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DJD Classics w/ Rusty Wallace: The Intimidator's Most Respected Rival
01:02:40
Perhaps no other driver in NASCAR history earned a similar off-track relationship with Dale Earnhardt as Rusty Wallace. Unsurprisingly, it was Rusty's gritty racing style that garnered that admiration, and while Dale Sr. and Rusty stayed fierce racing rivals, they also spent many years vacationing together. In this episode of DJD Classics, which originally aired 3/25/2019, hear all about Rusty's rise to the top of the racing ranks, from his initial big break to capping off a Hall of Fame career. Rusty recounts his decision to retire early and pursue another passion of his - calling races on TV and MRN.
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
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- [00:27]
Rusty Wallace
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- [00:41]
Interviewer 1
The following is a production of Dirty Home Media.
- [00:56]
Interviewer 2
Hey, let's rewind a DJD classic.
- [00:58]
Narrator/Announcer
Enjoy.
- [01:00]
Interviewer 1
Alright, so we've got our guest here, Rusty Wallace. How you doing, Rusty?
- [01:03]
Rusty Wallace
Everything's good. First time I've been over here. I like your room. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it is.
- [01:08]
Interviewer 1
So what are you doing these days?
- [01:10]
Rusty Wallace
Well, car dealership stuff. Lot of car dealership stuff. I remember my boss man, Mr. Penske, told me, said, hey man, you're gonna quit driving one of these days. You better have your act together and ready to go. I said, I hear you. And so you know, 28 years ago, man, it's been a long time. A long time. My first deal was a Pontiac dealership in Tennessee. And a guy calls me up, says, hey man, why don't you come over for an autograph session? So I went there, we had like 1500 people in line, and then I went to Bristol and I won the race. And he calls me up and he said, hey, will you come again? I said, yeah. He said, okay, I'll show up. And he says, hey man, you know that buddy of yours, Dale Earnhardt? He said, would you bring him too? And I said, all right, let me look. And so I called him up and I said, hey, you want to go to the Chevrolet dealership or this Pontiac dealership with me? I think I'm going to buy it or be a partner in it. He says, okay. He said, if you go to yours, if I go to yours, you got to come to mine. I said, all right. So he flew up there and me and sale back there 28 years ago doing autograph sessions of my Pontiac dealership. So that's where it started. But then we built more stores. Now we got eight of them up there.
- [02:10]
Interviewer 1
Really?
- [02:10]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, I got eight. Eight stores. We sell about 16,000 cars a year up there. And the car business has been my, basically my number one deal.
- [02:18]
Interviewer 1
I love doing I had no idea that you were in the car business that much I know you had a store at one time, but.
- [02:25]
Rusty Wallace
Oh, no, that's awesome. Yeah, people get on me all the time. So what are you doing? What are you doing? I said, man, I've been working the car stuff for a long time. We've got a beautiful Honda dealership, a beautiful Toyota, a brand new Nissan, a brand new Chevrolet, a brand new Ford, three Kias and a Nissan.
- [02:43]
Interviewer 2
How spread out are these? Where are they?
- [02:44]
Rusty Wallace
They're all in Knoxville, Tennessee area.
- [02:46]
Interviewer 2
They're all in Knoxville.
- [02:48]
Rusty Wallace
All in Knoxville area? Yeah. And I just love Knoxville. We have a great time up there. Beautiful airport, great area, ton of race fans up there. And it all started with all that win and I did in Bristol and that's how I ended up in Tennessee. And so that's, that's basically what I do now. But a lot of people hear me on the radio. I love working with the guys at Motor Racing Network. Keeps my, keeps me involved in the Sport. I do 21 races. I'm at only the cup races and only the ISC owned racetracks. So that's what I do.
- [03:19]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, man. How much do you enjoy doing? You know, I just got into broadcasting last year and I just wanted something to keep me at the racetrack because I wanted to keep going. I didn't want to stop going to the racetrack because I love being there, but I needed a reason to be there. And so what was your reason for getting into radio and is it to just be in the sport and be involved and be around it?
- [03:41]
Rusty Wallace
The reason was I, I did television for nine years with ESPN and really enjoyed it. And when it came time for the contract in, everybody was bidden. NBC won the bid. Obviously they had all their own guys. And so then my career with television at that point was over. But then I got a phone call from the guys at NASCAR and I talked to them back and forth and radio was a fun thing. And so I do a lot of stuff with isc and if people don't know what that means, that's the people that mostly own all the racetracks in nascar. So I'll go up to Chicago and do their advance work or I'll go to Watkins Glen, do their advance work. And like this Sunday, I'm the grand Marshal for the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 in Texas and that's an MRN duty because they're one of our big sponsors. So you get an invitation to go be the grand marshal and I say, hey man, you're going to have good dinner on Saturday night. Hey man, you going to give me a nice shirt? Yeah, okay, I'll do it.
- [04:35]
Interviewer 2
You know, feed me and clothe me and I'm there.
- [04:38]
Rusty Wallace
That's right.
- [04:38]
Interviewer 2
Is that what Rusty Wallace. That's what moves Rusty Wallace.
- [04:41]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah. But to answer your question, I'm between. You know, the car dealerships are number one. Number two is what got me into car dealership is racing. And I don't want to be out of NASCAR. Right. So I love the MRN stuff because it's 21 races. The guys are fant. They're super knowledgeable and, and I love working with them, I really do. And it keeps me at the track, but then not too much at the track.
- [05:04]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [05:04]
Rusty Wallace
Because, you know, I like to enjoy myself also.
- [05:07]
Interviewer 1
Sure. I've only had a couple opportunities to do radio and I found out, I found it to be more challenging, the TV with radio and you can, you can add to this and correct what I got wrong. But with radio you have to sort of paint the picture. There's no visual for people that are listening. And it seems like it's a more difficult job or a tougher job to really explain to people what they're seeing, what you're seeing and how, you know, trying to explain the rate. In TV we're just looking at a screen, the same thing and everybody else is at home, we just go see that on the screen. Yeah, that's pretty cool. On the screen and, but with, with radio and also the baton passing, you know, as you're going around the racetrack, as cars are going around the racetrack and they're literally passing it from guy to guy around the racetrack the entire, you know, for an entire run. I found that to really be. I was, it was all, it was not awkward, but it was just challenging. Whereas tv, you have so many more tools, I guess. And this is. The visual aspect of it seems to be a lot simpler.
- [06:16]
Rusty Wallace
It's totally two different animals. It really is in my opinion, after being in television for nine years and now doing radio for the last. Heck, I've done radio now for the last four years in a row. So, yeah, when you're doing television, you're looking at what the viewer sees. You don't have to be calling the race because they're already seeing it and you're basically giving commentary about what you think when they're going to pit and what you would do and stuff like that. Now I still do that in radio because we got the play by play guys. Jeff Striegel and Alex Hayden right now are play by play guys. I'm the race analyst. And so. And you talk about passing the baton around the racetrack. That was my biggest concern, too. How do you do that? You know, because MRN is so exciting and so jacked up, and everybody's like, tells me all the time, I love listening to those voices and how they really paint that picture, you know? And so when I first got put in the booth, I said, how you do it? I said, okay, Dave Moody generally is up in turn one. You got Mike Begley over in turn three in Daytona. Kyle Rickey off a turn four. And as those cars are coming around and Kyle's done talking off of turn four, it's free game. If you want to pick up right there, pick up. So what I do, I use hand signals. So the other two guys are getting ready to pick up. And if I got something, I'll raise my finger and I go, rusty's got it. So off of turn four, every time you hear my voice, it's always off at turn four most all the time, because I pick up after our last corner guy's done. It sounds real complicating, but it's not. It's pretty seamless. You know, when you know when to talk and not to talk. But I like the radio stuff because MRN's got so much heritage they've been around for so long. You got guys like, you know, Winston Kelly, who runs the hall of Fame down there. You've got voice that you hear all the time, like Dave Moody during the afternoon on XM90 or serious 90. But it. It gives me something to do, keeps me at the track and lets me talk about something I feel like I know about. And so I'm kind of like you in that you don't want to leave the track, but when you're at the track, you want to have a purpose. And so if you didn't have your say, well, you don't have your. You got your Xfinity cars. They're there on Saturday, but you're not there on Sunday. But now you're there on Sunday because of television, and that keeps you tied to the sport. And that's kind of one of the things I wanted to do, too.
- [08:33]
Interviewer 1
You talked about dad and you having a friendship. We wanted to get into that at some point, so I guess we could dive right in. When I was a kid, obviously I was going to the racetrack and watching you guys for a long time. I remember, you know, I was at Bristol. You won your first Race and was around throughout the entire process, all the way up till you went in a championship. And then racing against you myself. And it seemed like yours relationship with. Your relationship with dad was just always kind of hot and cold like you guys. You guys could bump into each other and be upset for a while and then maybe friends again. Could you sort of help me understand, I guess, what that process was like with him and how it could go from good to bad and back to good?
