Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Both Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. experienced a dismal day.
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL
DOVER, Del. -- How about that Rusty Wallace.
Here it is, some 15 years after his 1989 NASCAR championship, and with eight races to go in the season -- eight races to go before he retires from Nextel Cup competition for good, after a spectacular 25-year career -- he's only seven points away from the Nextel Cup lead.
And he's oh, so cool about it all.
"Every single race now is the most important race in the world for me," Wallace said. "I'm running every race like it's my last one."
Sunday's race here, which could easily have been a win if teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch had taken each other out -- as seemed possible given Busch's over-eager driving -- put Wallace and Roger Penske teammate Ryan Newman nearly dead-even heading to Talladega's next weekend.
"I'm driving better than I have in a long, long time," Wallace said. "Every time we're on the track we're a top-five or top-six at worst. It's because of Larry Carter, my crew chief. He's one of the best crew chiefs in the garage right now. The whole team, we've found our mojo.
"So it does make you think twice [about hanging it up in November]. But on the other hand, I've made the right decision. I want to go out on the top of my game, and I'm doing that. I'm second by seven points -- that's very strong. So I'm pretty happy.
"But I do second-guess myself."
2006 open for debate
Who will take Wallace's seat with Penske next season? Kurt Busch is signed for 2007, but 2006 is still open for debate.
And Wallace may have let the cat out of the bag when he revealed that lawyers are working hard to get Busch out of the final year of his contract with rival car owner Jack Roush to take over Wallace's ride next season.
"I know the lawyers are still fighting around trying to get him out of that deal," Wallace said. "I know he wants to drive this car. I was with him last week up in Nantucket golfing, and he told me he wants to drive the car. They'll work it out; I'm pretty confident.
"But maybe not. I sold my part of the team back to Roger, and he's keeping everything pretty close, all top-secret. And I don't really even want to know about it."
Some bad days
Meanwhile, it was another dismal day for Jeff Gordon, whose change in crew chiefs hasn't changed his luck. He was 14th at Loudon and 30th after Sunday's mid-race crash, triggered by Jamie McMurray.
"We got on the outside, and Jamie McMurray just flat took everybody out," Gordon said. "I don't know if Jamie couldn't see the guy or if his spotter told him he was clear, but he just turned right and wrecked himself and a bunch of us."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also had a rough day, finishing 31st in his second race with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. "Something was going on with the brake pedal, I thought I lost the brakes, so I took it to pit road," Earnhardt said of his unplanned stop 20 miles into the race. "The pedal would just fall all the way to the floor. Usually when that happens, you have two options, pit or crash.
"Not sure what it was. There wasn't a leak, so I don't know. The only thing that's worse than a bad finish is a bad finish with a fast car.
"This is a brand new car Tony Jr. built, and it was one of the fastest on the track. We even passed the leader once to get one of our laps back. It was easily a top-five car all day."
At least for Earnhardt, there's a good weekend anticipated next at Talladega, one of his best tracks.