10 Questions: Mike Wallace

1. What's the best advice you've ever received and who was it from?

Wallace: I actually got it from my older brother, Rusty, when I first moved down here to race for a living. He told me to make my friends in the neighborhood where I live and don't think you're going to make any at the racetrack. You've got a lot of false friends here.

2. What was your first job?

Mike Wallace:
Red

Wallace: I guess the very first job that I actually got paid for was I worked in a bakery on Saturday mornings, repairing bakery carts back in St. Louis. I was still in high school at the time. In junior high, I used to help my dad get up and deliver newspapers in the morning -- he had what you call a Globe-Democrat route, the morning paper in St. Louis. But I don't remember ever getting paid for that.

3. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Wallace: I'm not a huge golf fan but I guess in that side of things, it's Tiger Woods strictly because he's so dominant in what he does. There's a lot of great athletes but because of the exposure that he gets and when he gets on a roll, he's a superstar, he's dominant. I'm not a very good golfer, so I know how hard it is for him to be good at that.

4. What's your favorite movie?

Wallace: Well, it's probably a split between motivational movies -- Top Gun with Tom Cruise or one of the Rocky movies. One goes one way and one goes the other. I'm not a big movie-goer.

5. What's your favorite outdoor activity?

Wallace: That's hard, because I really do nothing but race. I enjoy watching my kids race. That's probably the most enjoyable thing for me, being at the race.

6. What do you feel is your biggest strength?

Wallace: My biggest strength overall is understanding people. Nobody's the same, everybody's different and I think I really understand how to deal with people.

7. What's your favorite public road to drive?

Wallace: The road home, whatever section that is.

8. What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment so far?

Wallace: Being able to win Daytona three times. It's hard to pick one of those.

9. What would you say is your No. 1 guilty pleasure?

Wallace: Man, I don't know. Just doing what I want to do. That's really it. I'm really a low-maintenance individual, I require a lot. I just like to be able to go do whatever I want to do. If that's a guilty pleasure, that's probably it.

10. Cardinals, Rams or Blues?

Wallace: I'd go with the Rams. I've meet a few of those guys and they're all pretty cool.