- [09:19]
Rusty Wallace
Well, first of all, I'll tell you, my relationship with your dad was really, really good. And we were exceptional friends off the track. You know, the stories probably. We spent a lot of time in the Bahamas. We spent a lot of time on boats. We spent a lot of time vacationing. I took my oldest son, Greg out to the old farm and your dad grabbed a hold of his arm, set him down, taught him how to shoot a gun, you know. And I was over at your dad's shop one night when it was over in Kannapolis. And we're sitting there and he's building a brand new bushcar, back then it was called, and he's building a brand new for Daytona. And it was beautiful. And he was really bragging about it. And the whole time he's doing that, he's sitting there drinking some Miller Lights. And yeah, back then he did drink Miller Light.
- [10:05]
Interviewer 2
Okay, we're gonna be friends, but here's one condition. You're gonna have to drink Miller Light.
- [10:10]
Rusty Wallace
He did drink Miller Light back then. And so we're sitting there and he's telling me. And out of the clear blue, he asked me to come over for some reason, I don't know what it was. And out of the clear blue, he says, hey man, I want to show you this new bow and arrow I have. I said, okay. I'm like, dude, I don't know about this stuff. So he takes me outside this old building, and you know what it looked like? And he takes this thing and he pulls his arrow back and he shoots it and it goes right through the building. And all of a sudden I see his eyes get real big and he's like, oh, crap, you know, and he, he says, come on. He runs inside the building and that damn arrow went through the side of the building and right through his brand new oil cooler for the Daytona, Daytona bushcar. And he blew his oil cooler out with a bow and arrow. And he's like, ah, yeah, yeah. And I tell that story now and then because it's kind of exciting because that's an off track Picture of what your pop would do, you know. But we were really good friends. We spent a lot of time, like I said, in those Bahamas. And then I'd be down there, and I'd come back to the boat, you know, I'd rent, and I'd go down and stay in a bedroom down there, and there'd be a case of Budweiser. He's always screwing with me, you know, always doing stuff like that. But. And then one day, I was winning all them races at Bristol and doing real well. One of our next races to come up was Bristol. So we're sitting down, we're drinking beer one night in the Bahamas, and he goes. He said, hey, man, I need you to. I haven't been running too good at Bristol. Give me that damn setup you use. I said, I'm not giving you no setup. You know, you crazy. Come on, come on. And I said, and I thought to myself, self, you know, every time I try to help somebody, I give them the setup, but they only use, like, 70% of it, so you can give it to them. And it's not going to do them any good because it's going to get filtered out by some crew guys or some engineers or whatever, because they're going to say, oh, no, that's stupid. You know. I said, all right. So I got a piece of paper, I wrote it, and I gave it to them. And I, to this day, stand at this desk. Sitting at this desk right here. I gave him exactly what I run. We went to Bristol next week, and I won the race. And I think he finished third or fourth or something like that. And I said, you used that whole setup. He goes, no, I don't know what to tell you, man. You know, but I would. I was. I was honest with him. But he. He did a lot of stuff for me, too. You know, when they started that, the merchandise business, he got me involved in that and made some good money, and he was a good guy when it comes to that. But we spent a lot of time off the track. But on the track, we had to race each other. And sometimes it got controversial, and sometimes it was like accidental conversation. I'll give you an example. We're at Michigan now. I'm going to back up a little bit. I'm at Richmond. And Gordon took me out at Bristol, knocked me off the racetrack. And last lap, he wins. I finished second. I said, okay to bump and run. And I said, I'm not letting him get away with that. And so I raided three races. I go to Richmond and there's Richmond. And I find myself a couple laps to go. He's alongside of me. I said, it's your turn, big guy. And I stuck him right in the fence. I tore his whole front end clear off his car. He was like. I said, we're even now, okay? Nava said. He said, yeah, but I didn't wreck your car. I said, well, yours did. And so then the next week, we go to Michigan, and I'm practicing in Michigan, and your dad and myself found ourselves side by side going down the front straightaway. I'm the inside car. I hauled off into turn one, and I got loose, and I got loose, and I slid up into him in practice and I put him right in the wall. I. Holy smokes. I've never seen him that mad in my entire life. He come flying out of the car, and the first thing that rang out of his mouth, I'm not going to take that crap like you did to Gordon at Richmond. That's the first thing he said. He didn't say anything about, you know, me and him wrecking. I'm not taking that crap that you did to Gordon. What? Yeah. And then. And then the very next time or the next morning, I'm sitting there, I'm dead asleep, my motorhome, and all of a sudden, bang, bang, bang, bang. I hear something beating on the door. I open the door, it's your dad standing there and goes, hey, man, just blow that crap off from yesterday. I'm over this. I'm sorry, dude. I said, no problem. Okay. That was it. But he was like that. But we would. And a lot of fans, like, oh, man, those guys in a big rivalry, it's not. Wow. But I would go to those short tracks and win a ton of short tracks, and he would go to Daytona and kick our butt, and he'd go to Charlotte and kick our butt, and he'd go to Michigan, and then I'd go to the road courses, and I'd win, and I'd go to. We had these different stomping grounds that we wanted. Sure. And then we'd do crazy stuff like Wilkesboro. At Wilkesboro, one time, Mr. France Jr. Got ahold of us, and we're talking about T shirts back in the day, and we went on and on and on about T shirts and merchandise and stuff. We were having a good time with that stuff back then. It was really. All these different paint schemes and all these things was exciting. So we get in a race, and I come off a turn two, and he bangs me in the back end. And I'm like, what in the world's going on here? You know? So we run like three more laps and all of a sudden he gets a good, good bite off of turn two and bam. Hits me in the back end again. And so, man, I got hot. And I said, I've never done this to a driver, but I did it to your dad. And I come off a turn two and he hits me in the back and I slammed the brakes on. I just locked him down. And he then hit me in the back so damn hard I tore the grill out of his car. Tore the whole front end off his damn car. I tore my bumper all off. And I went ahead and finished second in the race and he had the front end tore off. And then old man France comes down and goes, what the hell are you doing out there, man? I said, just selling T shirts, boss. And he laughed and went off and we got over it. But we do stuff like that. But I really respected him. He taught me a lot. He made me want to be like him at times. He made me want to dress like him. Made me want to sit in a car all slouched over in a car. And he would take his helmet off and come in after a plug check or something.
- [15:51]
Interviewer 2
Ever make you want to shoot a bow and arrow right through your car?
- [15:53]
Rusty Wallace
No, no, no, I didn't do that. I left that up to him though. I left it because he was really. But that was incredible watching it that night, watching him shoot that dog on oil cooler out of his brand new car, you know.
- [16:06]
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- [18:25]
Rusty Wallace
When did you meet him?
- [18:27]
Interviewer 2
Like, where does it start with you and Dale Earnhardt?
- [18:30]
Rusty Wallace
1980 at Atlanta. I went to Atlanta and I tested with Penske. I just ran all these ASA races and I was doing good in the short track stuff and Penske said, I want to give this kid a they put this car together with a guy named Texpile and myself and Don Miller. We went down to Atlanta, we tested, tested, test. I drove IROC cars, me and Rick Mears and we tested the crap out of IROC cars. Kind of get my feet underneath you get my sea legs, you know. So then we put me in that 1980 Caprice and I ran my butt off all day long in that 500 and I finished second and Dale won the race. I'm looking at that car behind your head. It's a blue in yellow number two and that's the car that he won with and I finished second behind him in and that's where we first met and he went to me, said, holy smokes, dude, where'd you come from? You know, And I said, I've been in Midwest, man. I said, where you come from? And then I met him down in Pensacola. Snowball Derby one time. He was running a bushcar down there. Had an old Nova with the fender wells all cut out and the tire sticking out about a foot, front and rear. And I said, oh, man, I've never seen a guy drive a car that hard in my life. And he was just wheeling that thing. And I had like my ASA car, kind of swoopy looking car, and he had this old boxy car and he was whooping everybody's butt with that thing. But I met him at Pensacola. I met him after we finished first and second. And then the relationship, the conversation started from there, and it just. And then when I went over and started driving for the Blue Max guys, those cars were really fast. The late Barry Dotson and Jimmy Macar and Todd Parrott and all those guys really had those cars.
- [20:01]
Interviewer 2
About what year is this?
- [20:02]
Rusty Wallace
That was 80. That was 86. Okay, 86, 87, 88 and 89. And my last year with the team was 1990. And in 90 we won to Coke 600 and we won Sears Point. And then it was over then.
- [20:14]
Interviewer 2
So you and Dale were friends. You met in 80. But when did you guys become like Bahama friends?
