Rusty Wallace: "I don't think we can afford to put anybody in (the No. 2) car that we've got to groom right now." Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Rusty Wallace

Part 2

In this second part of a two-part conversation, Rusty Wallace talks about his long-term goals for Rusty Wallace, Inc., his relationship with his teammate, Ryan Newman, and a life-changing meeting that took place at Biscuitville.

Q: How are things with you and Ryan (Newman)? There was a lot of talk the last part of the season after the Martinsville deal.

	Credit: Autostock
	LISTEN Conversation Rusty talks about the future of the No. 2 team. RUSTY WALLACE •   Driver Page •   World of Dodge •   Store: Rusty Wallace gear! •   Join Rusty's Official Fan Club

That's a good question. How are things with me and Ryan? You know, I don't know how to take that thing. I can get all upside-down and mad at myself and mad at everybody and mad at the whole thing. I can get all mad and think, "You know, we spent millions grooming him with Busch cars and ARCA cars and Cup cars; and sometimes I feel like there's just no respect, there's no appreciation for doing that."

But on the other side, I was like that when I grew up. I was young and wide open and carefree. Then I'll sit back and I'll think, "You know, I would probably do some of that stuff he was doing when he came up."

It's definitely a situation I've got to figure out how to mend. All my friends tell me, especially one of my best friends, Don Prudhomme -- the drag racer out in California -- Don calls me every week, and he says, "Man, you're going to look at that thing a whole different way when you get out of the seat. When you turn into a car owner, you're going to want him to do all that. Yeah, you have to get him a little more personable, but he's definitely a qualified driver. You'll look at it a different way."

I said, "You're probably right." But right now, it's a bit embarrassing that we've got these great teams, and we have this internal friction. Mark Martin's got that internal friction right now with Greg Biffle. We've talked about that. He said, "You've got the same problem with Newman that I've got with Biffle." Well, we'll work it out.

I'd like it to be a smooth machine. We're friends. I don't talk to him because our ages are so far apart, our interests are so far apart. As (Roger) Penske puts it, he said, "Newman's out in left field and you're out in right field." That's how Roger says it. He says, "You both are getting the job done your own certain way."

It'd be my dream to have us get along really, really good. We'll go out to dinner together, we hang out together, we have fun together -- I want that to happen. I don't really know how to do it yet because I'm so competitive right now. Maybe when I get out of the car, that'll get better.

I'll definitely try to be the guy that's going to try to fix the relationship and get it working better because I need to, you know?

Have you spoken with him about this since it happened?

No, I haven't. We really should, but we just haven't. We really haven't. I said, "You know, I've got my feelings about it, he's got his feelings about it." I think my partners are just standing clear, waiting for the smoke to clear. I think that's what honestly is happening.

Ryan and I have talked in passing. "Hey, how you doing?" "OK." Stuff like that. Probably about four words since the incident.

Do you think you two ought to hop in two rental cars and just beat the crap out of each other? Do a "Days of Thunder" deal?

Wallace and crew chief Larry Carter Credit: Autostock

No, we don't need to do that. We just need to sit down and talk. We'll sit down and talk.

At some point, I'm guessing RWI is going to be a Cup team. That's your dream, that's where you want it to go, I assume.

No.

No, you don't want it to go that way?

No, that's absolutely false. I do not. That is not my dream, for RWI to be a Cup team. Let me say this, I wouldn't have a problem with RWI being a Cup team, but I know hard it is to get these finances put together and do all that. I absolutely don't have the facility right now to run a Cup team.

I am a Cup team owner. I've got my heart and soul and a lot of money and time and everything invested in Team Penske. Roger's our key guy. But Don Miller and I also own that company. A lot of people don't understand that. It's Penske Racing, they think Roger Penske owns the whole thing.

Don Miller and Roger Penske own this thing, along with a small ownership from John Erickson, and Doug Bawel is involved in the 77 team. But, look, I've got a lot invested in this damn thing. Right now, that's all that's on my mind when I retire is to get to Team Penske -- a team that I helped start, a team that I own -- and basically come back home to it and get more involved in it. That will be my every day 100 percent job.

Now, I own a Busch team that I started because the funds were available at the time. I started that Busch team for my employees. I started that Busch team for (RWI vice president and chief operating office) Dick Paysor and (director of marketing) Tom Knox and all my employees because I don't want to leave everybody high and dry when I retire.

I wanted them to have something to do. I own it, Dick Paysor runs it. He's in charge of all the finances of that team. (Crew chief) Blake Bainbridge is in charge of the daily operation of that team.

Tom Knox is a huge, huge part of that team. He's in charge of the funding for that entire team, he's in charge of the way the cars are supposed to look, the way the decals are supposed to be placed, all the marketing, everything.

I'm there all the time, and I can override anybody at anytime, and I get very vocal. But those four guys, along with (transportation/logistics manager) Tom Polansky -- Polansky is the key guy that started that whole thing and put it together -- but right now I've got Tom running RWI Promotions, our show-car business. We're running three Miller Lite cars, a Miller High Life car and a Top-Flite golf car. Tom's got a big chore, and he's in charge of running that thing right now -- along with handling my schedule and small things with the Busch team.

