 10 in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Wallace, though, is 18th in points as the series heads to Michigan International Speedway for this weekend's GFS Marketplace 400. Wallace will also drive his No. 66 Busch car this weekend.

"This retirement thing from racing is going around in my head all the time," Wallace said. "I guess the toughest thing I'll have to give up is the pure enjoyment of racing. I love racing, and I still love racing. I feel like I'm at the top of my game right now. You wouldn't know it from the poor finishes we have because of mechanical problems, but the performance of the car has been good.

Credit: Autostock

"What will happen, I'll have to weigh what's going on. My kids are growing up. Steven is racing right now. I've got the car business I'm heavily involved in. We're building a new state-of-the-art Penske race shop. I want to be more involved with that."

"My main goal right now is to make hay out of every single year I can, but I don't have all the answers about the retirement thing. It'll be something I'll talk to (Roger) Penske, my wife, (co-owner) Don Miller, and we'll have big discussions about it.

"I don't plan on quitting right now. I'll go for another couple of years, but I'm not guaranteeing anything after that. That 38-race schedule will wear a person down. There's a lot of life out there rather than living in a motorhome every weekend at a racetrack."

Rusty Wallace and Larry Carter Credit: Autostock

Some reports have indicated that Jamie McMurray would take over for Wallace when he retire, but Wallace denied that, too. "A lot of these things with McMurray got started because he's driving my Busch car," Wallace said. "Everybody just put two and two together and came up with 12. A lot of rumors got started like that just because Jamie is driving my car. They think I'm going to retire right now and stuff like that. There's no truth to that."

Wallace said McMurray's car owners, Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, are friends of his and he wouldn't want to damage that personal relationship.

Credit: Autostock

"I'm honored enough that Chip was able to let Jamie drive my Busch car," Wallace said. "No way would I go back down the road and try to steal Jamie from Chip and Felix, and that's just the way it is."

Ganassi exercised an option on McMurray's contract for 2005, and Wallace said he might be interested in McMurray after he is free of his obligations, but until then, McMurray is off-limits.

"No way in the world am I going to get in a bidding match to try to steal Jamie away from those guys," Wallace said.