One of the bigger stories of the weekend's Nationwide Series activities at Nashville Superspeedway, thanks to the fine folks over at Scene Daily, involved a potential move of Rusty Wallace Inc.'s two teams to Sprint Cup in 2010.According to the story, team owner Rusty Wallace said that he'd like to make the move in 2010, but that a lot of things would have to line up for it to happen -- like equipment, sponsorship and other necessities.
But doesn't it seem a little perplexing that the former Sprint Cup champ would want to move an organization that has one total win in Nationwide Series competition to NASCAR's top level?
Let's face it, the RWI team seems like it should have more than just one win [Jamie McMurray, 2004 Darlington] with the amount of support behind it -- both financially and in terms of team owner name recogition. It's mostly been a two-car team with recognizable sponsors on board, but yet has come up with just seven Top-5s since the beginning of 2007.
However, Rusty feels that the shop space, car fabrication area and his current drivers -- Steven Wallace and Brendan Gaughan -- would be a good fit in the Sprint Cup Series.
Rusty's son Steven hasn't exactly blown the doors off his competitors since his debut, but instead has caused several of them to blow their tops after a number of aggressive and questionable moves have caused accidents and other incidents. Examples include an incident in 2008 where he somehow crashed into a garage area fence during testing at Daytona International Speedway and in 2009 when Jason Leffler made a comment about Wallace's driving style after Leffler was penalized 5 laps at Daytona for rough driving.
"If they (NASCAR) penalized him (Wallace) everytime he caused a crash," said Leffler in February, "He'd still be sitting on pit road."
I will give credit where its due, however, and say that Steven did finish 9th Saturday afternnoon at Nashville Superspeedway after starting 6th for his third Top-10 of the season. That doesn't eliminate a lot of the learning that Wallace still needs after getting shoved to NASCAR quite quickly.
Wallace's teammate Gaughan, however, holds the experience to be a more consistent Sprint Cup driver thanks for a successful run in the Camping World Truck Series and a past experience as a driver for Penske Racing's Sprint Cup operation.
Wallace also indicated in the article that he had informal discussions with Richard Childress Racing to be an engine supplier as well as a technology partner -- both of which would bode well for a new Sprint Cup operation. Additionally, the market to start a new team in Cup is a pretty favorable one as long as sponsorship is available because the team layoffs over the offseason produced a glut of crew talent in the market and prices in general have dropped in the supplier business.
Financially, it might make sense for Wallace to move up with the added exposure and more stringent car dimensions in Cup, but on a performance level I think the team could be a large step or two behind.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nascar is an incestuous joke. How are the relationships between ESPN/Fox and Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, and Brad Dougherty not conflicts of interest? C'mon necks, get it together..
As usual, Dope....you make no sense what so ever. You just come on here and slam NASCAR when it is clear you obviously have no life if you spend your days posting comments about a sport you claim to hate.
Darryl Waltrip, Rusty Wallace and Brad Dougherty have no "conflict of interest" and I personally don't get where you are headed with that statement. Darryl & Rusty, both former champions, have plenty to offer to the conversation at hand. Brad is a partial owner of a Nationwide Series team so also brings experience to the table as an owner. There is no conflict.
As for Rusty Wallace fielding a Sprint Cup team, I agree with Geoffrey. Why? If you haven't been successful in the lower tiered racing racket, why would you move up to the highest tier with drivers who aren't as qualified and expenses which will more than likely be higher than those you face in the Nationwide Series.
I am personally not impressed with anything Steven Wallace has done and agree with Jason Lefler's statements about him. From what I have seen, he is hot tempered and out of control. He's like a mini-Kyle Busch with only an ounce of talent that Kyle has. Dangerous indeed.
Kim
On a side note,you got to love the Wallace's 5-hour energy commercial, "We Wallace's don't like crashes" lol. Steve and Mike have never finished a race w/o a crash lol.
Well, first off, i have to say, if Rusty wants to go to Cup, first thing he needs to do is get a driver that has talent. I'd say that if he's goin with someone, i'd say he'll follow Dale Sr's path and put Steven in that Cup ride, but he also hinted to Gaughan as well, but i think both would be mistakes to be in Cup, although i like Steven for grabbing Kyle Busch by the helmet after Richmond in the Nationwide race last year.
