Rusty Wallace drove the black-and-gold No. 2 entry to 30 wins, 82 top-five finishes and 120 top-10s in 179 races. Credit: Autostock

Notes: Wallace, Stremme opposites at Chicago

JOLIET, Ill. -- While Rusty Wallace is making his final Nextel Cup start at Chicagoland, David Stremme is preparing for his series debut.

Wallace will start 33rd in Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400.

"We've never had a top-10 finish here, so we need to change that tomorrow so we can maintain that top-five ranking in the standings," Wallace said.

"We've only got nine more races to qualify for the Chase and that's top priority right now. We want to be racing for the championship in those final 10 races."

Stremme qualified 31st in the No. 39 Dodge. He'll take over the No. 40 full-time in 2006.

"It's only 67 more laps than the Busch race, but still you can have time to think about what you're doing and what the Cup car is like, compared to the Busch car," Stremme said. "It's a pretty huge adjustment.

"We made our goal of making the race, but I can't say I wasn't a little nervous."

Kenny Wallace

His bologna has a first name

Kenny Wallace was sponsored by Oscar Mayer in Saturday's USG Durock 300.

"It's an honor to have the Oscar Mayer logo on my car because it is a legendary brand," Wallace said. "I'm from St. Louis and have eaten a lot of hot dogs as many times as I've been to the baseball games."

Team Rensi teams up with charity

Team Rensi and drivers Jason Keller and Ashton Lewis Jr. announced Saturday the formation of a relationship with the Children's Organ Transplant Association.

In 2000, Ed Rensi's wife Anne received a kidney transplant at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center.

"I was very fortunate to receive a transplant, but unfortunately there are so many people on waiting lists for transplants today," Anne Rensi said. "We hope that with this partnership, we can increase awareness for both organ donation and COTA."

As of the start of the year, there were 90,000 total candidates listed on the national organ transplant waiting list.

Jeremy Mayfield

Mayfield takes the mound

Jeremy Mayfield will throw out the first pitch of Saturday's Oakland A's-Chicago White Sox game at U.S. Cellular Field.

"It's a pretty cool opportunity," Mayfield said. "Last week, we drove the Bad News Bears car and this week we're throwing out the first pitch.

"It's been a baseball kind of week. I've been working out my throwing arm, so hopefully I'll get it over the plate."

Another Foyt eyes stock-car racing

Could A.J. Foyt IV be the next open-wheel driver to make the leap to stock cars?

The grandson of the legendary A.J. Foyt was a guest of Ray Evernham this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, watching Saturday's practices from the top of the Evernham Motorsports hauler.

The younger Foyt tested an ARCA car at Kentucky Speedway a couple of weeks ago in preparation for his Busch Series debut later this season.

"I've got an opportunity to do a few Busch races later in the year," Foyt said. "If everything goes well -- in a perfect world -- maybe I'll have a run in a full season next year."

If he does, Foyt said he'd probably give up his ride in the IRL.

"If I do get a full Busch Series [ride], I don't know if I'd be able to compete in the IRL," Foyt said. "It's a great opportunity with this team and I'm looking to try something different. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

So why would Foyt make the leap to stock cars?

"The determining factor may be just trying something different," Foyt said. "I'd just like to feel like when I go to the racetrack that I've got a chance to win a race. That's just the main thing.

"The last priority is money. I'm a racecar driver and I want to win races."

Cubs curse affecting Gordon?

Since Jeff Gordon's memorable rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Wrigley Field in May, he's had five finishes of 30th or worse. So someone asked teammate Jimmie Johnson about it after Friday's qualifying.

"For some reason, I think he didn't think anybody was going to see him sing, but evidently everybody in the world did," Johnson said. "So I don't know if that's exactly why he's had bad luck but the black cloud found him at 'Wrigley Stadium' -- as he called it -- and it finally left after last weekend."