NASCAR: Is this the end of the road for Miller Lite?
1990 to 2005: Rusty Wallace and the legend of the “Blue Deuce”
Miller switched over to 1989 NASCAR Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace and the #27 Blue Max Racing Pontiac in 1990. Wallace’s last two seasons were six-win seasons which featured at least 20 top 10 finishes.
The late 1980s and early 1990s was when Wallace was in his prime. But 1990 saw a new brew and famous livery on the #27 car: the Miller Genuine Draft black and yellow trim.
He started off the year with three consecutive top seven finishes, but the negatives answered back with three straight poor races. He was able to win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Sonoma Raecway a few weeks later. He finished the year in sixth place in the championship standings
The next two years produced similar results. The bigger storyline late in 1990 was that Wallace drove for Roger Penske’s new team after Penske purchased the Blue Max Racing organization, and Wallace even swapped numbers from #27 to his grassroots number of #2.
He produced similar results, winning at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway in 1991, and adding another win at Richmond Raceway in 1992. During those two seasons, he recorded a total of 14 top five finishes and 26 top 10 finishes.
In 1993 was when Wallace turned it up a notch. Despite a scary tumble down the back straightaway in the Daytona 500, he recovered with a victory at Rockingham Speedway and then went on to record three consecutive wins a few weeks later at Bristol Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
But his run for a championship hit a huge road block before the halfway mark of the season.
At Talladega Superspeedway while coming to the checkered flag, his car spun and got airborne just before crossing the finish line, It flipped wildly after placing sixth. Wallace suffered minor injuries from the crash, but he continued to compete the rest of the season.
He then failed to finish four consecutive races. He rebounded, winning six more times that season and placing in the top five in nearly every race. He even won the season finale, but he finished in second place in the championship standings behind Dale Earnhardt, who won only six races but had a better average finish and fewer DNFs.
Penske Racing made a switch from Pontiac to Ford after the 1993 season, and in two of the next three seasons, Wallace won at least five races. He finished no lower than seventh place in the championship standings during these three years.
When we hit 1997, we also hit one of the most notable paint schemes in the sport. Miller Lite was the new brand in 1997, and thus the “Blue Deuce” was born.
Throughout the next three years, Wallace wasn’t really a consistent frontrunner, despite winning one race in each of those three seasons. He did manage a fourth place finish in the championship standings in 1998.
Turning the page to a new millennium, Wallace had his best year with Miller Lite on the hood in 2000 with four wins, 12 top five finishes and 20 top 10 finishes in 34 races. He also recorded a career-high in pole positions with nine en route to a seventh place finish in the championship standings.
The final five years of Wallace’s career were tough, as he only picked up two more wins, one at Auto Club Speedway in 2001 and another at Martinsville Speedway in 2004, the only time he won driving a Dodge. The 2002 season was his first winless season since 1985, when he was in just his second full season in the Cup Series. His ride was handed off to another former Cup champion.