Columnist Rusty Wallace: Timing was right to make switch from Dodge to Ford

Rusty Wallace

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

Editor's Note: Rusty Wallace, driver of the Miller Lite Penske Racing Dodge Intrepid, is writ' ng a daily column exclusively for the Sun in conjunction with Sunday's UAW-Dai' lerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

LVMS weekend race schedule

Thursday 6 p.m. -- KB Home Showdown presented by the Southern Nevada Dodge Dealers, The Bullring, spectator gates open Friday 8 a.m. -- Spectator gates open

9-11:15 a.m. -- Busch Series practice

11:20 a.m.-1:20 p.m. -- Winston Cup practice

1:30 p.m. -- Busch Series qualifying (two laps, all positions)

3:05 p.m. -- Winston Cup qualifying (two laps, all positions), followed by Busch Series final practice

5 p.m. -- World of Outlaws, half-mile dirt track, spectator gates open Saturday 8 a.m. -- Spectator gates open

9:30-10:15 a.m. -- Winston Cup practice

11:10-11:55 a.m. -- Winston Cup final practice

12:30 p.m.-- Busch Series driver introductions

1 p.m. -- Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race (200 laps, 300 miles)

5 p.m. -- World of Outlaws, half-mile dirt track, spectator gates open Sunday 7 a.m. -- Spectator gates open

11:30 a.m. -- Winston Cup driver introductions

Noon -- UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race (267 laps, 400 miles)

One of the questions I got asked the most during the off-season and while we were in Daytona was "What about the switch from Ford to Dodge?" After driving Fords for nine years, our team owner, Roger Penske, decided to join the Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup lineup this season.

First of all, I'm really excited about being with the Dodge team. I had been with Pontiac a long time and I won a lot of races in Pontiacs and then we switched to Ford in 1994 and we won a lot of races with Ford. We fulfilled our contract and I think we made everybody happy. For Pete's sake, I've got a great Pontiac dealership, I've got a great Ford dealership -- I do business with all these people.

When the contract with Ford was up and I knew what NASCAR was going to do with all these cars -- they were going to cut all the bodies off and change everything around -- I figured this was the right time to make a change. Mr. Penske has got a big involvement with Chrysler and when Chrysler came with an offer on the table, saying they'd like to have us be their team, there was a lot of excitement around Team Penske.

After we looked at that, we toured the facility and looked at the engineering staff -- we were completely blown away with the engineering they had available -- and that got me real excited. With this change, we decided if we were ever going to make a change, this was the absolutely perfect time because NASCAR was changing everything, going to a more uniform body style.

We've had the Ford for a long, long time but we felt like we came to a point with the Ford engine where we were starting just to make baby steps -- very, very small gains. To simplify it, I really thought we had that Ford engine tapped out to its potential. We got the new Dodge engines, starting working on them, and I will tell you we've been real surprised and real happy with what we've seen out of that engine.

Reporters ask me if there's going to be a learning curve switching to the Dodge but I don't think there's going to be one. If I've got a learning curve, it's going to be the same for everybody because of the new body styles on all these cars.

I'm taking the engine completely out of the picture because the power's already there and we feel like the reliability is already there. Now it's just a matter of going to the racetrack and altering the springs and the shocks to accommodate the new body.

The first time I got into the new Dodge was at Louisville on a real big test we did with a brand-new Dodge. I told my crew chief, Billy Wilburn, that when they feel like they had a car ready like I'm going to race -- not a test piece but a real hot rod -- to let me know. We got that and we took it to Louisville and it ran real fast.

The switch has all been positive. I really feel like this year's package is faster than last year's package and there's a lot of excitement. It's a good relationship with a lot of invigoration, and I like that.