- [20:21]
Rusty Wallace
I'd say probably the Bahama stuff. That was probably 90. 93. 93. I won 10 races that year. And that's when your dad and I. I don't know if you're gonna. This is one of your questions or not, but that's when we get together at Talladega and I go, you know, end over in there.
- [20:39]
Interviewer 2
You know, he flipped you. I mean, you.
- [20:40]
Rusty Wallace
You look.
- [20:41]
Interviewer 2
You rolled.
- [20:42]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, but I. I know exactly what happened. I mean, I. It was big run. We're coming to start finish line. I saw him coming. I went down to block and when I didn't got get down there quick enough and I got my left rear corner into his right front fender and I went, you know, bend over in. And then he calls me in the hospital and he says, hey, man, I didn't mean to try to kill you. I said, I know, no problem. Then the next week, I show up at Sears Point in the big speaker. Hey, Rusty Wallace to the big red truck or to the red truck or Rusty Wallace to the truck. All right. I said, what'd I do wrong now? I didn't know I did anything wrong. And I go up in there, and Dale's in there with Bill Jr. And he goes, hey, we always go to the Bahamas. We want you to go with us. And I went, okay.
- [21:22]
Interviewer 1
Wow.
- [21:23]
Rusty Wallace
I said, that sucker's trying to pay me back for killing me.
- [21:25]
Interviewer 1
You know?
- [21:26]
Rusty Wallace
But we did that for 18 straight years.
- [21:29]
Interviewer 1
Really?
- [21:29]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.
- [21:30]
Interviewer 2
Yeah.
- [21:31]
Interviewer 1
So, you know, the water bottle incident is one thing that everybody always remembers. And that was after, I guess, at Bristol, y' all got. The dad got into you and. And turned you around and tore your car up. So listening to you talk, it sounds like that some of that stuff. Were y' all selling T shirts? Like, was that really what y' all were doing when y' all would go to the racetrack and have those kind of things going on?
- [21:53]
Rusty Wallace
No, no.
- [21:54]
Interviewer 1
Like, so how did.
- [21:55]
Rusty Wallace
That's just of a bunch byproduct of it. And the conversations always arose. We had fun with it actually talking.
- [22:00]
Interviewer 1
That's what I mean.
- [22:01]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, we had fun with talking about, yeah, man, we're gonna go sell some T shirts. That was a slogan, you know what. And then we get out there and race our brains out, you know, and. And the fans were really into it, and it was exciting. But no, man, we weren't just out there selling T shirts. No. I hope you're not thinking that type of stuff. But it. You gotta remember, your pop was the leader of that. He was the one that started that whole business and helped a lot of people, you know, myself, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Terry Labonte, and Jeff Gordon. And he was the leader of that. Him and Fred Wagenhalls. And so, yeah, yeah, a lot of conversation there. But I will tell you, you get on that dog, on track, just like, you know these guys. If you want to. If you want to find friends, buddy, you better find your neighbor. Because if you think you're going to have a pile of friends, you know, that you got to race against, they might be friends, you think? But when you get on the racetrack, they're trying to steal your money, too, man, and they're trying to whoop your butt, and it gets pretty. Gets pretty tough. In my. At least for me, it was.
- [23:03]
Interviewer 2
What was the water bottle.
- [23:04]
Rusty Wallace
The.
- [23:06]
Interviewer 2
The high point of any incident between you and Dale. Would you say that that was as rough as it got?
- [23:14]
Rusty Wallace
Can I tell you how that happened? True story.
- [23:15]
Interviewer 2
Yeah, I'd love to hear it.
- [23:16]
Rusty Wallace
All right, I'm going to tell you how that happened. True story. And we're on pit road. Gordon has been kicking our ass. He's kicking your dad's ass, he's kicking my ass. And your dad was sick of it, and I was sick of it. And that particular day at Bristol I qualified really well. I think, like third. And your dad qualified. I think it was fifth. And Gordon was on the outside of us, I think, on the start of the race. And he come. Your dad come up to me and said, let's do this. I said, what's that? He said, let's just get this sucker out of the way and check out and get gone. Because that was one of my good tracks, and that was your old man's good track. Not so much for Gordon back then. But he said, let's just. Let's just punt this kid and get gone. He said, I'm sick of him. I said, all right, and punt and just kind of rough him up a little bit and kind of hamper, because we could do that back then.
- [24:07]
Interviewer 2
You root him out.
- [24:08]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, root him out a little bit and get going. So I come up. We get about 10 laps in a race, and I come off a turn, too, and I get loose, and he's right on my tail. Your dad is. You know, we're like. We're like bumper to bumper, man. We were rolling, not getting it done. You know, we're honking through that field, you know, and getting. Next lap, we're going to lead the race. You know, I come off a turn four and I get loose. He hits me in the ass. It wasn't his fault. It was probably my fault for getting loose, you know, because we were so tight. And I go spin it around and I hit the wall, and then I limp that damn thing around the whole race. You know, I'm frustrated and I get over there, and my son Greg walks up to me with just a regular bottle of water, and I was hot and sweating. He gives me the bottle of water, I'm drinking the water, and I started walking down your man. He was down there because him and Terry Labonte just got into it coming off of turn four. I think Labonte won the race. Dale's sitting down there, and he's got a whole pile of people around him, and I'm mad. And I started walking down that way. I was going to. What I was thinking was, we had a deal. Dude, what are you doing? What the hell are you doing? We had a deal. You're the one who started this whole thing, you know, you're sick of Jeff Gordon. You had it with him. Let's dump his ass and get going, you know? And so I started walking down there. Greg goes, what are you doing, dad? What are you. Go down there talking. Oh, come on, dad. Don't do that. Don't do that. I keep on walking down there, and I see him, and he's about 10 foot away from me. I said, hey. No response. I said, hey. No response. I took that bottle. I went. I slung that bottle to give the response. And I meant to hit him, like, in the shoulder, but I hit him right in the center of the forehead. I hit him right in the forehead, and it was game on. He just blew through that crowd and came over. What's wrong? I said. I said, what? I said, what the hell's all that about, man? You knocked me in the back and I gotta limp around, told my Carl to hell. I said, I'll tell you what. I won't forget it. I won't forget what you did to me at Teladag either. And he goes, you know what? I won't forget it either. Blah, blah, blah. Then the next morning, here comes the phone call and the talk. Hey, man, forget about that. I'm sorry about all that, really. Oh, yeah. That's how it went. You know, it's just that type of relationship. But at that particular point, man, you know, he had it. He could not take that Gordon stuff. That young kid coming in kicking our asses, and he was. Jeff was just putting it on us, boy. And we were sick of it.
- [26:20]
Narrator/Announcer
You.
- [26:21]
Interviewer 2
You actually cleaned up that conversation. Because we were watching that video just the other day. That conversation had a lot more color in it. You did a nice job cleaning it up a little bit.
- [26:29]
Rusty Wallace
Well, yeah, I just.
- [26:30]
Interviewer 2
Yeah, because you.
- [26:31]
Rusty Wallace
So you could tell that, right?
- [26:33]
Interviewer 2
Yeah, but, like, you know, now, there were no punches thrown now. But I want to tell you something. Junior Rhodes was in between you guys. Junior Rhodes being Dale. Dale's guy. And Junior tells a really good story from his vantage point where he said afterwards, Dale got on to him a little bit, and he said, junior, always leave me a hand. Because I guess Junior was holding him back and basically wrapping him up. Although Dale Earnhardt had, like. There was a couple times where he kind of, like, tapped, you know, did.
- [27:03]
Rusty Wallace
That's something on your face. I don't know.
- [27:04]
Interviewer 2
Like, I don't even know if there was a big crowd.
- [27:06]
Narrator/Announcer
It was chaos.
- [27:07]
Rusty Wallace
But I got to go back and check that. When I haven't seen it, he kind.
- [27:10]
Interviewer 2
Of goes up like, little love tap.
- [27:12]
Rusty Wallace
Not. Not.
- [27:12]
Interviewer 2
Not a slap, not a hit, nothing.
- [27:14]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, yeah. Kind of like that.
- [27:16]
Interviewer 2
Maybe, like friends would do, but.
- [27:18]
Narrator/Announcer
But.
- [27:18]
Interviewer 2
But Dale Earnhardt said to Junior after it was over, always leave me a.
- [27:22]
Rusty Wallace
Hand, just in case. Just in case.
- [27:25]
Interviewer 2
Rusty may just swing one one time.
- [27:28]
Interviewer 1
So that we had Jeff Gordon on the show a couple. A couple shows ago, and he said that he felt like that his early success, that you had a problem with it. And you just, you know, I think you. And you just said you and dad both had a problem with.
- [27:40]
Rusty Wallace
A big damn problem with it.
