For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, Rusty Wallace will miss a Bristol race weekend. Credit: Gavin Lawrence/Getty Images

Wallace to miss son's Busch debut at Bristol

Newly retired Rusty in Homestead for IRL season opener

Rusty Wallace faces double jeopardy this weekend at Bristol, and for once it has nothing to do with Jeff Gordon or Kurt Busch.

Wallace will miss his first Bristol weekend in 23 years -- and with it his youngest son, Stephen's Bristol Busch Series debut -- due to his commitment as a television analyst for ABC and ESPN's broadcasts of the Indy Racing League.

	Stephen Wallace, left, won an ARCA event last summer at Michigan. Credit: Autostock
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The IRL opens its season this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with qualifying on Saturday and the Toyota Indy 300 on Sunday afternoon.

Wallace says ABC has agreed to provide a TV monitor for Saturday afternoon's Sharpie Mini 300 Busch event to help ease his pain.

"I will have a little bit of an empty feeling on Sunday when they drop that flag at Bristol and I'm not involved in it, but I'm OK," Wallace said. "When Bristol comes around I will feel funny. I don't feel that way about other racetracks, but I do feel that way about Bristol.

"I am a NASCAR guy, but I'm a racer at heart. This is some awesome racing these guys have got going on and I'm happy to be a part of it."

But Wallace shocked his new co-workers, including anchor Marty Reid, when he declined the network's offer to skip Indy car qualifying to attend Stephen's first 2006 start in Wallace's No. 64 Dodge.

"He thought about it, and literally stunned all of us -- because nothing had been mentioned in our production meeting this week -- when he said, 'I've got to be in Homestead the whole time,'" Reid said. "I think that says a lot about his dedication, because that's a hard decision to make."

The decision -- as difficult as Wallace said it was -- had long been made.

"I'm comfortable and I'm prepared," Wallace said. "But one of the strangest things in the world is this is the first race [this season] for my son, Stephen.

"We selected Bristol because it's a real wide-open track. My wife was questioning my decision, saying 'Why Bristol?'

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"The answer is because he's a short tracker at heart, he's prepared and he's ready to go -- but the tough part is this is his first start of the year, and I'll be in Homestead.

"But I think I make Steve a little nervous sometimes, so I'm going to be comfortable sitting in Homestead watching his race, off and on."

Wallace admitted the weekend's arrival did cause him some anxiety, but there's no question that Bristol, Conn. -- ESPN's headquarters -- now means more to him than Bristol, Tenn.

"I'm really fired up to do this," Wallace said. "I've been driving my whole life, but that's over now. This ABC and ESPN program I've got for the next six years is something I'm so excited about that it's unreal."

Wallace dedicated the Wallace Tower at Bristol's half-mile racetrack on Thursday night, including a bronze bust that Wallace helped unveil before he flew to Florida later that night.

On a teleconference this week with Reid and fellow analyst and former Indy car driver Scott Goodyear, Wallace said competitive driving was in his past, though he'd draw on all his experiences.

"I'm kind of like Scott -- I'm at peace with what I'm doing right now," Wallace said. "I will tell you, I get tempted occasionally. When I watch the cars run I go, 'man, I can do that and why is the guy doing this or that?'

"But then I step back and know that I'm glad I don't have 43 guys trying to beat my brains out every single week. I'm in a different world and meeting different people and I'm having a great time and I'm content.

"I think the temptation is always going to be there, a little bit, you know? I know every time Indy comes along, that's got to be special in Scott's heart, and every time Bristol comes around, I'm like, 'oh, man.'

"I kind of wish I was behind the wheel at Bristol, but after Bristol is over, I don't want to run anything else, so maybe if I was able to come back and run Bristol once a year, that would feel cool [but seriously], I am content right now."

Wallace said his experience was both a benefit and a bane to his son.

"I've done a ton of communicating with the crew chief, the engineers and everybody about the pitfalls of Bristol, and I've got Stephen watching last year's Bristol Busch races," Rusty said. "I've told him you got to guard the bottom lane on exit, you've got to guard the [corner] entry.

"You can't let the car drift up, these are the things you have to work on and I've even worked on his mirror locations, especially getting the side-view mirror correct.

"I feel like I've got these guys prepared for the pitfalls of Bristol as much as I possibly can, but it's the first race [at Bristol] for your own kid [and] you want to make sure everything's right, so I'm wearing him out, right now.

"And he's like, 'Quit talking, turn me loose -- I'm tired of all the talking.'"