Columnist Rusty Wallace: Private aviation necessity for most drivers

Rusty Wallace

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 10:51 a.m.

Rusty Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Team Penske Ford Taurus, is writing a daily column exclusively for the Las Vegas Sun in conjunction with Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

I've been flying my own planes now for more than 15 years and, trust me when I say this, private aviation isn't a luxury these days for NASCAR drivers and teams -- it's an absolute necessity.

Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Just look at our Las Vegas travel schedule: I have to be in Dallas tomorrow for Miller Brewing Company's national sales convention. I'm obligated to stay there through lunch.

I mean, it's not a burden or anything -- it'll be a lot of fun. But when it comes down to staying with a situation of making all of our commitments, you have to keep a close watch on the clock. Anyhow, I figure we'll be out of there by 1 p.m., Dallas time.

We have to be here in Las Vegas at Caesars by 4:30 p.m. local time for the Winston No Bull 5 draw. Can you imagine having to leave the function in Dallas at 1 p.m., drive back to DFW, drop off the rental car, shuttle back over to the terminal and pray there's a nonstop flight leaving immediately for Las Vegas? That would definitely be next to impossible.

But this is just a good example of what we face almost every day of the year. At least that's the case almost each and every day during the racing season.

The great thing about it all for me, though, is that the flying part for me is much more than just a mode of transportation. I've got the flying bug really bad. I'm a total aviation freak and have been since about 1984, but I really got the bug even before that.

I've told the story many times about how it all started for me and I owe you readers at least a short version of that story.

I was racing on the short tracks back in Fort Smith, Ark., Springfield, Mo., and all around that area back in 1981. I was back in St. Louis and the guys who ran the Fort Smith track called and wanted me to come down and do some promotional stuff for them. I was like the hired gun back then, running around and winning a bunch of races and promoters were paying me to come in and take care of their local hot-shots.

Anyhow, I had this deal to go to Fort Smith and there was absolutely no way to make it with the commercial airlines. A good friend of mine is a guy named Don Schoenfeld who owns a company that makes headers for race cars. He offered to come and pick me up in his Piper Comanche and we made the trip that way.

I'll never forget how beautiful the sky was that night and how great it was to make the trip like that. I got so excited about flying and thought it was so cool that I immediately went out and started taking lessons toward getting my pilot's license.

I got my single-engine instrument rated license and flew Pipers, Cessnas and Beachcrafts. I got a multi-engine license and moved up to a B55 Baron and then got a Piper Cheyenne Turbo Prop when we won the championship back in '89.

When the schedule really got so hectic that our flying became a necessity, we bought a King Air 200. When we added the California Speedway and Vegas to the schedule, that's when we looked around and bought the Lear 31A.

I just completed the recurrent training for flying the jet back in February in Tucson. I'm sold on the Lear -- it's great looking, flies the highest and is the best-handling thing out there, I believe. Kind of strange is the fact that it was at the Tucson facility where I bought the plane in the first place.

Me and Billy Brooks, the chief pilot for Rusty Wallace, Inc., have installed every upgrade imaginable in our Lear. We've got dual navigation system, the extended-range fuel tanks and larger luggage capacity than what comes on the plane.

The flying is much more to me than getting from point A to point B. It's a passion and believe it or not, it's a big form of relaxation for me. I absolutely love flying and private aviation.

The latest aircraft that Bill and I bought is our Bell 407 helicopter. Now, that's another whole story in itself. People thought at first that it wasn't necessary. Now, I look and see that Dale Earnhardt has one and Dale Jarrett just bought one. You can make short flights and don't have to rely on airport FBOs. As much stuff as we're doing these days, I'll be darned if that hasn't become a necessity, too.

Like I said, I've got the flying bug bad -- really bad.

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