- [27:42]
Interviewer 2
Oh, really?
- [27:42]
Rusty Wallace
Y. I was jealous.
- [27:44]
Interviewer 2
Really?
- [27:44]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah. Because it was me and Dale. As me and Dale winning all them races. It was. It was. We were just getting it done, and all of a sudden here this young kid comes in and whole different style than us, I'll tell you that. Now, you know, Dale's solid black clothes everywhere he went. I'm this kid out of the Midwest was. Got a big mouth going on, you know, and here comes Gordon and making it look easy. He wasn't making it look easy. And I'm like, man, I'm not liking this. You know, you could tell me I was supposed to be more humble, but I wasn't, man. I wasn't liking it a bit, you know, and that's what it was all about.
- [28:19]
Interviewer 1
I think one of the toughest things that I remember you going through and looking back at your comments during that time was the win at the All Star race. Obviously, winning the race was great, but I think the fan reaction that happened from. From that. With. With spinning Darrell or Darrell spinning himself across the front of your car, however.
- [28:39]
Rusty Wallace
You want to categorize it, that's how Bobby Allison says.
- [28:42]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, right. He backed into me. I remember those. I remember comments from you shortly after that and how. How I guess upset or hurt you were by the fan reaction because it was pretty harsh. Would.
- [28:59]
Narrator/Announcer
Where.
- [28:59]
Interviewer 1
What would you describe as probably the low point in your career? Was that it or was there another time that I'm not thinking about?
- [29:04]
Rusty Wallace
No, I think you. I think you're a dead on. On that one point in my career was then because, I mean, a lot of rough driving, a lot of exciting stuff going on, and I'm in that race and it's no points, it's all for the money, and I win the first segment. Second segment, they come in and somehow those cars had bias ply tires back then. And I'll never forget the number we had 88 and a half inch right front tire. We had an 88 inch right rear tire. And so we accidentally got the right rear tire put on the right front and the car is pretty loose, you know. In that second segment, Darrell beats me, but mentally, I know I got the best car. I know I got the best car. Barry Dotson comes across the radio Says, hey, man, we made a mistake. We got the right side tire swapped. He said, just. Just drive it. Said, all right, I'm sorry. This was after the second segment, after I came in. They took him off and saw it. Then I went, oh, man. He said, we're just sorry about that. Blah, blah, blah. Glad you drove it like that. So then I'm, like, all jacked up. I said, I know. I got this baby right again. I got another shot at winning this thing. So in the third segment, Darrell takes off and I catch him, and I sail it down into turn three, and it's sticking pretty good. And I get in the middle of the corner and I slide up and I get in his left rear quarter panel and takes a spin. Oh, my God. That's just dramatic. Dramatic stuff that happens here all the time, you know? But, man, I'm telling you what. Then they took me, put me in the Victory Lane, and everybody's going crazy and crazy mad at me. Like, dude, what in the hell did I do to get everybody this mad? I mean, they're really mad. And the pit crews are fighting. I mean, they're beating the crap out of each other on pit road, and all hell's breaking loose. I said, okay. They said, now it's time for you to go up to.
- [30:48]
Narrator/Announcer
The.
- [30:48]
Rusty Wallace
What do you call that thing up there at Charlotte Motor Speedway? Speedway Club.
- [30:52]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, the Speedway Club.
- [30:52]
Rusty Wallace
Time for you to go up to Speedway Club, because they always took all the winners up there after the race. So I got ready to go up there, and they said, man, you can't take on a golf cart. It's too dangerous. I go, what? So I go, there's an ambulance waiting for. For me behind a dog on Victory Lane. They put me in an ambulance and drive me around, take me up there. And they walk up into the Speedway Club, and Humpy Wheeler says, and the winner of the All Star, Rusty Wallace. Let's give him a hand. And everybody went, boo.
- [31:16]
Interviewer 1
Really?
- [31:17]
Rusty Wallace
Everybody in the whole place went, oh, my God, boo. And I'm like, okay. They put me back in ambulance, took me back downstairs and drove me to my house over in Charlotte in that damn ambulance. Wow. I go in there in my house, I go to sleep in this old recliner for a while. Then I went upstairs, went to bed, and the two police officers, they sent two police officers over there. They stayed in my house that night. And my daughter Katie comes running downstairs, said, dad, there's two police officers down. What's going on? I'm going, it's a long Story I'll tell you later. So I wake up next morning, tell them all what happened. But it was dramatic as hell. And it went on for a long time. Every race, boo. Every race, boo. And. And finally it stopped, you know, but it was like, I still don't know to this point what caused that to be so dramatic.
- [32:06]
Interviewer 1
I agree. I found that really surprising, too, because it actually, like, you spun out a fan favorite. I mean, that's right.
- [32:14]
Interviewer 2
It was dw.
- [32:14]
Interviewer 1
DW was kind of, you know, I mean, he had his fans at the same time, but, you know, he was often booed as well because he won so many races. But. And two years prior to that, we'd basically seen one of the wildest, roughest shows in the 1987 Winston All Star Race with Dad and Bill Elliot and Jeff Bedine. And I, like you, was really surprised by the reaction because that was sort of the norm for racing back then. You saw it almost every other week, guys getting into each other, moving each other out of the way. But I remember you being pretty beat down or disheartened about the reaction of the fans. I think, though, over time, you sort of earned back that trust and fan base.
- [32:54]
Rusty Wallace
Well, I tell you one, I noticed it changing a little bit in Alan Quickie. When Alan got killed in a plane wreck in 1993, I think everybody knew him and I were really good friends and go to the track that night. Allen gets killed in the plane crash, and then I win the race and I do the reverse polish victory lap like he did all the time. I was just trying to honor him, you know, And I don't know, I noticed after that, people got nicer. They got a little nicer, and then it got better, you know, And Darrell and I have always been good friends. We've. You know, we still are good friends. And me, believe it or not, people won't believe this, but Jeff Gordon and I are really good friends. We just. We got back from out there in the sand dunes was about two months ago, me and him and Greg Biffle and Ray Everham and all of us out there, guy named Ron Peratt's place, having fun. So we. We get along real good. But back when we were racing, man, it was. It was tough, it was strong. Those relationships, we would race the hell out of each other on. And it was possible to get along during the week.
- [33:57]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, the other thing that stands out from that conversation and that story you're told was when you won the Winston, you went home and took a nap. Like, y' all didn't go raise hell or like you were. I was so named some of the biggest hellraisers on your. On your team. Barry Dodson and make our knows notorious.
- [34:16]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah. I needed to learn better from you when it come to that. I really did, because I know you're. You're good at that, and believe it or not, I'm damn good at it, too.
- [34:24]
Interviewer 1
But I. I know.
- [34:25]
Rusty Wallace
But that particular night, I didn't exercise it for some reason. I think it was because I was locked in that ambulance all the time. They would let me out. I. I wanted to raise hell and have a hell of a time at that Speedway Club when they took me up there, that was going to be the start. That was going to be game on. It was going to carry on. But, boy, when everybody in there booed me, I went, dude, sort of a buzzkill. Yeah, I can understand four or five of them, but not one like every one of them. This is interesting.
- [34:53]
Interviewer 2
I mean, like, all those years watching you and Earnhardt and all these guys, I mean, like, like, I would have never guessed that, you know, what the fans thought about you, affected you to the point.
- [35:01]
Rusty Wallace
But you just said that that was.
- [35:03]
Interviewer 2
A low point for you. So, like, you do want to be liked.
- [35:06]
Rusty Wallace
You did that. Well, everybody wants to be like, you don't want to get booed. You know, I. You know, you can win all the races you want. Like, Kyle Bush, he can win, win, win, win. I don't care if he wins thousand races, but, man, I don't want to go across there and go. Everybody go boo all the time.
- [35:18]
Interviewer 2
So it did affect you.
- [35:19]
Rusty Wallace
Hell, yeah.
- [35:19]
Interviewer 2
When you said low point, what do you mean? Like, what did it do to you?
- [35:22]
Rusty Wallace
Just emotionally, it just, it just, it makes you go up there and want to put your finger in your ears when you get. Get your name announced. And it didn't make me want to get mean and mad at everybody and I'll show you and just be a jerk, you know, it didn't make me want to do that. If it's just like, man, I don't want to be like that. I want people to like what I do, you know, did it every place. I want people to cheer me and boo me like they do Dale Earnhardt Senior. That's what I want. I don't want to be primary. Boo. Boo.
- [35:49]
Interviewer 1
Boo.
- [35:50]
Rusty Wallace
Not boo or not boo. I was kidding. Boo. I don't want that low boo, man. I want that high Boo.
- [35:59]
Interviewer 2
You don't want ambulance rides anymore?
