Columnist Rusty Wallace: Flying myself crucial with NASCAR’s schedule

Rusty Wallace

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001 | 10:56 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 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

With our hectic NASCAR Winston Cup schedule -- which got even more hectic now that we added two races this season -- flying personal aircraft has become a necessity for me.

I've been flying my own planes for more than 15 years now and I absolutely love flying. I fly a Lear 31A jet and a King Air 200 and we've got a helicopter right now that we use a lot for all our sponsors and we're always using that thing a ton.

I first caught the flying bug back in 1981 when I was racing on the short tracks back in Fort Smith, Ark., Springfield, Mo., and all around that area.

I was back in St. Louis one day 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 hotshots.

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 racecars. 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.

Aviation is a real important part of my life right now -- without it, I'd be in trouble, I've got to tell you that. It's an absolute necessity to get yourself around the way you need to do everything. Without that, I'd be in trouble so I'm so glad that I've got them.

We'll be taking the Lear jet out to Las Vegas this week for the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We added the Lear to our stable after NASCAR added the races out in California and Las Vegas.

I've been happy with the ratings I've been able to get in the aircraft. I've got over 8,800 flight hours right now and it's a lot of fun -- but it's a business, too.

My chief pilot, a fellow by the name of Bill Brooks, and I have a fellow by the name of Roland Carroll who flies with us. Between Bill and Roland and myself, we're all rated to fly the Lear and we're all captains on board.

We've all got about the same amount of time in that airplane but I'd say I'm in the left seat more than both of those guys, but we're all equally talented. We all fly about 350 hours a year in the Lear jet -- that's a lot of time in that airplane.

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. It's a passion and believe it or not, it's a big form of relaxation for me.