January 21

Facing his final Daytona 500 on Feb. 20, Rusty Wallace wants to finish this chapter of his career on top.

It’s no coincidence that Wallace chose the Daytona USA attraction at Daytona International Speedway as the site to announce his “Last Call” plans for the 2005 season and beyond. The track is deeply meaningful for most drivers, and Wallace has never won a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points race at Daytona in 43 tries.

During his Aug. 30 “Last Call” retirement announcement, Wallace said he needed to come back to Daytona with the best prepared and best tested car he’s ever had.

Rusty Wallace looks over his car in the garage after coming off the track during NASCAR Nextel Cup Series preseason testing (The Orlando Sentinel, John Raoux/Associated Press)

Now, having spent three days on the track at NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing, Wallace has had time to gauge his progress – and make one final effort to fine-tune for his Daytona 500 farewell.

Wallace’s intense focus on performance has left little time to reflect on one of his final visits to Daytona as a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver.

“When I wasn’t racing and I wasn’t testing, I’ve been thinking ‘Do I want to do television?’ ” Wallace said Thursday. “ ‘Do I want to be more involved with the team? Do I want to get more involved with my car dealerships? What do I want to do?’ The neat thing is, I’ve got the option to do all those things, and I’ve been trying to line myself up for what I want to do.

“What I found out when I got to the track was, I didn’t even think that. I didn’t think about that at all. I was thinking ‘Man, I want to get that ol’ hot rod running fast.’ I don’t want to come down here and look stupid in the Daytona 500 – I want to win the damn thing. That’s my goal.”

Wallace’s team certainly made strides during this week’s testing sessions. The team’s first runs were in the range of 49.50 seconds, almost two seconds slower than Greg Biffle’s 2004 Bud Pole qualifying time of 47.774 seconds (188.387 mph). By Thursday morning, Wallace had improved his results and turned a fast lap of 48.557 seconds (185.349 mph). During Thursday afternoon’s session, in which the drivers simulated race conditions by drafting in close packs, Wallace was the third-fastest driver at 47.890 seconds (187.931 mph).

“It’s been a good test,” Wallace said. “We’ve made many, many changes. A lot of aerodynamic changes; a lot of chassis settings – probably about 45 separate changes on the main car.”

In 22 previous attempts, Wallace’s best Daytona 500 finish came in 2001, when he finished third. In the Pepsi 400 in July, Wallace hasn’t fared better than fifth.

“I haven’t won the Daytona 500,” Wallace said “I’ve gotten close many times and I’d love to go into my final year knowing I got a ‘500’ win under my belt. That’d be a special feeling. We’ve worked hard for these last two and a half days, just really getting down and trying to hunt for things.”

Just how badly Wallace wants to win his first and final Daytona 500 was made clear in a recent meeting with his team.

"I said, 'look man, I want to win the Daytona 500. You better work 24-7 to get it done. It's not my problem we've got three teams right now,' " Wallace told reporters Thursday, the final day of Nextel Cup preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway.

"My goal is to get the No. 2 car in Victory Lane. We had a little conversation with the fabricators and the crew chiefs. They assured me we'd get the work done."

Rusty Wallace, center, may be looking for more respect from his teammate/employee Ryan Newman, but he is still popular among fans as this scene at DIS this week confirms. (Daytona Beach News Journal/Jim Tiller)

Being winless in 22 tries at the 500, NASCAR's biggest race leaves Wallace feeling like he has some unfinished business.

"I got close many, many times," he said. "I want to win this damn thing. That's my goal. I'd love to go into my final year knowing I've got a 500 under my belt. That would be a special feeling."

Wallace also said Thursday he plans to call for a meeting with Penske Racing South teammate Ryan Newman before the Daytona 500 to try to mend a rift between the two drivers.

Wallace, part-owner of the team, said he wants more respect from the young driver, who angered him several times last season, especially when the two bumped late in the race at Martinsville Speedway last October. That encounter dropped Wallace from second place to 10th. Newman took third.

"Above all, what I want is respect," Wallace said. "I remember when [the racing organization] was a dirt field with 20 guys working, and now it's a team which brings in a lot of money and employs a lot of people."

He said he's looking for a significant adjustment in Newman's attitude.

"I'm not in the mood for dealing with no respect," Wallace said. "I feel like we've done a lot for him, and I want him to realize that, and I want him to race me like his teammate and owner and not like some other driver he doesn't like."

Newman, speaking last week, indicated cooperation isn't high on his priority list.

"You can't always expect teammates to get along," he said. "Usually teammates in any kind of sport don't compete against each other, and that makes it super difficult.

"When you mix in egos and attitudes and theories behind that, you can have a very big source of conflict. That's something we've tried to deal with, and sometimes the best way to deal with it is to just ignore the whole thing."

There are two other items on Wallace's agenda. He wants to spark interest in a pension plan for NASCAR drivers. It's an idea he said he, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon floated about five years ago but was shunted aside by Earnhardt's death in the 2001 Daytona 500. He also wants to run the 2006 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.

"That's something I know I will do . . . in 2006," Wallace said. "I never done that and it's something I want to do." A lot of great drivers have run it, and I'm one of the only guys who hasn't. I don't know who I would even think about for a teammate. I like Max Papis a ton. It would be good to see him in there. I could see Jamie McMurray. I could see Ryan Newman in there. I could see Brendan Gaughan. Then again, you've got to have somebody who understands that racing to help us along. We've got to have one hotshot in there for sure."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who tested last week, returned to Daytona to pose for advertising photos (The Orlando Sentinel, John Raoux/Associated Press) Thursday's Testing Speeds

On the track for the final day of Nextel Cup testing ,speeds picked up as teams began drafting in packs Thursday on the 2 1/2-mile oval.