- [36:01]
Rusty Wallace
No, dude, I don't think anybody wants that crap. You know. I gotcha. I gotcha. Oh hey. Welcome to gift wrapping. Whoa.
- [36:10]
Interviewer 2
So is Saldana.
- [36:11]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Hey, can you wrap these please?
- [36:13]
Rusty Wallace
Wow. IPhone 17s.
- [36:14]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhones iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone.
- [36:22]
Interviewer 1
I'm the worst. I only got my mom a robe.
- [36:24]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Well, it's better than socks.
- [36:26]
Rusty Wallace
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
- [36:28]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
No AT T Mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift.
- [36:34]
Rusty Wallace
Incredible.
- [36:35]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my Aunt Rosa.
- [36:37]
Narrator/Announcer
Forget that.
- [36:38]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Aunt Liz will be jealous.
- [36:39]
Rusty Wallace
Sounds like my family drama.
- [36:41]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my Aunt Willa. I'll take reindeer paper with. Hey, where are you going?
- [36:45]
Rusty Wallace
To T Mobile.
- [36:46]
Interviewer 2
The holidays are better.
- [36:47]
Rusty Wallace
AT T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us.
- [36:49]
Interviewer 2
No trade in needed when you switch.
- [36:50]
Rusty Wallace
Plus four lines for just 25 bucks a line. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and four eligible boardings on essentials for well qualified customers. Better pay plus taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits and imbalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel contact US Finance at griben 256 gigabytes $830 required.
- [37:06]
Narrator/Announcer
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- [38:17]
Interviewer 1
So you talked earlier about where you were winning races. You mentioned the road courses, how you don't have a road course background. Like you didn't grow up racing road courses. How did you get to be so damn good?
- [38:29]
Rusty Wallace
I went to Bob Bondurant out in Sonoma, California. Ran and I ran and I ran and I'll never forget the last day. I was about to graduate from my first road racing school with Bob Bondurant. And I'm out there running and he had Paul Newman out there and he's teaching Paul Newman too. And so I'm driving a Mustang, I think it was, and they were in like an old LTD Ford or something with some big fat tires and stuff on it and they're out there running around. And so I had like two laps to go in my course and then I'm done. You know, all of a sudden I see this whole car come behind me. I'm thinking, oh, it's Bob Bondurant, you know. And guy pulls up in his LTD and just pounds me in the ass, you know, in my Mustang, you know. And I pull in and I get out of the car and I look back and it's Paul Newman. Hey man, he caught me, just beating on me. He's a hell of a road course guy. That Newman was really good, you know. But then, so I went to Bondurat. But then the biggest thing that really helped me is then the Barry Dotson and the guys in Jimmy Macar and Harold Elliott and all those cats, they built me a full blown road course car. They really put a lot of focus in on primarily right hand turn cars. Because back then people were taking their short track cars and putting the gas tank in the other side. That's all they did, you know, and they treated road course racing as a nuisance. It was like, ah man, let's just get through this thing. But Barry wasn't like that. He said, I'm gonna build a hot rod car. And Dennis, now we're gonna go test, we load that old truck and go all the way to California. And we tested and tested and tested and tested, went through every road course ratio. And those were Jericho transmissions back then, did all that stuff. And when I showed up, I won. And before they shut Riverside, California down, I won the last two races. I got a T shirt starts at the very top with Pernelli Jones, Mario Andretti and all these names. The very, very bottom it says Rusty Wallace. Rusty Wallace Then they mowed that sucker down and turned it into a mall or something, you know, so that was a big deal. But then, then it just kind of got the rhythm, you know. And I think that racing on bias ply tires on a road course taught me a lot too. I call it body English. I could learn how to throw the car. I would throw the car and throw it back and forth and throw it back and forth. And then when the radial tire came out, had to calm that down a little bit. But it still got that aggressiveness that I think that you need in road course racing. And I just love that style of racing.
- [40:42]
Interviewer 1
You went to Bob Bondurant's. Me and Steve park went to Bob Bondurant's in 1998. 99. I ended up winning Watkins Glen over Ron Fellows and. And park won his second cup race, I think it. Or his first cup race, I think, at Watkins Glen. So, I mean, that Bob Bondron school, if you go there, that was a really big deal back then. I'm sure it still is today. But a lot of guys would go out there and you could literally learn how to become a road course racer.
- [41:15]
Rusty Wallace
He taught you a lot. He really did, you know, and the only thing I failed on, I don't know if he did this to you or not. Did he put you on that dog on machine where they jacked the car off the ground a little bit?
- [41:23]
Narrator/Announcer
No.
- [41:24]
Rusty Wallace
So it was like a slick track thing, you know, there's official name for it. I forgot what it was. But anyway, they take your car and put caster wheels on the outsides of it. They lift it and take all the weight off it. And when the car gets side where you're supposed to control it, dude, I spun that thing and spun. I could not master that at all. I finally gave up on that, you.
- [41:40]
Interviewer 2
Know, that would be impossible. Close to impossible. It seems like. What made you so good? All right, so you were winning road courses often and early you won at Watkins Glen on like your third start, right? I mean, it was pretty quick. So what made you so good at Bristol though?
- [41:58]
Rusty Wallace
I think what got me to Bristol that I love short track racing. I cut my teeth into short track stuff. Winchester, Indiana, Salem, Indiana. Big high bank racetracks and all the stuff in the Midwest. And you got to remember when I came out of short track racing and Alan Quickie came out of it and Davey Allison came out of it and even yourself, I guarantee you what I'm about to say, you're going to agree with all. You went to bed with every night is thinking about your car. You're thinking about your old shock and your spring and your tires, and it's all you're thinking about. You're not having a conversation about something else. Because if I had a conversation about something else, it's going to hurt my racing, man. I had to be 100% into it. So when I went to Bristol, you know, all I was thinking is, you know, how am I going to get these four tires to stick to the ground? I got to get my sway bars and my shocks and must springs. That's all I did. And then, then I went to a short track and I won on a short track. Duh. Kind of makes sense that my first win would come on a short track, not a Daytona.
- [42:55]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [42:56]
Rusty Wallace
I don't know how to draft, you.
- [42:57]
Interviewer 2
Know, but doesn't everybody start on a short track? Yeah, I mean, like, like you weren't, you weren't original in that regard. Everybody starts on short track.
- [43:05]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, but you know what? Not everybody is as passionate as about what they're getting mechanically about their car. There's a lot of people that aren't super passionate about wanting to understand every nut and bolt on their car. Okay? And I was, and Alan Quickie was, and Davey was taught by his father, Bobby. And I tell young kids nowadays when they come to, hey, man, I want to be a race car driver. What do I need to do? I said, well, you need to get in that shop. And if you get a chance to get in a car somehow, you better understand everything about it. Because if you don't, you might go out there and win. But you're not going to win on a consistent basis. You're not going to stay winning. And you get yourself in a ditch. Most of these guys got to turn to somebody else to have them pull them out of the ditch. You got to have some ideas. And back then, we didn't have no computers. You got to remember that there's no simulation, no computers, no nothing. You had to figure it out. I'd come off the racetrack and the first thing that happened to Cruise chief was stick his head to it. I'll say, what's it doing? What do you want to do? That's how the conversation went. What's it doing? What do you want to do? I said, take that 1700 out of the right front, put an 18 in it. Take that 350 out of the right rear, put a three and a quarter in it. Give me two rounds by drop the track bar half inch. Okay, Hurry up and get that done, go back out. And that's what we did. And we kept going out, going out, going out. And I've seen some drivers get so frustrated. They go, man, I don't know what to do. And that's it, you know, But I wasn't like that.
- [44:23]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [44:23]
Rusty Wallace
And so when I got no short track cars, I was always into that chassis stuff and that. I think it helped.
- [44:28]
Interviewer 1
Yeah. One of the things that people would say about Rusty Wallace was that he would get. During the race or during practice, Rusty would call for the changes that he wanted in the car. Whereas, you know, even more so today, guys come in the garage, park their car, the team, you know, gets the information, decides what to do, what's the next change. They might already have a list made that they're going to go through. And. But Rusty. And not a lot of guys were like that back when you were driving in the 80s and 90s. But Rusty knew every spring, every shock. And so when he was out on the car, out on the track, driving the car, he was thinking about what. What it needs, and he was telling the team often, more often than not, what part to change, what change needed to happen. And, yeah, I think you were definitely one of those guys that knew every nut and bob about their race car.
- [45:18]
Rusty Wallace
Now, if I tried that nowadays, I'd probably get thrown out of the garage because team members now, they're so smart, and they're so good at what to do, and the whole game has changed. And I talk to a lot of current drivers, and they say, man, if you get your head in there and you tell them to do this, do this, it doesn't fly too good. They need to do that. They don't need you messing it all up, because you can't do that same stuff nowadays I did back then.
