Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Wallace looks to end 0-for-35 Darlington streak

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Rusty Wallace has won 54 NASCAR Winston Cup races during his 21-year career, but the 45-year-old former Winston Cup champion still is looking for his first victory at Darlington Raceway.

Going into Sunday's Southern 500, Wallace is 0-for-35 at the 1.366-mile oval, nicknamed "The Track Too Tough to Tame."

"It's definitely a streak that we'd sure like to end," Wallace said. "If you'd told me many seasons ago that we'd still be looking for our first win at Darlington after all these years, I'd probably have told you that you were nuts."

It's not as if Darlington has been unkind to Wallace; he was named the Rookie of the Race in the 1984 Southern 500 after finishing fourth and he has a pair of second-place finishes and 11 top-five showings there.

"We've been so close during the years and just came up short." Wallace said. "The fact that we finished fourth in our very first Southern 500 really was something. Back then, they made a really big deal out of being the highest-finishing rookie."

In addition to winning a Daytona 500 -- which he never has done -- Wallace said his career wouldn't be complete until he wins at Darlington.

"There's a few races that I'd really like to win before my career as a driver is over and, of course, the Southern 500 is one of them," he said. "I mean, when you look at all the greats who have won that race -- the Pearsons, Pettys, Allisons, Yarboroughs (and) all the history behind that race -- it would really be great to see our name up there on that list."

Jeff Gordon, on the other hand, won four straight Southern 500s from 1995-1998 and will be looking to tie Cale Yarborough's Southern 500 record of five career wins.

Gaughan apparently is putting off signing with Ultra Motorsports while he attempts to get NAPA -- his sponsor the past two seasons on his NASCAR Winston West car -- to sponsor him full-time in the truck series next season.

Although Gaughan has declined to comment on the speculation, he told the Sun in an interview last month that his preference would to be to move up to the NCTS with Orleans Racing, which is owned by his father, Michael Gaughan.

In his two starts, the 16-year-old finished ninth at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 3 and was leading the race at Chicago Motor Speedway on Aug. 18 when a miscalculation by his crew led to him running out of gas with 12 laps remaining.

Andretti, the nephew of racing legend Mario Andretti, will be driving for a newly formed team headed by Sacramento, Calif., businessman Preston Countryman.

"It's a pain-in-the-(rear) type racetrack because of the configuration and its grip. You can't drive it like these normal types of racetracks that have been built in the past decade."