Martin Truex Jr. and Kasey Kahne led the way, turning in the top speeds in two weeks of testing for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Kahne, last year's top NASCAR Nextel Cup rookie, set the pace in the morning practice with a lap of 188.088 mph in an Evernham Motorsports Dodge Charger. Truex, the defending Busch series champion who will drive a limited Cup schedule in 2005 for Dale Earnhardt Inc., topped the afternoon session with a lap of 188.798 in a Chevrolet.

Prior to Thursday, the fastest lap of the preseason was 186.455, turned in a week ago by Dale Jarrett in a Robert Yates Racing Ford.

Drivers who finished in odd-numbered positions in the points last season took part in the three-day test last week, with the even-numbered positions testing for three days this week.

Kahne failed to win in his first season of Cup racing but had five runner-up finishes and was competitive throughout the year.

"Last year there were no expectations," Kahne said. "Nobody really expected us to run much better than 30th, probably, at times, so that was pretty easy to run up front because people didn't expect you to run up there.

"We had a good race team, but this year we need to run up front because there will be more expectations. Last year we wanted to finish in the top 15 and win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award. We were able to do that. This year we need to run in the top 10 every week and get in that Chase for the Nextel Cup."

The Chase, which began last year, is a 10-race showdown for the championship among the top 10 drivers in the points after the first 26 events of the season. Kahne was 12th after the 26th race last year and wound up 13th in points.

Among the other fast drivers Thursday were Jeff Green at 188.052, Rusty Wallace at 187.931, Brian Vickers at 187.903, Jimmie Johnson at 187.805, Joe Nemechek at 187.731, Scott Riggs at 187.707, Matt Kenseth at 187.680, Scott Wimmer at 187.645 and Sterling Marlin at 187.641.

Former series champion Bill Elliott, who will skip the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20 but race in the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 12, got up to 187.496 in his first day in the Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge he will drive in the made-for-TV event for 2004 pole-winners and former Shootout champions.

The six days of testing produced little drama for Nextel Cup Series director John Darby and his staff of inspectors and officials.

"Both test sessions were really smooth," Darby said. "The first day of last week was like the first day back in school -- you know you got all your school supplies with you, but you might have forgotten to sharpen your pencils."

Darby said the toughest part of this testing sessions was figuring out the logistics of Daytona's new garage area. In the days following the July 2 Pepsi 400, the majority of the garage and paddock was leveled to make room for a state-of-the-art facility.

NASCAR announced its new lineup procedure for the Daytona 500 on Thursday, but it was obvious that the race teams were fully aware weeks ago of the rule change that virtually assures last year's top 35 teams a spot in the 500.

"The attitudes of the teams and how they have approached these tests have changed over the winter," Darby said. "The teams requested much more drafting time than what I ever remember. Basically, the third day of both tests was used for drafting.

"That tells me we are starting to become successful in swinging the momentum of the teams to get into the mode where they are more focused about the race than getting in two laps of qualifying."

Since Preseason Thunder is considered a private team test, race car inspections were not mandatory.

"We had a real high number of cars that went through the inspection process," Darby said. "I believe there were three teams not to come through templates last week and all three of those were cases where a teammate did go through. It's been the same way this week."

Since there were no major rule changes from last season, most teams were fully prepared for the test sessions.

"We didn't see any surprises," Darby said.

NASCAR Preseason Thunder continues Feb. 22-24 at Daytona, with the NASCAR Busch Series teams taking their turn on Daytona’s high banks. Each day’s test session runs from approximately 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with drivers available to the media during each day’s lunch break from 12-1 p.m. More than 40 teams are signed up to attend the three-day test session.

On Saturday, Jan. 22, fans who purchase a FanFest ticket can watch testing from the FanZone during the day. FanFest begins at 5 p.m. with bands, pit stop demonstrations, auctions and fan forums with NASCAR Busch Series drivers.

New Procedure for Daytona Qualifying
January 21

The unique qualifying format for the season-opening Daytona 500 has been tweaked somewhat.

The front row for the race Feb. 20 will still be locked in after qualifying. Other than that, it's an all-new procedure for setting the starting lineup for the NASCAR Nextel Cup event.

Series director John Darby announced the changes Thursday, noting that the top 35 in last year's owners' points are assured a spot in the 43-car Daytona lineup. The order will be determined by qualifying on Feb. 13 and by twin 150-mile qualifying races on Feb. 17.

Darby said the starting order for those races, each extended by 25 miles and renamed the Gatorade Duel, will be set by qualifying. The top 35 in points will be divided between the two, with the teams finishing in odd-numbered positions in 2004 in the first race and the even-numbered finishers in the second.

Teams that didn't finish in the top 35 will make the twin lineups by virtue of their Daytona qualifying.

Starting positions in the 500-mile main event will be determined by results of the 150-milers.

Filling out the lineup will be the top two non-top-35 finishers from each of the twin events and the remaining fastest drivers from qualifying.

NASCAR previously announced it has eliminated the use of provisional starters in 2005 and will assure the current top 35 in the car-owner points of making each race. The rest of the field at events after Daytona will be filled through qualifying speeds.

The 43rd spot in the lineup will be held at each race for any former series champion who is not among the top 35 or does not make the field by through speed. At Daytona, that option probably will not be needed because all the active past champs except Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott, who are not entered, are among the top 35

Mike Wallace is driving the No. 4 Chevrolet owned by Larry McClure. McClure finished 36th in 2004 owner points.

"Maybe they should park them guys in the top 35 and let us guys race against each other in one race," Wallace said. "It always seems to work out, but before you could race your way in. It didn't matter where you were at (in points). We'll make the best of it."