- [45:43]
Interviewer 2
But I almost want you to try. I mean, just one weekend, that was.
- [45:48]
Interviewer 1
Something I wanted to talk to you about. I believe you said a few times that you felt like maybe you might have retired too soon, like you had a few good years left.
- [45:58]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, I. You know, I think that started because. Did you ever have anybody come up to you and say, hey, man, how much longer are you going to drive? All the time. You did? Okay. Yeah, that started with me and one guy that's a great friend of mine that got under my skin. It was at Indy for the Brickyard 400 was Jerry Punch. And I like Jerry a lot, great friend of mine. And he walked up to me randomly, said, hey, Rusty, he's interviewing me. We're talking and one of the last questions was, how much longer you think you're going to stay doing this? And I'm like, why in the hell would he ask me that question? You know? And then all of a sudden I get these questions from somebody else, you know, hey, how much longer are you going to keep on going, going? And then I'm down in Daytona one time, and Bill France Jr. Comes up and said, how much longer gonna keep doing this? I'm going, okay. I'm getting all these questions. There's something going on because. Because what was going on? The reason I'm getting these questions, because I was on like a 65 race losing streak, you know, and they're like, oh, man, everything's going the wrong way. Probably the same stuff Jimmy Johnson's getting, you know. Right. Currently. Right. And so I got thinking about that, and then I go to the banquet and. And I'm hearing these TV guys wanting to start doing this stuff, and they start coming up to me, wanting me to go to work and do tv. ESPN was one of them and asked me to come up and rehearse, and I did all that, and they liked all that. And so then I tell RP about it, and he goes, you know what, man? You've accomplished everything. You really have done this sport. I know you want to win Daytona and you haven't done that, but everything else, you've pretty well done. And he said. He said, maybe it is time to start thinking about it, you know? And I said, okay. So then I get this offer from espn. I said, let's do it. Let's pull the trigger. Let's go announce it, you know. And so in 2004, I announced I'm going to quit. And I'll never forget, I'm at Homestead, Florida, 2005. Finished like 11th in a race or something, pull off the track, and I'm going, this is the stupidest decision I ever made my entire life. What in the world am I doing? You know, how did I get myself talked into this? How did I go down this road and I got out of that car and I was the emptiest I ever felt my life. And then I go around. The very next thing I do, I go to an IndyCar race because ESPN didn't get the deal to 2007, and I retired in 05, so I'd have an 06. Nothing going on. So I want you to call Indy. So I called the Indianapolis 500. I did all this stuff and had a great time doing it, but I just felt empty you know, man, that took a long time to get over.
- [48:22]
Narrator/Announcer
It was.
- [48:22]
Rusty Wallace
And still every. I was standing in front of your building a little while ago, and there's six kids out there with a bunch of die cast cars. And so I sure wish you'd get back in the car, man. Come on, get back in the car. Why'd you do this? That was a stupid. And the guy looked me in the eye and said, that was a stupid move.
- [48:35]
Interviewer 2
And I go, how long did it take you to get over it? Five years.
- [48:38]
Rusty Wallace
It took me. No, it took me longer than that. It took me eight years to get over it. And I got a phone call from. From Daytona. They want me to go to Daytona and run a Ferrari in the Ferrari challenge. Had 123 cars show up. And I thought I was just going down to do a show. I said, no, man, we want you to go down there and be serious and try to win this Ferrari challenge event. So why you want me? He said, because you're not driving now. And Ferrari said, get one of those retired NASCAR guys to compete with our guys, you know, and the Ferrari challenge cars are super fast cars, you know, I mean, they're 200 mile an hour cars. I went to Austin, Texas and tested for two days in his Ferrari. Then I went to Daytona. 123 cars showed up. I finished 10th. And I was pretty happy, happy with that. And then I got the juices flowing again. I said, man, I gotta get back in this car. And I said, no, I'm not gonna do that.
- [49:24]
Interviewer 2
What year was that?
- [49:25]
Rusty Wallace
Then I got drunk one night with one of my friends, and this is a true story.
- [49:28]
Interviewer 2
Finally, he gets drunk.
- [49:29]
Rusty Wallace
I was up in the mountains. I was up in the mountains and I'm sitting there one night and a friend of mine was there, and there was a guy named Billy Nash. And Billy and I were having some beers and he said, I have a stupid. You getting out of that car? And Childress is calling me. Said, man, as soon as I retired, he's like, you need to get back and get in one of my cars. So I called him up and said, all right, I'm going to come out of retirement. I'll drive your car. He says, I can't do it. I said, why? I just hired Clint Boyer. I got no room now.
- [49:58]
Interviewer 1
So did you ever get an offer that you really considered?
- [50:01]
Rusty Wallace
No, I never. I never did get.
- [50:02]
Interviewer 1
Was there any rumor that DEI called you at one time to see if you wanted to come drive for dei?
- [50:07]
Rusty Wallace
No, no, never to get that.
- [50:09]
Interviewer 1
Wow.
- [50:09]
Rusty Wallace
Not That I know of, you know.
- [50:10]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [50:13]
Rusty Wallace
That'S kind of that stuff.
- [50:14]
Narrator/Announcer
Yeah.
- [50:14]
Rusty Wallace
I think about it all the time. When I go to like yesterday at Martinsville, I see my old car win the race. The two car wins and it doesn't win by a little bit. It just dominates, you know.
- [50:22]
Interviewer 1
Right.
- [50:23]
Rusty Wallace
Was it wins both stages and wins 445 laps. I used to call that every time I would win these old races. I get out of the car and I tell old Roger Penske. He said, man, that went good. He said, what'd you do? I said, I popped open a can of whoop ass, man. That's what I did. And that's what that was yesterday or the other day at Martinsville. Oh, hey. Welcome to gift wrapping. Whoa.
- [50:48]
Interviewer 2
So we Saldana.
- [50:49]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Hey, can you wrap these please?
- [50:51]
Rusty Wallace
Wow. IPhone 17s.
- [50:53]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone.
- [51:01]
Interviewer 1
I'm the worst. I only got my mom a robe.
- [51:03]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Well, it's better than socks.
- [51:04]
Rusty Wallace
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
- [51:07]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
No AT T mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift.
- [51:12]
Rusty Wallace
Incredible.
- [51:13]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my aunt Rosa.
- [51:16]
Narrator/Announcer
Forget that.
- [51:16]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Aunt Liz will be jealous.
- [51:18]
Rusty Wallace
Sounds like my family drama.
- [51:19]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela. I'll take reindeer paper with. Hey, where are you going?
- [51:23]
Interviewer 1
The T Mobile.
- [51:24]
Rusty Wallace
The holidays are better. AT T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us.
- [51:27]
Interviewer 2
No trade in needed when you switch.
- [51:29]
Rusty Wallace
Plus four lines for just 25 bucks a line. And now T mobile is available in U.S. cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and four eligible portins on essentials for well qualified customers bought on pay plus taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits and balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Contact Us Finance Agreement 256 GB$830 required Visit T mobile.com.
- [51:49]
Interviewer 2
Without Dr. Jerry Punch starting the string of questions. And without that, what year do you think you would have raced to then without the pressure?
- [52:00]
Rusty Wallace
Probably probably 08.
- [52:03]
Interviewer 2
So four or five years.
- [52:04]
Rusty Wallace
Probably three more years. If you remember, Mark Martin and I, we announced almost the same time that we're going to retire together. And we retired and we went to Sears Point and Fox brings out rocking chairs for both of us. I remember presents that to us in our start finish line. And we're getting keys of the city all year long. We're getting all these accolades and all these cool things, and 3/4 way through the year, Mark says, nope, I've made a mistake. I am not retiring. And he just pulled out of the deal. And did you look at him and.
- [52:35]
Interviewer 1
Go, maybe I should do that, too?
- [52:36]
Rusty Wallace
Yes.
- [52:37]
Interviewer 1
Right?
- [52:37]
Rusty Wallace
Hell, yeah, I did. I said, so I'm out here in this island all by myself now, and I'm retiring, and I'm still thinking stupid. But I had one of the smartest guys in the world, and that's Penske. He said, don't listen to that noise. You're making the right decision. You're making the right decision. You need to start focus on those car dealerships. You need to start focus on business, and you need to get that race car stuff out of your head right now. You've done that. And I said, all right. He's the one that calmed me down the very most. And my wife Patty. Patty was like, sure, it's great having you at home. You know, and it was just. She liked that better.
- [53:09]
Interviewer 1
So, being sponsored by Miller all. Most of your career, did you. You race the other beer cars a little harder than everybody else?
- [53:18]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, I think I had too little. You know, I tell you what, it was like the big three in Detroit. If the Chevy beats a Ford, everybody talks about it. Well, that Miller guys, they did not want to hear that Budweiser car beat that other car. That's true.
