Columnist Rusty Wallace: Sponsor treating fans with ‘garage’ on midway

Rusty Wallace

Thursday, March 1, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

Rusty Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Team Penske Ford Taurus, is writing a daily column exclusively for the Sun in conjunction with Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at LVMS.

We have something really neat planned for this weekend out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that I think you fans are going to love.

Besides our on-track activities, which begin Friday with practice and qualifying, we'll have a real cool exhibit set up outside the track. It's called the Miller Lite Racing Garage and it will be set up on the midway near the front gates.

The Miller Lite Racing Garage will provide our adult fans with an interactive and hands-on racing experience through the use of state-of-the-art racing simulators.

I got my first look at the Miller Lite Racing Garage a couple weeks ago at Daytona and, man, was I impressed. The Garage combines the best features of an auto racing museum with the excitement of a popular bar for drinking-age consumers.

We've got some really neat racing simulators that come as close as you can get to driving a stock car without having to strap yourself into an actual racecar.

We've also got actual racecars from Miller Lite drivers like myself, Max Papis and Larry Dixon. In fact, we've turned one of Larry's Top Fuel dragsters into a bar that you've got to see to believe.

You can get into the Racing Garage -- if you're of legal drinking age, of course -- if you have a Miller Lite Racing VIP Hard Card, which are available on specially-marked Miller Lite 12- and 18-pack cans. You also will be able to get a Hard Card at the entrance to the Racing Garage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

If you're coming out to the track this weekend, you have got to stop by the Miller Lite Garage and check it out -- I promise you won't be disappointed.

In one of my earlier columns, I told you I didn't really do anything terribly exciting during the off-season, but I forgot to tell you about a commercial I did for Ford.

Man, I'll tell you what: the fans are gonna really love this commercial. I was one of about a half dozen drivers who were to participate in the shooting. It's Ford's way of pushing the new Windstar and the hopped-up V-6 engine that's available.

It's pretty cool in that the whole theme is one that transforms from a dealership scene into a racetrack scene. The story line starts at a dealership and we used the one over near the Darlington track for that.

I'm in a suit at first and when the young man and his mother opt to take a test ride with me in the new Windstar, I do one of those Clark Kent/Superman deals almost and change to my driver's uniform.

The young man is sitting in the front and I ask the lady in the back if she can feel the power. Next thing you know, we're zooming around the track and the kid and the lady are practically in awe from the experience.

It was a fun day and I really think that Ford will have a great new spot and hopefully sell a lot of new Windstars off of it.