Rusty Wallace finished 13th at Homestead in his final Nextel Cup start. Credit: Autostock

Wallace, Rudd ride into sunset after Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Rusty Wallace is retired as a Nextel Cup driver, while Ricky Rudd has no idea when his next start might occur, if it ever does.

Whatever the future holds, neither of the illustrious NASCAR veterans' days ended up as they would have preferred in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday.

RICKY RUDD •   Driver Page •   Superstore: Rudd gear Inside the Numbers Ricky Rudd's career stats Year Races W T5 T10 1975 4 0 0 1 1976 4 0 0 1 1977 25 0 1 10 1978 13 0 0 4 1979 28 0 4 17 1980 13 0 1 3 1981 31 0 14 17 1982 30 0 6 13 1983 30 2 7 14 1984 30 1 7 16 1985 28 1 13 19 1986 29 2 11 17 1987 29 2 10 13 1988 29 1 6 11 1989 29 1 7 15 1990 29 1 8 15 1991 29 1 9 17 1992 29 1 9 18 1993 30 1 9 14 1994 31 1 6 15 1995 31 1 10 16 1996 31 1 5 16 1997 32 2 6 11 1998 33 1 1 5 1999 34 0 3 5 2000 34 0 12 19 2001 36 2 14 22 2002 36 1 8 12 2003 36 0 4 5 2004 36 0 1 3 2005 36 0 2 9 Totals 875 23 194 373

Wallace, whose 706th career start ended his season-long "Last Call" tour, scrambled to 13th position in his No. 2 Dodge as Roush Racing's Greg Biffle successfully defended his race victory.

Wallace ended the 22nd consecutive full season of his career in eighth in the standings, the 17th time he's been in the top 10.

But he rued not having a car that could get up and race in the top 10 at the end, when he and crew chief Larry Carter opted for two tires and Wallace restarted eighth with 11 laps remaining.

"When we did the two tires, I should have stayed out there," Wallace said. "We finished 13th, but maybe we could have got to 10th. My old buddy [Ken] Schrader, maybe he thought he was on the lead lap, but he was racing my brains out.

"I got right up on those two guys in front of me, but I couldn't get around them. That would have been nice, to get a top-10 or something like that, but that's racing.

"I'm happy. I had no controversy [Sunday], the fans treated me like a million bucks."

Rudd started his Cup Series record 788th consecutive race in 25th and barely had a chance to get going before the first caution flew at Lap 17, bringing virtually everyone to pit road.

As he left his pit box, Kevin Lepage's No. 66 Ford hit Rudd's No. 21 Ford in the right front corner. The resultant damage relegated him to a 37th-place finish, five laps down.

"It's disappointing to end up this way," Rudd said. "We had a really good car. We came from 25th to 18th and the car was going forward, but then we got wrecked on pit road, so it was a darn shame to end things like that."

Rudd, who's said he would consider making future Nextel Cup starts -- either as a fill-in or on road courses -- said the finality of his record starts streak ending wouldn't sink in "probably until Daytona next February."

Told about that, Wallace laughed.

"But he hasn't officially quit, and I have," Wallace said. "I'll be busy doing a lot of stuff, there's no doubt about that. It's just a different chapter in my life right now.

RUSTY WALLACE •   Driver Page •   Dodge Fast Track •   Superstore: Wallace gear •   Rusty's official fan club 'LAST CALL' ARCHIVE •   Best seasons •   Near-misses •   Significant races •   The ABCs of Wallace •   Fantasy starting lineup •   Significant changes •   Most influential •   No regrets Inside the Numbers Rusty Wallace's career stats Year Races W T5 T10 1980 2 0 1 1 1981 4 0 0 1 1982 3 0 0 0 1984 30 0 2 4 1985 28 0 2 8 1986 29 2 4 16 1987 29 2 9 16 1988 29 6 19 23 1989 29 6 13 20 1990 29 2 9 16 1991 29 2 9 14 1992 29 1 5 12 1993 30 10 19 21 1994 31 8 17 20 1995 31 2 15 19 1996 31 5 8 18 1997 32 1 8 12 1998 33 1 15 21 1999 34 1 7 16 2000 34 4 12 20 2001 36 1 8 14 2002 36 0 7 17 2003 36 0 2 12 2004 36 1 3 11 2005 36 0 8 17 Totals 706 55 202 349

"It's a cruel world out there and I've got to learn it and hope that they treat me good. Racing's treated me good and I've just got to learn what it's like to be out there amongst a world that I haven't had experience in in a long time."

Wallace started 37th and looked to be heading in the right direction when he narrowly avoided getting swept up in the first caution that started when Scott Wimmer spun between Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 17, causing a three-car tangle that also involved Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin.

"It was right in front of me and I went 'Oh, my God -- you've got to be kidding me,' " Wallace said. "I was totally in smoke and I couldn't see anything where I was going -- but he stayed at the bottom and that helped."

Carter called for a two-tire stop to gain track position and Wallace restarted 17th. But the car never got appreciably better.

"I wasn't hanging there, I just had a bad qualifying run and got myself in the back," Wallace said. "If I could have been up in front I would have finished up front -- my lap times were almost identical to the lead cars.

"But [Sunday] you just couldn't pass anybody -- and every single pit stop we couldn't pass anybody on pit road. We had great stops -- but everybody was having great stops."

While the first caution was a temporary salvation for Wallace, it doomed Rudd. His aerodynamically challenged car fell a lap down to leader Edwards before the race was a quarter complete.

"It just knocked the front end out of whack and messed up all the aerodynamics, and this is a real aero track," Rudd said of the pit road incident. "If it hadn't have been for a point deal, we probably would have come in and parked it."

Rudd ended up 21st in the standings, 30 points ahead of Casey Mears.

In 2001, Rudd was involved in a pit road accident at Homestead when Casey Atwood and Ward Burton collided, sending Burton's car into Rudd's pit stall and injuring four of his Robert Yates Racing crewmen -- but that wasn't troubling to him.

"No, not really [because] I did what I was supposed to do and the guy turned into the pit stall and knocked me into someone," Rudd said. "We were barely moving, just going a couple mile an hour so luckily we hadn't gotten going yet."

Two of Scott Riggs' crewmen, who were working one stall in front of Rudd's crew, were knocked flying but neither was seriously injured.