Columnist Rusty Wallace: Ready for fast times at LMVS

Rusty Wallace

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002 | 10:29 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.

It seems like I always feel good about my car when I'm coming to Las Vegas to race, and this year is no different.

We had a good run last weekend at Rockingham and got good pit stops but there at the end we were just too tight on the last set of tires we put on. We ended up finishing eighth but, man, I really thought we would finish higher than that.

Our teammate, Ryan Newman, tested out there in Vegas last month and he ran real fast. He was happy with his car so I took that exact setup and put it in my car to race with; we're going to make them identical. That's the neat thing about having a two-car deal; he was happy with how he ran in the test there, so we're just going to copy it.

I was glad to see that NASCAR's new one-engine rule, which went into effect last weekend, didn't pose a problem for us because that rule has got me a little nervous, to tell you the truth.

We've got the one-engine rule this year that says you have to use the same engine for practice, qualifying and the race -- and that's a whole different deal for us.

The reason I saw that one-engine rule has got me a little nervous is that we're asking an awful lot out of that one engine. Our engines have been good and our engine people at Penske Racing don't think we're going to have to back up much at all, if any, from what we ran last year on our engines.

We did so much work on our engine development the last three or four years, I'm kind of hoping the other guys are going to back up so we don't have to, but we'll have to see what happens as the season goes on.

I've gotten real used to turning our engines with a lot of rpms so I think I might have to back up my gear ratios a little bit. If I've been turning a motor at 9,000 rpms, maybe I'll only turn it up to 8,800 now. Again, we'll just have to see as the season progresses.

I think the new one-engine rule will help the Dodge teams, I really do. That Dodge engine is a really nice engine, the way it was built and designed. It's a real durable engine, the valve train is just incredible on it, it's got real short push rods and the cam, the way it's built, is really nice.

I can see that rule helping the Dodges because that thing can run for a long time. The biggest thing you tear up in engines are the valve trains and those Dodges are in good shape.

The Chevrolets aren't much better than they have always been and the Fords aren't much better -- but we've worked hard on our stuff. Like I said, I am concerned about this new rule but I'm not as concerned as probably other people are.