Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Wallace stays low-key as Daytona nears

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

As hard as it may be to believe, Rusty Wallace is trying to play it low-key as he prepares for his 21st Daytona 500 start.

In recent years, Wallace -- who is winless in 39 career starts at Daytona, including 20 500s -- has all but gone into Speed Weeks predicting he would shake his Daytona slump.

Not so this year.

"We've got a good shot of winning this year," Wallace said. "Testing went really, really good and the engines and the cars just look fantastic (but) I've learned to quit being so bold in my statements going into Daytona. I'm a little bit more reserved but I'm very confident going into it."

Wallace said he is approaching the Feb. 16 Daytona 500 with the same determination he has each of the past 11 races at Daytona, in which the 46-year-old has posted nine top-10 finishes, including a second-place effort in last year's Pepsi 400.

"I think that's what Dale Earnhardt did ever single year he went down there before he won the race; he just kept beating on it and had a bunch of highs and lows like I did," Wallace said. "There's a lot of close calls for me but you've just got to keep on beating on it until you get it.

"I used to go down to that place and have just nothing but bad luck but Daytona has been real good to me (lately); we've had good cars and a good chance to win that race every time we go now."

Wallace said his most frustrating Daytona 500 came in 2000, when he and Jeff Gordon waged a battle for the lead through the front stretch in the closing laps.

"I guess the race that I thought I had won was in 2000, when I was leading with 12 laps to go," Wallace said.

"We're drafting along, me and Gordon, and he gets underneath me in the tri-oval and gets down on the apron and we have this big race going into Turn 1 where Ricky Rudd has got the car torn up going into Turn 1. I had (Gordon) on the apron and somebody had to get out of the gas to keep the cars out of one hell of a wreck and I lost the race right there.

"Looking back at it now, I should have just stayed on the throttle, stayed on the bottom and forced (Gordon) to make some type of maneuver. That was a frustrating race to lose and I thought I had the Daytona 500 won there."

Although Wallace and Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman made the switch from Ford to Dodge during the winter, Wallace said his test last month at Daytona erased any doubts he might have had about the new Dodge.

"Even though we made the switch over to Dodge for 2003, which was a tremendous undertaking, I'm as confident as ever going into Speed Weeks," he said. "We were super strong right out of the box with the new Dodge and I think we can grab the momentum we've built at Daytona in recent years and run with it.

"As for the manufacturer switch, I don't think there's going to be any learning curve. I'm taking the engine and putting it out of the picture (because) the power is already there. We feel like the reliability is already there. Now we're just going to have to go to the race track and alter the springs and shocks to accommodate this new body."

Wallace will drive his new Dodge Intrepid for the first time in race conditions Saturday night in the 70-lap Budweiser Shootout for last year's pole winners.

Bodine will drive his brother Brett's No. 11 Hooters Ford in the Shootout. Geoffrey Bodine, who does not have a ride for the Daytona 500, qualified for the Shootout as a past champion (1992) of the event.

Ricky Rudd and Matt Kenseth round out the top five. Tony Stewart, who has won the past two Shootouts, will start 12th, Rusty Wallace drew the 14th starting position and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start last in the 19-car field.

Bourdais set the fast time of the week at 50.584 seconds (118.781 mph) on the 1.669-mile road course. Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais' Newman/Haas Racing teammate, was second fastest at 50.804 seconds (118.266) and Team Rahal's Michel Jourdain Jr. was third at 50.841 seconds (118.180).

"Buddy is now the leader of this team," Cheever told the Associated Press. "We decided that if we want to achieve the results we are looking for, we need to put all our efforts into his program.

"Since I'm spending more and more time on the business side of things, I see the need for a young and dedicated driver for our team and Buddy fits that mold.""