Wallace, Martin settle for top-10s in final 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Late in the Daytona 500, the two old veterans were hooked together.

The guys headed for their rocking chairs after 2005 -- well, OK, they are only quitting their Nextel Cup careers -- were running seventh and eighth with six laps to go Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

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Wouldn't it have been a storybook ending had Mark Martin pushed Rusty Wallace to his first Daytona 500 victory? Or vice versa, for that matter?

Well, it didn't quite happen that way. Martin and Wallace got separated in the closing laps, with Martin ending his final Daytona 500 in sixth and Wallace ending his final Daytona 500 in 10th.

"It ain't no big deal right now, I'm telling you," Martin said. "I don't have any major love for this place. Check with me at Charlotte. I'll have a tear in my eye there."

Wallace didn't shed any tears Sunday either, but instead wore a wide smile on his face.

"I wanted to win this race, but that's OK," Wallace said. "It really isn't OK, but I told everybody if I didn't win it wouldn't be the end of the world. I put on a good performance out there all day and my car ran strong all day. I was in the lead pack, top five and top 10 most of the day. I really thought I was going to finish a lot better than 10th."

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Martin thought he had a chance to win, too. Like Wallace, Martin didn't lead all day, but his repaired car was strong.

Martin, you'll remember, was caught up in the Jimmie Johnson/Kevin Harvick crash in Thursday's qualifying race, but his Roush Racing team repaired the No. 6 Ford.

"I'm proud of this race team and (crew chief) Pat Tryson," Martin said. "These huge engines we've got under the hood are incredible, and this Taurus worked good, and these guys fixed it back right, better than right. It was an awesome run for us.

"I had a great car, I had a car that could contend and so did a lot of other guys. We fought our way back from the back a few times, and we did what we did. It was a good outing for us. I would've liked to have won the race, but we didn't have it in hand and let it slip away."

Martin and Wallace, who finish their Daytona 500 careers a combined 0-for-44, wanted to help each other in the late going but simply couldn't.

"He was really the only one I trusted," Wallace said. "We were having a great time drafting. We both had really good-handling cars right there."

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Martin said he and Wallace had a "pact" to draft with one another as much as possible Sunday.

"We had a little problem at Talladega a year ago where he said he was going to go with me and didn't, and I didn't think that was going to happen today," Martin said. "Rusty and I knew this was our last shot, and I would've helped at the end and he would help me. I figured that was probably the most loyal friend I had on the racetrack at the end of the race."

So as Martin and Wallace headed out of Daytona for the final time after driving in the Daytona 500, they were both looking forward.

"I'm done with it. I've had a lot of fun, and I enjoy it," Wallace said. "I was hoping it wasn't going to come down to the green-white-checkered. With 18 laps to go we had plenty of fuel and we were running great. We had a good dancing partner hooked up, and it didn't happen.

"We'll just go to California now. I'm looking forward to that one. I told everyone I want to go out on top. I can get the job done. I'm not worried about that. I want to go out way on top. I wanted to win the Daytona 500 today. I had a car good enough to win, but we'll just go win California or Mexico or Vegas now."