- [53:30]
Interviewer 2
Yeah, that is absolutely true. I remember from our Budweiser days.
- [53:34]
Interviewer 1
Our Budweiser guys are the same way.
- [53:35]
Rusty Wallace
Yes.
- [53:35]
Interviewer 1
When they looked at the finishing order, they want to know where the Miller car was and the course car.
- [53:39]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, 100%.
- [53:41]
Interviewer 1
I asked that because one of the. One of our listeners hit us up on social media and said, it seemed like he always raced you harder than everybody else. And I felt that, too, on the racetrack. I felt the competition, I think, between our sponsors and I was racing the field and the. The Miller cart. Yeah, and the Coors cart, you know, and. But I remember one of the. One of the first lessons that you taught me. You might not even been intentionally trying to teach me anything, but we were racing at Atlanta in 1999. I had a five race schedule, and I had never ran on a big track before too many times. Didn't have a lot of big track experience. And we went down into turn one, and you were on my door, and I almost spun out. I'd never been in that situation before where you could take the air off of the side of a car, you know, and my. And I almost spun out. We raced all day long. It seemed like. Like that race, and I learned so much. When you're, you know, when you're in that point in your career, this is 99 you had. You were inevitably put with younger drivers as teammates. Did you feel like you were a mentor? Did you enjoy having teammates working with teammates, teaching younger guys? Or was that sort of, you know, kind of on the back burner compared to what you were trying to do with your own career?
- [55:03]
Rusty Wallace
Look, I gotta tell you, I'm not proud of what I'm about to say. I was never good at that. I was never good at saying, I'm gonna get a teammate and I'm gonna teach a teammate. I remember when your dad came up to me and we were children, said, we're gonna get a teammate. He told me, I'm sick of this teammate crap. I said, why? He said, because I'm the veteran, and I feel like I gotta be spending half my time teaching them. He said, they're not coming up teaching me. They're not helping me. All the information is flowing the other way, and it's draining me. I don't like it. You know, and then my particular deal with Newman, it just got competitive. It just got competitive. And it was just. Personalities were totally different. It got to where he didn't like me and I didn't like him, and that's what it was, you know, And I tried to get better, and we had hot and cold years, but I just wasn't real good at all that teammate crap. I really wasn't, you know, And I remember talking about. I was talking to Rick Hendrick about it, and I told him one time, I said, man, we're talking about getting a young guy and. And this and that. And he said, hell, if I need a young guy, I go find one and steal from somebody else. That's what he said. That's right. He said, I'll go find one and steal from somebody else. You know, he said this tutoring, all this young guy stuff and spending all this money, you know, let somebody else do it. And so I'm. But I am. I. I'm happy that guys like you and guys like Kyle Busch are spending all that money and time bringing these new guys up, because nobody else is probably going to do that.
- [56:24]
Interviewer 2
That I, you know, I want to ask a follow up to his question. When Budweiser took their sponsorship from Hendrick over to DEI to put it on this guy's car in 2000, they put a lot of money just in the announcement, I mean, I remember him talking about the most nervous he's ever been in a race car was that first qualifying for Charlotte in 1999. What was the reaction from your side of the camera? Not just so much that, you know, your good buddy Dale Earnhardt's son is now into the in cup. He's now won two championships in the bush series. Now he's got.
- [57:00]
Narrator/Announcer
But.
- [57:01]
Interviewer 2
But now Budweiser is backing him. What was your thought to that?
- [57:07]
Rusty Wallace
You know, it was a big buzz because Dale can drive a car, he's popular as hell, he's a great driver and crank comes from an incredible credible family. So they knew what was happening. They knew that car, that sponsorship was going to one hot rod car and one hot rod driver, you know, so, hey, it's. It was competitive, you know, there's no doubt about that. And I'm not sugarcoating this at all. I know you know what I'm about to say, man. I said, these beer companies, I don't care what they say. They hate each other. They don't like each other. Understand what I'm saying right now? Budweiser hates Miller and Miller hates Budweiser. That's just the way it is. It's so competitive. It's incredible on the field. And I've learned that right away. You guys are mean. Dude, what's going on here? I'm in a Bud Shootout in Daytona and I get a Budweiser. Guy comes up to me because I'm in the Bud Shootout and he's super nice to me. And I'm like. I said, I don't trust this dude. You know, there's no way he can be nice, you know, because they all hate each other. The guy was truly nice to me, you know, but I was having a hard time understanding that.
- [58:06]
Interviewer 2
That's interesting. Yeah. No, not only did they hate each other, but like, you know, we learned really quick that even the like for Anheuser Busch, there was multiple brands and the brands didn't like each other. Like, everybody's like, you know, it'd be cool. You run a Bud Light car car.
- [58:18]
Rusty Wallace
Do you understand?
- [58:19]
Interviewer 2
That would be almost as bad as running a competitive beer brand car. Like, the Budweiser guys paid for that. They didn't want Bud Light on their.
- [58:26]
Interviewer 1
Budweiser because Bud Light was out selling Budweiser. Budweiser was like, hell, no. That's a man. Well, so you had, you have Stephen Wallace, your son. He races. Me and Stephen have a pretty good friendship. And he's a lot a Lot of great things going on in his life. Still racing, still out there competing. What's he, you know, what's his future, what's he been up to and how are you guys working together to keep his racing going and keeping him on the racetrack?
- [58:58]
Rusty Wallace
Good question. Thanks. I talk to him every single day. In fact, I'll see him in a little bit when I leave here. But he just had a baby. Had baby. And she's a small one. Her name is Nova and she's about seven and a half pounds. And Steven is turned into this incredible fabricator. You ought to see him. The things he does in fabrication, it just blows me away. And he's built some really cool cars. He's built this incredible C10 Chevrolet truck right now. So he's going to be selling a lot of custom stuff. But he loves his short track racing and he's running all the fury style cars right now. And they're beautiful cars. They're picking a new one up today that the mad scientist over there, Tony Ury Jr. And Sr. Have been working on, you know, and they're going to deliver that to us today. So I can't wait to see what this rocket ship looks like. But Steve loves doing that type of stuff. And he was up, I think the last race he ran was a big race up in Kenley, North Carolina and he was running second with a handful of laps and we blew an engine. So now the next race he'll be up, he'll be at the motor mile up there running the race up there. But he loves the super late models. What he really wants to do, he's hot and cold on wanting to get back in the NASCAR because he's having a good time. What he's doing now, he's got the baby and he likes messing with these hot rod trucks and his short tracking. But he said if I ever went back into it, I'd want to do the truck series. He really likes the truck series. He thinks it fits his style better, you know, but he's doing real well. He's really matured, older now. He used to be wild and crazy as all hell, you know. But that's not the Steven you got right now.
- [60:29]
Interviewer 1
I don't know if you've heard this story, maybe you have, but long time ago we used to go out on the lake on Sunday or. Yeah, I guess it was Sundays or Mondays. Anyways we had a race and it was on the west coast and we would get back from Phoenix at about 4 o' clock in the morning. We'd get right on the boat and go out on the lake at 4 in the morning. And so me and my friends, we got a boat full of people driving across the lake. Sun's just starting to come up. We're going to go to this place called the sandbar and tie up. Well, we get there probably four hours, five hours before anyone else, and we start drinking, hanging out, out. And right around three or four o' clock in the afternoon, I went downstairs in the cabin and went to sleep. I woke up and the boat's running and I'm like, okay, I'm going somewhere. I don't know where I'm going. Somebody's driving my boat. I go up and there's nobody on the boat. I go upstairs and Steven's driving the boat. And I was the only one on it, me and him. And I was like, stephen, where are we going? He goes, I'm taking you home, man. We're going to Willie's. Willy's is my, my, my stepfather. And him and Willie had become friends through the Pro cup series when, when Stephen was driving the Pro cup cars and, and, and so forth. And he's like, oh, I know where Willie lives. I'm gonna take the boat back. We're gonna put the boat up. I'm taking you home. And I was like, all my friends that I had on the boat to go there were gone.
- [61:59]
Rusty Wallace
They left you alone?
- [62:00]
Interviewer 1
Left me.
- [62:00]
Rusty Wallace
And Steven was your designated driver.
- [62:02]
Interviewer 1
Steven was the one. Stephen was the one guy that was gonna make sure my boat was. Got taken home. I'll be darn.
- [62:08]
Rusty Wallace
And see, there's a lot of stories. I haven't heard that one, you know, so he's got a lot of stuff he doesn't tell me though.
- [62:13]
Interviewer 1
That was one of the nicest things that anybody's ever done for me. And he didn't, you know, he, he wasn't worried about where the party was going and where everybody else is. Where everybody else was going, I'll be darn.
