Columnist Rusty Wallace: New garage policy has helped get work done

Rusty Wallace

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 11:45 a.m.

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

There has been a lot of talk about NASCAR's new garage policy as far as limiting the amount of time fans can be in the garage on race weekends, and I really have to commend NASCAR for what they have done.

The new policy has definitely helped, there's no doubt about that. We've done things like you can't let anybody into the garage 30 minutes before practice starts and not at all while the track is hot -- that is, when there are racecars on the track.

NASCAR has to do a little tailoring with the rules, though. What we found out at Daytona is that they opened the garages back up 10 minutes after practice was over and that was wrong. We were still on the pit road getting our tire temperatures and as we pushed the cars back into the garage area, they opened the gates and flooded the place. We couldn't even get the cars back into the garage because there were so many people running around.

They've got to move that to about 30 minutes after practice before they let the fans back in. But it was so much nicer being able to work on the cars and concentrate instead of just being flooded with people who just want to hang out.

Now, don't get me wrong: I love my race fans and we try to do everything we possibly can to accommodate them. But in that garage area, it just got to where it was just ridiculous. There were people in there that had nothing to do with racing whatsoever; they were there solely just to get as many autographs as they possibly could.

I always try to take care of my fans. I love being with the fans and I love signing their stuff. I appreciate everything they do for me because without the fans we would be in some serious trouble. That's the reason why almost every Saturday I try to go out to my merchandise trailer and sign autographs and mingle with the fans.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that this weekend in Las Vegas because of the sponsorship commitments I've got. But I will be doing a lot of things for my sponsors all over the city this weekend and there will be a lot of opportunities for fans to come out and meet me and get an autograph or a picture.

Another good spot for fans to check out where I will be signing autographs is on my website, rustywallace.com. If you go to the autograph section of the website, it lists the entire schedule for where I'll be signing at various tracks this season.