Columnist Rusty Wallace: ‘Happy Hour’ isn’t always pleasant

Rusty Wallace

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 10:16 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.

The final NASCAR Winston Cup practice on Saturday before Sunday's race is called "Happy Hour," but sometimes it isn't so happy.

Take what happened two weeks ago at Daytona, for example. I pulled my Miller Lite Team Penske Ford Taurus off the track early in Happy Hour at Daytona because I was really running good and I wasn't liking what I was seeing out there in the drafts -- I think everybody was getting way too crazy and real racy when they didn't need to be racy.

So, I pulled my car off the track and as soon as we parked it, the rest of them crashed, so I got lucky that I wasn't involved in the thing. Then again, my teammate Jeremy Mayfield and the fellows he was running with were all quality drivers. But I heard they were trying to get around a car that was on the apron and that car got up on the track a little bit and everybody took evasive maneuvers and got themselves in a crash.

If the car's really good on Saturday and I'm making those long runs during Happy Hour, I'll want to mix it up with other drivers just a little bit to see how the air affects my car. When I do that, I'm going to mix it up with the right people -- drivers I trust and feel comfortable around.

I'm not going to name names, but I've got people I just don't feel comfortable running with. I just know that, unfortunately, there are guys who get real racy at the wrong time and they get themselves in a lot of trouble and those just aren't the guys you want to hang around. A lot of that happens at Daytona and Talladega more than anywhere else, where guys just can't be patient.

But, for the most part in NASCAR right now, we've got the best group of drivers we've had in a long time. We've also got a bunch of hungry drivers that are willing to hang it out there. They've got to get successful real quick because they've got a gun to their heads from their sponsors and their owners. Fortunately, I'm not involved in that.

As far as the race goes, besides the Winston No Bull 5 million-dollar bonus, Ford has a big deal going on; they're looking for their 500th victory. I'm also looking for my 50th victory, but every time I talk about the 50th, it never happens. So I'll just quit talking about it and when it happens, it happens.

Winning Ford's 500th wouldn't mean near as much as the 50th, no doubt about that, but it's real important whenever you can do something for your sponsor. Somebody's going to get it, and I really feel confident that a Ford will win Sunday -- I just hope it's me.

That would really be a Cinderella ending -- to be able to go out there and get Ford's 500th win and also my 50th win and win the million all in the same week. I've got a lot on the line this week, I really do. It's a big weekend for me.

You hear people talk a lot about race strategy but I'll tell you, there's not a whole lot of strategy in NASCAR nowadays. Back in the old days, we used to just log laps and take it easy on the equipment and be in position to strike and try to win the race at the end.

Nowadays, it's so important to get bonus points that everybody is running every single lap like it's a qualifying lap. The engines are living longer nowadays, they're not blowing up, the pit crews are stellar -- they're always on their game -- so, basically, nowadays we're running races like a qualifying lap.

We're making sure that we don't extend the cars too hard, but the equipment these days seem like it's able to take it.

I hope you all enjoy the race Sunday and I hope we make some new fans for NASCAR this weekend. I'll be writing my last column of the week for the Sun on Monday, and hopefully I'll be able to tell you all about winning the race and the million-dollar bonus. 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.