Columnist Rusty Wallace: Time to change our luck in Las Vegas

Rusty Wallace

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 10:46 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.

I don't mind telling you that I'm really excited about this weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because I really think we're going to do well.

Since the first race we ran in Las Vegas in 1998, when we finished third, we really haven't performed very well here. The first year, we had the Elvis car that I brought out here and that car was really fast. We qualified 10th and led a ton of laps and then I finished third in the race.

We're expecting big things this weekend -- really big things. Since we haven't done squat here since that first race in '98, when we were putting together the testing schedule for this season I told my crew chief, Robin Pemberton, to make sure we had Vegas on the list.

We spent two solid days testing here at the end of January and it was about as good a test as you could ever have. We were able to spend plenty of time on both qualifying and race setups and were super pleased all the way around.

We ran a 31.72-second lap and that was the fastest turned out here during the two days we tested. A couple of guys ran a little faster a few days later, but I think they may have caught a break with the weather when they were there.

You've got to have the total package to win this race and we hope to have the whole deal working for us this time around. By total package I mean good handling, a strong motor, a good qualifying run, fast pit stops, track position and maybe even throw in a little luck; all that goes into the total package that I'm talking about.

We're confident that we can put all of that together this weekend.

As far as the speedway itself, this is a great track to race on. It has a little bit of Phoenix, a little bit of Fontana and a little bit of Richmond built into one. You can pass at the top and you can pass at the bottom, you just have to have a lot of horsepower.

We think we're going to have a real hot rod here in Vegas this weekend. We've brought a car out here, which I nicknamed "Flash," that debuted at Bristol last August where I won the pole, led the most laps and won the race.

I ran it again at Dover last September and I started fourth and finished eighth. The last time I ran the car was at Rockingham last October where I started 15th and finished fifth.

This is definitely one of my favorite stops on the Winston Cup circuit and I feel like I'm really prepared for this race -- probably better prepared than I have been in a long time.

I'm pumped. I really think we're going to come out and win this baby.