Wallace still can’t get to Victory Lane

Monday, April 28, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Rusty Wallace's winless streak stretched to 72 races but the veteran Winston Cup driver wasn't dissatisfied with his run Sunday in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

Wallace ran out of gas early and fell back as far as 16th place before rallying for a third-place finish.

"Our problem was early on we ran out of fuel and came in a little short," Wallace said. "We couldn't get the car refired and finally got it started.

"We went back out in 16th and drove it up to ninth. I really thought I had a great shot to win the race; we were so close. We've got a winning team, we just haven't won yet."

Wallace's last Winston Cup victory came at California Speedway in 2001. The 72-race winless streak is the longest of his career.

Sunday marked the first top-five finish of the season for Wallace and his first since he took second at Phoenix in November.

"I'm not disappointed about (anything)," Wallace said. "I had a good opportunity to win the race."

Earnhardt fell off the lead lap with fewer than 50 laps remaining after a bad pit stop and then regained his lap with the help of a well-timed caution flag. He finished sixth.

"I'm happy about finishing sixth but yet I'm still really (mad)," he said. "On one hand, it was a championship-type day. We had to overcome a lot to make that lap up and then make it through to sixth place.

"I'm mad because we had a great car and we really screwed up in the pits. We cannot keep doing things to beat ourselves like that. I want to apologize to my crew guys because I was really, really hard on them on the radio but at the same time they need to know that we can't keep doing that.

"I want to win the championship so much -- and I know my guys do, too -- but we need to want it."

Earnhardt remained second in points and gained seven points on front-running Matt Kenseth. Earnhardt is 44 points out of the points lead.

Busch, who earned $5,105,394 last season, has $9,678,453 in career winnings and is 35th on NASCAR's all-time money-winner list.

Jeff Gordon remained third in points and Busch moved up one spot to fourth. Busch, who trails Kenseth by 168 points, is only 16 points out of third place.

Tony Stewart, who finished 41st Sunday, slid four spots in the standings to 11th. Stewart suffered his third DNF (did not finish) in the past five races.

"I'm really happy," Andretti said.

"Even though I was eighth, it feels better than an eighth-place finish."