Rusty Wallace showed that he hasn't lost his penchant for speed when he took his son's car out for a spin at Daytona recently. Credit: Motorsports Images & Archives

Retired Rusty Wallace's skills remain undulled

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Rusty Wallace had been out of a competitive stock car ride for well more than a year when he came to Daytona a couple weeks back for his son's testing session.

Now, that's out of the seat -- which Wallace bought into, or actually, out of -- at the end of the 2005 Nextel Cup season.

	DAVE RODMAN •   E-mail Dave •   Opinion archive

But you'll never take Wallace out of the sport. And that's a good thing.

He was vintage Wallace, regaling some special guests and associates with tales and enabling them to take in the sights around the "World Center of Racing" in an environment more pleasurable than the frenzied atmosphere of a race weekend.

"I've got some potential sponsors here," Wallace explained to a visitor. "They said they'd been to Atlanta and Talladega -- but never to Daytona. I said 'let me bring you down here.'

"I love bringing new people here, because when they see it, and they see the shops, they go 'wow, I love it.'"

Youngest son Steve, ultimately preparing for his Daytona Busch Series debut later in Speedweeks 2007, was getting his first laps around the speedplant that at once was a shrine and a curse to his father.

In more than 40 tries at Daytona's two Cup races, Wallace had never made it to Victory Lane -- though he did win two special events, a Budweiser Shootout and one International Race of Champions event.

But Wallace's love for this 400-some-odd-acres has never abated, despite the lack of wins and the fact that he once had excavated a few wheelbarrows-full of sod out of the backstretch verge in a wild flipping escapade.

So it was the perfect opportunity to get back in a garage, prior to starting his first full season in the role of ESPN "stock car commentator," after he turned heads as an analyst of IRL IndyCar racing last season.

	RUSTY WALLACE •   All in the family for Steve Wallace •   Rusty Wallace named to ESPN crew •   Conversation: Rusty Wallace, Part I •   Conversation: Rusty Wallace, Part II

And you just knew Wallace wouldn't miss a chance to turn a couple laps around the place -- at speed. Why? Because he can -- he owns the damn things.

And it was because he still loves this sport, and everything and everyone around it. The only surprise was, it took him 'til midway through the final day to do it.

"I'm gonna get in the car and make sure that what he thinks feels good, really does feel good," said Wallace, ever the doting father. "It's just because I want to make sure, you know?"

Oh, we do. It had been only 10 months since Wallace had last been in a racecar at Daytona, but that was a career anomaly, an outing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona sports-car race.

The last time he was "really" out here had been 17 months ago, when he competed in the 2005 Pepsi 400 -- and finished fourth.

"I'm much more confident in him coming here for the first time -- more than I was when he went to Talladega for the first time, and I really didn't know what to expect," Wallace said. "All I can tell you is, he led the hell out of the race and finished second -- he just looked incredible."

But Daytona is Daytona, and that means "narrow and slick and rough and bouncy and nothing at all like Talladega," Wallace said.

"So I figured," he said, "I'd put Steve in the ARCA race here, and get some more practice, yet, for the Busch race."

"He's just got a boatload of confidence, so I feel real confident," Wallace said.

Nerves Ville was last year's domain.

"Last year, I watched him run 17 Busch races and win a pile of them ARCA races and every time he goes out, he just looks smooth, so now he doesn't worry me," Wallace said. "He goes into it with confidence, so that's how we're going into the Busch thing this year -- we're ready.

MOST POPULAR Features Headlines Opinion Video Conversation: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Conversation: M. Waltrip Conversation: E. Sadler Last Lap: Best of the rest By the Numbers: Daytona 500 More Features Roush No. 6 Cup hauler involved in injury crash Big checks from Toyota a threat or mere myth? Higher speeds, added wrecks close LVMS test Driver opinions differ on LVMS after testing NASCAR puts limit on past champ provisional More Headlines Here's hoping NASCAR fixes the 2007 schedule Jr.: I expect to drive the 3 Top 35 rule is Toyota's worst enemy for 2007 Top 10: Predictions Partial in the buff pose shows Edwards is buff More Opinion NASCAR.COM Junior's future with DEI Earnhardt Jr. on his contract and relationship with Teresa Improve competition Learn how the Car of Tomorrow could improve competition More Videos

"He's gonna run into some things and wreck some stuff, that's what rookies do. But I think he'll make less [mistakes] than most."

Now there's dad cropping up again, but he's entitled. Rusty's rightfully proud of the career he fashioned in racing, and the connections he formed and used to fashion a formidable business and endorsement conglomerate.

With Steve's racing career on the rise, he needs it. Earlier this month, the sponsorship program for his son's 35-race Busch program wasn't fully set, he said.

"Oh man, we're working real hard and we do not have it all put together," Wallace said. "I'd say we're probably gonna have four different sponsors on this car.

"I can't say who they are, but they're all up in arms and [ready to go]. I wish I could say it was one big sponsor taking the whole year, but that's just not the way it is."

And that's not all bad, Wallace admitted.

"One way to look at it is, if you've got four companies promoting you, instead of just one promoting you, there's a lot better chance that your brand is really going to get built," Wallace said. "If you see a Nu South Lemonade car running around, which was his ARCA car, it will also have all those associate sponsors with all those national promotions, and vice versa.

"It was like what Dodge did with Steve, who was one of Dodge's development drivers and their best one, because of all those wins. Steve helped Dodge win the Manufacturers' Championship in ARCA, which is a small thing, but it's kinda neat."

The best thing about it comes into focus when Wallace assesses what it's costing him to do his Busch program.

"I'm going to say I'm probably gonna spend seven million [dollars] running the Busch program in '07," Wallace said. "No, I bet I'll spend seven-and-a-half million in '07, and I spent about 6.9 [million] last year.

"It's a lot more expensive than people think."

Uh, 10-4 that, Russell.

But he wouldn't be anywhere else. Where else could he be like a crown prince come home to roost?

Actually, given his demeanor and focus, you'd have to figure it could have been just about anywhere, so again I say, we're lucky he's spent the last 30 or so years gracing the national motorsports stage.

And he's looking to do more.

"I'd love to start a two-car team, so I can help each other get the economics right," Wallace said, singing a tune other owners have found to be true. "It would cost me less to run two cars than it does to run one, that's for sure.

"Not a lot less [laughing], but it would cost less."

Wallace had only laughed the last time he was asked about how much golf he was playing. He quickly got serious when he said his schedule now -- which actually was somewhere in the middle of another interminable racing season, 2006 -- was actually more hectic than when he last raced in Nextel Cup.

So the ironic thing was, when Wallace came out of his RWI hauler to get into his Dodge Charger, he was wearing a Callaway Golf driver's uniform, a leftover from his 24-hour effort that the Georgia company, a long-time Wallace associate, sponsored.

"We just completed a 22,000-square-foot fabrication facility," Wallace said. "So we've got a brand-new fab shop, a brand-new paint and body shop so we've got three big buildings that all look the same.

"It looks like a big campus. I'm proud of it, and you should see it."

And if you did, there's no question Rusty Wallace would make you feel welcome and like the No. 1 person in the universe for that moment.

That's the way he is, and it's why he isn't going anywhere any time soon.

The opinions expressed are those of the writer.