But that thing's on auto-pilot. I think Tom Knox and Dick Paysor are doing a great job with that thing.

Don't get me wrong, my office is right here at RWI, I look at the thing every day, but if I've got to put it in percentages, my main percentage is involved in that Cup team.

Now, I'm really proud of the way they all got it going for me, and we ended up winning in the 15th race we ever ran and then finished second the next time. That's fantastic, and I love it; but for me right now, I have to focus all my time and energy on Team Penske.

I'm happy we signed up some good sponsors for that deal, Miller and Top-Flite -- which by the way is the first major golf company to get involved in NASCAR -- and I'm happy the team is doing so well. All my guys are just doing a great job, and I so proud of all of them.

But my job, my main job, after I quit driving, is Team Penske, no doubt about it.

So there's never going to be a conflict on the Cup side? That's always going to be a Busch team, and Penske's always going to be a Cup team, so there's never going to be any conflict.

RWI might be a Busch team and a truck team. I see it being a Busch team and a truck team. I just don't see it anywhere in the future that thing being a Cup team. I just don't see that.

I do see it being a facility we use to maybe do an ABC thing like we did with Newman. Maybe we'll run some different drivers through it. We've got the resources and the time, but I think it would be a good venue to do some ABC stuff out of my place rather than Team Penske. I think it would be a little better effort to do it that way.

As a driver development kind of thing?

Wallace and Don Miller Credit: Autostock

Yeah, yeah, yeah. People keep saying, "Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve." Well, that's my main goal. Let me backtrack a little bit. I did say I'm going to run Steve in 17 Hooters races. I'm going to run Steve in two Busch races also. I'm going to run him at Memphis and Phoenix, Ariz. at the end of the year because that's when he turns 18, and he can drive it.

Now, Don Miller, my partner, wants Stephen to run some ARCA races out of Team Penske. I agree with him. We'll probably do that. We'll probably run Steve in a couple ARCA races out of there. So 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 races for Steve next year. The goal is to get him as much seat time as we possibly can. Then I'd love to pop him in a Busch ride for a full Busch season for 2006.

The 2 car, there has always been the speculation -- and you know the name -- Jamie McMurray has come up time and again. We talked about it in Track Smack the other day. I said, "I don't know if that's for sure. Let's not speculate too much on that."

I'll make it really, really clear on that one. Jamie is obviously a personal friend of mine. I see him all the time. He was with the house with me yesterday and we went running around looking at property together. He's just a cool guy. I just think he's a crystal-clean, non-controversial smooth guy. If I didn't think that, I wouldn't let him date my daughter. They're having a blast.

But one of my best friends out there is Felix Sabates. I love Felix. If Felix said, "Hey, Rusty, I need you to go jump off a building," I'd do it for him. And Chip Ganassi's treated me very, very well also, been a nice man to me. I wouldn't go to them and try to steal a driver and create fires and bombs and controversy.

He's got a contract with Chip, and if his contract runs out, and Chip and Felix decide not to renew his contract, then I'd love to have Jamie drive the 2 car. But I think Jamie's one of the hottest commodities out there. The guy is absolutely a wheelman. He can definitely get the job done. He's proved that to me time after time after time after time.

Wallace with Jamie McMurray Credit: Autostock

I respect Felix and Chip. I would never do that, and it's just that clear. If he doesn't have a contract with those guys, and they decide not to renew him, then I'd love to have him.

He's one of the best drivers in the country. Right now, if it was life or death, and I had to have a driver to keep me alive, I'd call McMurray. I'd look at all the drivers. Obviously, Newman would be one of the top ones, too, but I'd call McMurray also.

Have you guys, you and Don and Roger, sat down and talked about your replacement yet?

No, we haven't. The one thing we have said is we'd like to have a replacement be a guy that's already getting the job done. I don't know what these guys' contracts look like right now, but we'd definitely like to have somebody with some talent already.

I don't think we can afford to put anybody in that car that we've got to groom right now. The brewery's agreed to sign on for an additional two years as long as we put a driver like we need.

Let's face it, I fought this forever, but it seems like the whole world has turned young all of a sudden. It's like this new age, you've got to have somebody 30 and below. That's what they want. That's one of the criteria the brewery wants. They want one of these hip young drivers. I'm fine with that, but we've got to try to deliver that to them.

Now, we are testing some drivers out. I see that for maybe the future. I don't see that for the 2 car. Not yet.

Let's go back a little ways, back to when you started in NASCAR. Cliff Stewart was your first car owner -- actually, Roger was your first car owner - but your first full-time was Cliff. Do you remember him calling and saying, "Hey, you want to come run for me?" What was that like? How did that go?

Yeah, I do remember him saying that. How the conversation went was this: I was on the way to the Snowball Derby, where I finished second, I think -- my kid keeps reminding me: "You tried this forever, and I did it the second time" -- and the phone rang. It was Cliff Stewart. "Hey, this is Cliff Stewart." "Cliff Stewart?"

