I'll Tell Ya What--I'm A Robot

"If you don't have heartfelt sympathy for Rusty Wallace, you must be a robot."
~ Luke, Thunder Lounge

I must be a robot, because I don't feel this heartfelt sympathy for Rusty "I'll tell ya what" Wallace ... Not because "his heart has to be breaking inside as he watches his son grow on the track." At least not this week.

I snoozed through most of the Busch race Saturday, but I did manage to catch the first caution brought out by Steve Wallace ... And yes, my first thought was, what a surprise ... And by then, ESPN had already overdosed me on the Wallace family outing, so I figured I was going to be annoyed with just about anything Rusty was going to have to say about his son's crash. He did not disappoint.

First, he went off about how Steve's been having nothing but problems at this young age, trying to get these cars going, trying to understand them. Had a crew chief change last week to make the performance better, but that doesn't seem to have helped so far ...

Then, they found out Steve crashed because the brakes went out on the Rusty Wallace Inc. #66 Dodge.

Nice one, dad.

I'll tell ya what ... I'm just not a fan of Rusty in the booth. Especially not when he's calling a race with family members and supercalifragilisticexpialidociously not when his son is racing, which is all of them so far. He flat out dissed his kid's performance and had the nerve to say the crew chief change hasn't helped yet ... five laps into their first race together! Where's the heartfelt sympathy for Steven for having to put up with his dad?

No sympathy for Rusty here. Besides, Steve is holding his own in the 18th position in his first full-time season, with 11 full-time Nextel Cup drivers ahead of him. Yeah, there's room for improvement--and Steven does have more than his fair share of bad breaks--but it's not time to get out the box of tissues just yet.

I do wish that Rusty would be shifting his efforts towards his NASCAR team ownership and his son's career rather than broadcasting, instead of the other way around. But I'll bet ESPN pays better.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-27-2007 @ 7:29AM

sis said...

I too do not see Rusty as a broadcaster. He needs to give that time to his son and the team and let others work the booth like Kyle Petty. Now he was good at it as is Kenny Wallace or Darrell Waltrip who also are brothers/drivers but do an awesome job in the booth too. Rusty is just too boring as a tv personality. Sorry Rusty. Just not your nitche.

7-27-2007 @ 7:53AM

Drty said...

You have no clue how involved in Stephen and the race team really is. Great article...very well informed....not.

Rusty is there all the time, focusing on Steve all the time.

7-27-2007 @ 11:09AM

racing20guy said...

Rusty flat-out blows in the booth. Put Kenny in there! Kenny Wallace is absolutely hilarious, did anyone catch him on Speed for the Bud Shootout draw?

7-27-2007 @ 11:13AM

RingoJb said...

I tell ya what, Kenny might be ok. but i can see him trying to overshadow everyone else. Darrel and Micheal and Kyle petty are the top 3 in my book. I have a feeling teh 4 letter network is going to hurt nascar more than help. and it all starts with the booth...rusty will fail miserably. Plus the air off the cars graphic isn't going to help...no nascar fan wants to see that.

7-27-2007 @ 12:31PM

Martie said...

I don't care for him in the booth either. He always make excuses for his son. I also don't like the fact he will be doing the Nextel races now. He always like dogging Jr.

7-27-2007 @ 4:49PM

bud said...

Rusty's son cant drive, never will be a top driver and he attitude problem..He thinks because hes Rusty's son hes great and everone is picking on him lol . The acorn dont fall far from the tree.

7-27-2007 @ 7:36PM

Gail Jr said...

I have never cared for Rusty Wallace. He is an egomaniac and if I here "when I did this, when I did that" one more time... He does nothing but make up excuses for Steven's inexperience, and for that, I feel bad for Steven. Steven is a good race car driver, just needs some experience in the seat and a little patience, But damn, if I had Russell for a Dad, I'd probably be anxious to perform well and get him off my back too ***rolls eyes***