He also may take a page out of JTG Racing game plan in that they aligned themselves with an already established Cup team as JTG did that with Mikey Waltrip Racing and they dont look to bad for doing so. My first thought of a team he would do that with is the same one that he has an alliance with as for who he gets his engine program with, and that's RCR.
Now, i have predited that Mears will be fired at the end of the year, i dont care how long his contract last, he hasnt performed in equipment that has been proven to be Chase contenders and has won races the past couple seasons, and right now he's doin horrible and i dont see that changing. I could see RCR let him go, but i wouldnt be suprised to see Rusty pick him up for his Cup team.
The only other option that i see for Rusty is aligning himself with Penske. Now, i think this could be a better deal. If Rusty was to house it under the Penske umbrella, it could be a fourth car extension for Penske, thus Penske, as long as the 12 and 77 finished in the top 35 at the end of the year, Penske could take the 2 car owner points and give them to Rusty's team and use Kurt Busch for his past champ provisional, the same thing they did for Hornish last year. In sense, that would make Penske a four car team and all teams would be locked as Kurt is a pretty recent champion. That's a long shot, but if i was Wallace, id be trying to convience Penske to do it, it give Wallace the possibility to get his car locked in.
i get tired of young kids being brought up to race sprint cup...i understand all about marketing and demographics and all that crap...dont you think that there probably about 1,000 guys out there with more racing experience and maturity?
I have to hand it to you CJ. You put alot of thought into it and make an great argument. I have no clue if any of that is going to happen but you do make your case for it very well.
I will say though that that whole post you put up could have stopped after the first sentence. The first thing Wallace needs to do is get a decent driver.
MBL
Boring story, who gives a rat's butt about anything the Wallace family does. And Kim, you totally missed what dope was saying. He was referring to the close ties between the people named and Nascar, being that they are employed as announcers by the various networks. Incestious....get it duh. And we all know dope is a dope, so why waste time replying to his boring and pointless postings. I've never met you Kim, but I'm guessing you're a blond. As for the current state of racing, I'd much rather see a more experienced driver behind the wheel than the latest flash in the pan from the kindergarden pool. works for me.........
CJ, I like your input and I agree Rusty needs to ride the coat tails of Penske Racing so it can get him a guaranteed spot to get that experience.
I must say though that while Steven has struggled in the past, I do feel he's a legitimate Nationwide driver. I think he gets a bad rap because he's the son or Rusty Wallace. Ever since Rusty retired, I've followed his son, as I'm a big Rusty fan. Shoot I even rout for the #2 car, eventhough I've never been a big fan of Kurt.
Steven does need more experience in Nationwide though. He'll get ATE UP in Sprint Cup. Heck look at Lagano, he's a solid driver and has won a few Nationwide races already, and he isn't doing all that great in Sprint Cup is he? Ofcourse he will in due time though, but I really think people need to lay off Stephen a bit. Yes he's cocky and I actually like that. I think he's a good kid and just lives under the reputation of being Rusty's son.
Only time will tell though how Stephen will do. He did win at Michigan in the ARCA Series, so it's not like he isn't a good driver, cuz he is. He just needs more experience.
Obviously you don't pay too much attention to my comments, Don...which is fine. So I am assuming that by the "blonde" comment you are insuating that I am ding bat. Nice! No, I am not blonde. I've told you before, I have very long dark hair.
And nowhere in the article was Brad Dougherty or Darryl Waltrip mentioned. I was merely pointing out that once again, Dope is off topic. I am not surprised you "get" his bull-sh*& ramblings. I am sure they "work for you, too."
Kim
Without Darryl, Michael Waltrip is Kenny Wallace..
Dope,
On one thing, oddly enough.....I agree. Michael Waltrip is no Darryl Waltrip and Kenny Wallace is no Rusty Wallace.
Kim
MAYBE CRUSTY WALLACE IS THINKING OF GETTING BACK BEHIND THE WHEELS HIMSELF; that's why he may want to move his poor performance teams to the cup.My opinion; he'd be better of go driving for a top team. I DO NOT THINK HE CAN IMITATE STEWART PERFOM.
this year. works for me...