His kid, Howard Stewart, always followed the ASA circuit and was our parts supplier. He always watched me run, always watched me win on the ASA circuit. His driver then was Geoff Bodine, and they were having some internal friction and problems. This guy called me up and said, "Hey, my name is Cliff Stewart, and I want you to come down and drive my car in Atlanta."

I was like, "Holy s---." I couldn't believe it. What an opportunity. "Sir, I'd love to. But I can't." "Why not?" "Cause I'm going to the Snowball Derby. It's a big thing and already planned." "Oh, I understand. Yeah, Howard was telling me about that race. Big race. I hear you. OK. Well, I want to talk to you later then." "OK."

It was the best thing I ever did in my life because that car went down there, and they put Donnie Allison in it. Donnie was really running good at that time, and they put Donnie in the car. It blew up. Donnie said it was one of the worst handling cars he's drove. It was a miserable day for Cliff.

Credit: Autostock

Cliff was winning. Bodine run really good in that car, and they run great at Daytona. They just had great runs in that car. But Donnie got in it, and, man it handled terrible.

Let me tell you what, if they had put me in that car with no experience like I had back then, I would have looked really bad. Quite honestly, I would have never got into Cup. By me skipping that race was a blessing in disguise for me.

Then I signed up with Stewart. I got the phone call from Cliff, "Hey, Rusty, I want you to come down and see me." I hung up and called Don (Miller). Don has always been one of my best friends Don spends a lot more time helping groom Ryan Newman right now than (with) me. I'm kind of like on auto-pilot. I sprouted my wings and flew off.

But back then, Don and I were welded together at the hip. Every decision I made, I was calling Don, "What do you think? What do you think?" So I called him and said, "Stewart said I can drive his car. And he wants to speak to us." "All right." "Get you're a-- over here. We're going to get in the airplane and go see him."

We flew down there and saw him. We had our big meeting at the Biscuitville -- the little f------ square shop that makes biscuits, you know? -- in High Point (N.C.) He had a cigar about a foot long, and his sitting there, and the smoke's pouring out of his cigar.

Me and Don are sitting there like little schoolkids at the damn Biscuitville. We thought he'd take us to the country club or something, you know? He took us to Biscuitville. Hell, we didn't give a s---. We were so excited.

We sat right there and cut the deal. "I want you to drive my car. Howard said you can drive that thing. He's my kid, and I trust him." "OK." So I got in it. I won Rookie of the Year with him. And then the next year we had really, really good runs but we blew up a lot of motors. We blew up so many motors it's unreal.

Then I got the call from Barry Dodson because Barry saw what I was doing. It was time to go on.

And the rest is history, I guess.

And the rest is history.

Ten, 15 years from now, when everything's going with Penske and RWI, will you look back at all, for one? Are you a guy who does that much? And do you think you will?

I love reminiscing. Oh, hell, everybody around me is probably sick of my Cale Yarborough and David Pearson (stories) and how great Dale Earnhardt (was) stories. If Earnhardt was around, there wouldn't be all this rock-n-roll bulls---. There wouldn't be the way NASCAR is run bulls---. They're sick of all those type of stories I say.

So I reminisce a little bit. But I'm kind of a grinder, man. I don't sleep a whole lot. The next project is always the most important one. I'll be looking at, "Hey, I want to build a new dealership here, I want to build another dealership there. Let's do this, let's do that." It's always something, you know?

I bought a home on the lake that was a new home that needed a s---load of work to get up to the quality it needed to be at. I got real excited of late to be in the building business again. I built RWI, I built the Busch shop, I built my house on the lake, I built another house on the damn lake, I built a farm, I built dealerships. I love building s---, I really do.

I can see where down the road I'll be involved in doing some more building projects. But then when I sit back, I feel like I can never be content. That's one thing (wife) Patti and I talk about. "It feels like you're never content." I'm not content. I've always got to be doing something.

I'm not the guy who's going to be content living in the little house and just sitting still and not doing anything and saying, "I'm fine." I'd grow bored and die. I'm not going to do that. I like to be rolling all the time.

Were your parents that way? Were your mom and dad always looking ahead to things? Did you get it naturally?

I don't know if I got it naturally. I don't think dad's been that way. Dad's a roamer. He loves to see people, he likes to go everywhere, he likes to do things. And mom loves to do that, too. Mom's probably more content than dad is, that's for sure. Dad likes to be moving all the time.

I'm kind of that way myself. The older I've got, I love doing some quality vacationing. Patti and I have had a blast going to different places. I for sure have not given her the time she deserves, and that's one of the reasons I'm retiring. I'll give her some more time and try to be together.

But the tough part of that is going to be is that I'm accustomed to a certain lifestyle. I'm going to grind to maintain that lifestyle because I enjoy it.

That's it. I've got a lot of my quitting racing plans planned. But there's still some stuff out there that doesn't have the cap on just right yet.