NASCAR: Rusty Wallace’s Five Most Significant Wins
By Mike Hutton
The next installment of our series highlighting a driver’s five most significant wins will feature Hall-of-Fame member Rusty Wallace. We will be alternating between active drivers, recently retired (but still involved with the sport) drivers and Hall-of-Fame inductees throughout the 2016 season.
Most anyone who has spent any time at a NASCAR race either in person or in front of a TV can recognize Rusty Wallace. He’s a colorful personality with a Midwestern work ethic and Southern twang to his style. He speaks today as a knowledgeable veteran ambassador for the sport, but there was a time where he was cocky and reckless. He’s made friends, he’s made enemies. He also was damn good at what he did.
Rusty was the 1984 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, and he followed that by winning the Winston Cup just five years later in 1989. He is a member of four of motor racing’s most prestigious halls-of-fame: The National Motorsports Press Association (2010,) the NASCAR Hall-of-Fame (2013,) the International Motorsports Hall-of-Fame (2013) and the Motorsports Hall-of-Fame of America (2014.)
Wallace began his career on the short tracks of Florida in the late 1970s, followed by some time on the ASA circuit, where he won the 1983 Championship alongside future NASCAR stars such as Mark Martin, Alan Kulwicki and Dick Trickle. He finished second in his very first NASCAR race (Atlanta, 1980.)
His career included 55 Sprint Cup wins, most of them coming on the legacy short tracks of the south, where the series has it’s roots. He was no stranger to victory late at places like Bristol, Martinsville, North Wilkesboro and Richmond. He won on road courses at Riverside, Sonoma and Watkins Glen. Glaringly, he never did win a points-paying race at either of the restrictor-plate tracks at Daytona or Talladega. Let’s take a look back at five of his memorable victories, although when examining the career of a Hall-of-Fame inductee with 55 career wins, choosing just five is challenging.
Next: #5 - Martinsville, April 2004