- [62:24]
Rusty Wallace
But he loves his man. He got a new one right now. He just built. He built this big houseboat. Oh my God. He loves lake stuff.
- [62:31]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, man, I didn't know that.
- [62:33]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, spearfish and boats and all that, you know.
- [62:35]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [62:36]
Rusty Wallace
Put these big old lights on the front of generators and stuff. And he goes out there, middle of the night.
- [62:40]
Interviewer 1
That's what. Yes, we had fishing, bow fishing. Jeffrey, my nephew Jeffrey bow fishes. And he took me out there and we did that one time. You ever went out with Stephen and done it in the middle of night. It's actually pretty fun. I mean, you just kind of drinking beer and, you know, cruising around five mile an hour looking for these, you know, looking for these. These fish.
- [62:58]
Rusty Wallace
These ugly ass fish. Right?
- [62:59]
Interviewer 1
And there's no sights or anything. It's not like you're not aiming really. You just got kind of pointing it at the thing, and it's pretty funny.
- [63:05]
Rusty Wallace
But I'm asking about that story a little bit.
- [63:08]
Interviewer 1
You should, because I thought that's. That's pretty incredible. I mean, you raised him right. What's Rusty Wallace like as a grandfather?
- [63:16]
Rusty Wallace
Oh, man, I'll tell you what, I've changed a lot. I really have. Because now I got four of them.
- [63:20]
Interviewer 1
Yeah.
- [63:21]
Rusty Wallace
My oldest son, Greg, has got Ian. And then we got Caroline, Olivia, little twins. And now we got Stephen with Nova. And this is something my wife has waited forever for. She's been waiting and waiting and waiting. Now she's just all laid up in the grandkids. And the other day or Saturday, we're over Greg's house for Ian's second birthday, and we got to talk. My phone's full of birthday pictures for little kids and stuff right now, so I'm kind of a little softy right now. I'll do whatever they want. Katie, my daughter's getting married in June 15th in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, at her down in Mexico. And we're taking all those little babies down there, and that's going to be a ride. That's going to be a trip on the airplane, isn't it? Yeah. So they're going to be throwing them out on my lap. I'll be holding on to all those kids going down in that airplane while they're all screaming and hollering probably. But, yeah, I softened up a lot when it comes to that, that's for sure.
- [64:11]
Interviewer 1
Yeah, I bet. Well, man, we appreciate you coming on. It's been. It's been a lot of fun hearing your stories, and we'd love to have you come back. Okay, so, Rusty Wallace, folks.
- [64:23]
Interviewer 2
The man, the myth, the legend.
- [64:25]
Rusty Wallace
Thanks a lot, guys. It was cool. Had had a lot of good conversation there.
- [64:28]
Interviewer 1
Yes, sir.
- [64:29]
Interviewer 2
All right, Bahama friend, you had his number with a big X through it on your car a week after Bristol. Now that can't be a show car. Now that's got to be your car. Look, I don't know.
- [64:41]
Rusty Wallace
I don't. Honestly, I. I promise I don't remember that. I don't remember that. Yeah, I. I do know one thing. That would not have been something that I would have promoted and said to do.
- [64:52]
Interviewer 1
Yeah. Oh, man. I think it's really interesting that back because I did that too. Like, and I had. I had a. I had a Calvin pissing on this guy's initials on my car after he spun me out the week before at Myrtle Beach. And so, I mean. And I thought that that kind of stuff was kind of commonplace.
- [65:14]
Rusty Wallace
And.
- [65:14]
Interviewer 2
Well, the sardine story, that was you and Dale, wasn't it? I mean, maybe that was just a prank. Maybe that was just a. Just a fooling around type thing.
- [65:22]
Interviewer 1
That's what I always took it as is when you'd see that kind of stuff, it was basically just jabs. It was just fun jabs between the teams.
- [65:29]
Rusty Wallace
I never seen, you know, I've never seen individual. Your dad ran in a pack. It never was him doing it. It was him with, you know, Kirk Schomerdine or. Or chocolate or all these guys in this pack and they're all like doing this thing together. I'll never forget when I get in the damn car at Darlington and I get in my car and it stinks so bad I can't see straight. And I get in and I sit down and I feel like I'm sitting in a big old mush and I get out and I like, what in the world. And I pick the seat cover up and it's full of sardines and I back out and I turn like this and it's not him standing there by himself. There's like eight of them behind him. Like a football team. They're like a football team. Back in the. Them up or. Look what we just did, you know.
- [66:11]
Interviewer 1
So the sardine story is true.
- [66:13]
Rusty Wallace
Oh, yeah, it's true.
- [66:14]
Interviewer 1
And how'd you get him back?
- [66:16]
Rusty Wallace
I stole the steering wheel. The next week at Bristol, when Bristol comes up again, we're getting ready to go. He's back there holding court and we used to stick our steering wheels on the roof of the cars and. And so he's over there just going on and on and on. And I just reach up there and take a steering wheel off his hood off, roof his car and I just walked around real quiet. Nobody saw me. Nobody saw me tuck a damn steering wheel off a car. I took the steering wheel, wheel popped off the Velcro off the, you know. Well, no, we didn't have velcro. Then we stuck them on. Then you put the velcro on for the push button on them. So I took this to wheel and I put up my car. And you went out on track? No, I'm sitting there in pit road, getting ready to start the race. Oh, shoot.
- [66:54]
Interviewer 1
The race.
- [66:55]
Rusty Wallace
Yeah, we're getting ready to start the race. And I'm sitting in the car, you know, and. And they're all buckling down and all that. And I'm just looking in the mirror at the car, and I'm looking, and all of a sudden, I see panic going on. They're all going to ape. You know, there's. Everybody's going nuts, and. Where's the wheel? You got it? No, I don't have it. Where you got. No, no. They're going nuts. I mean, it's just getting frantic. They're freaking out. We're getting ready to say, gentlemen, start your engines into doggone Bristol 500, and damn, Dale Earnhardt doesn't have a steering wheel, you know, and he's just going to. Going crazy. And finally I reached up, I took the wheel, and I went. And he goes, oh, man, you got me on that one. You know, I said, no more sardines in my seat, dude. That was epic.
- [67:35]
Interviewer 2
That's epic.
- [67:36]
Interviewer 1
True story. Why did he put sardines in your seat?
- [67:38]
Rusty Wallace
Just because him and I are going for the championship and he was just screwing with me all year long, trying to rattle me. Yeah.
- [67:44]
Interviewer 1
Holy cow, it sure was.
- [67:45]
Narrator/Announcer
Yeah.
- [67:46]
Rusty Wallace
Sardines in the seat, man.
- [67:48]
Interviewer 2
Did you guys ever apologize to each other for any one thing? Like, did anything ever go across the line that you're like, I'm sorry. That was wrong.
- [67:58]
Rusty Wallace
Closest it came was when him and I got together at Michigan, and it's not a. Hey. Like you might do nowadays. It's. It was. It wasn't a man. You know what? I'm really sorry about that. Average. It's a poor decision. It's my fault. I take the blame. His. His. You know, saying, I'm sorry. Hey, man, I'm over that. What about you? Hey, man, I'm over that. Sh.
- [68:21]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
You.
- [68:21]
Rusty Wallace
You okay? You okay with that? Yeah, I'm okay with it. Okay, Bye. That's it. That's how they went. It'll do. You're talking, like three or four seconds, and that's about it, you know? That's great.
- [68:30]
Interviewer 1
It's crazy.
- [68:31]
Interviewer 2
Thank you so much.
- [68:31]
Interviewer 1
Thank you, man.
- [68:32]
Rusty Wallace
All right. You bet. Thanks.
- [68:39]
Interviewer 1
Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
- [68:44]
Rusty Wallace
This is an Etsy Holiday ad, but you won't hear any sleigh bells or classic carols. Instead, you'll hear something original, the sound of an Etsy holiday, which sounds like this. Now, that's special. Want to hear it again? Get original and affordable gifts from small shops on Etsy. For gifts that say I get, you shop Etsy.
- [69:12]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Hey, welcome into Walgreens.
- [69:13]
Narrator/Announcer
Hi, there. Hey.
- [69:15]
Rusty Wallace
All right, hon. I'll grab the gift wrap cards and.
- [69:19]
Commercial Voice/Assistant
Oh, those stuffed animals the girls want.
- [69:21]
Rusty Wallace
Great.
- [69:22]
Interviewer 2
And I'll grab the string lights and some.
- [69:25]
Rusty Wallace
How about I grab some cough drops? This is not just a quick trip to Walgreens. I'm fine, honey. Well, just in case.
- [69:33]
Interviewer 2
You know what they say.
- [69:35]
Rusty Wallace
Tis the season. This is help staying healthy through the holidays. Walgreens.