FORMER WINSTON CUP CHAMPION Recent streak has Wallace thinking about top 10

The last time he finished outside the top 10 was in 1992.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A late season filled with frustration is suddenly looking much better to Rusty Wallace.
Five straight top 10 finishes will do that.
The streak has revived the former Winston Cup champion's hopes of finishing the season no lower than 10th in the standings.
"I've always said it's like three different categories," Wallace explained. "There's the champion, there are the other members of the top 10, and then there are the rest of them.
"I won't win the championship this year, and it's not too gratifying to just be among the rest of them," he said. "I know because I've been there and we're doing everything we can to avoid that happening again."
The last time Wallace finished outside the top 10 was 1992, when he wound up 13th. Other than 1984 and 1985 -- when he finished 14th and 19th in his first two full seasons in NASCAR's top series -- that is the only time Wallace has not been among the top 10 in the points.
His string of 10 consecutive top 10 points finishes is the best among active drivers, and it's been Wallace's biggest source of pride since his streak of 16 consecutive seasons with at least one race win ended in 2002.
"It means a ton to me and the team," Wallace said. "So does getting back into the win column, too. Both are the major goals left for the final six races of the year."
Both are also important goals for Wallace's Penske Racing South crew chief, Bill Wilburn.
"It's like a calling card or his claim to fame, and it is quite amazing when you stop and think about it," Wilburn said, referring to his driver's streak. "I know how much it hurt Rusty personally last season when that race-winning streak ended. I know because it hurt me just that bad, too."
Currently tied for 13th
After last week's ninth-place finish at Kansas Speedway, Wallace enters Saturday night's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway tied for 13th with Bill Elliott -- 900 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth but only 129 behind 10th-place Terry Labonte.
Before his string of top 10 finishes began last month at Richmond, Wallace was 17th, trailing then 10th-place Tony Stewart by 279 points.
Finishing among the top 10 in the standings is more than a bigger payoff from the points fund -- it's also a ticket to the stage at NASCAR's postseason awards ceremony in New York City.
"It's so important to finish up there and have the opportunity to go to New York and have an active part in the awards banquet, to have the opportunity to take to the stage and publicly thank the sponsors, owners and team members," Wallace said.
He winced when talking about the aftermath of that miserable 1992 season.
"We went up to New York for the banquet that year, but we'd almost wished we'd stayed at home," said Wallace, who sat in the back of the room with 12th-place finisher Dale Earnhardt.
"I think the fact that Dale was up there and in the same boat that I was is probably what got me through the ordeal," Wallace said. "We were sitting in the cheap seats for the big show and made a vow that we'd both bounce back the next year."
They did just that. Earnhardt won the sixth of his record-tying seven championships and Wallace finished second, just 80 points behind, winning a series-high 10 races. Wallace could easily be in the top 10 right now if not for one miserable month, August.
"That was one of the roughest months of my career," he said. "Unbelievable things were happening like getting caught up in crashes not of our own doing."
Among them: a brake problem at Watkins Glen, a crash at Bristol -- "I can never remember crashing out of a Bristol race -- never," he said -- then an early race crash at Darlington.
In the five races during August, Wallace had one finish better than 36th and a 32.8 average.
"But we had a tremendous September and got things really turned around," Wallace said. "We've been going like gangbusters and we plan on keeping the steamroller going."