NASCAR Cup

Rockingham Wally Dallenbach Preview

Dallenbach gets one last chance at the plate Major League Baseball's last World Series of the century begins Saturday. Wally Dallenbach's last run in the No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet with the World Series paint scheme will take place Sunday at ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Dallenbach gets one last chance at the plate

Major League Baseball's last World Series of the century begins Saturday. Wally Dallenbach's last run in the No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet with the World Series paint scheme will take place Sunday at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

Dallenbach's Budweiser Monte Carlo has carried the special paint scheme in three October races, and he'll get one more chance to drive the red No. 25 Chevy in Sunday's Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race.

Budweiser is the "Official Beer" of Major League Baseball and NASCAR, and Dallenbach would like nothing better than to park his World Series car in the winner's circle at Rockingham.

"We're looking for a good run on Sunday at Rockingham," Dallenbach said. "We had a pretty good race there in February, and I think we'll be better this time around. This is the last chance to come through with the baseball car, so we're going to try to make the most of it."

Dallenbach finished 17th at Rockingham earlier this season, and combined with his 12th-place run in the season-opening Daytona 500, moved to ninth in the Winston Cup standings. The 36-year-old New Jersey native finished 35th last week in the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway but enjoyed quite a run before losing the power steering.

"We qualified seventh and got out front by the 17th lap at Talladega," Dallenbach said. "The Budweiser Chevy led three laps, and I thought we really had something for 'em at Talladega.

"It's just a shame we had problems, but that's all part of the game. I guess it's the same way in baseball. Heck, you can have problems in any sport, but you can't give up. There's always the next race, and the next race for us is Sunday at Rockingham.

"I know (crew chief) Tony Furr will have the car set up right for Rockingham, and I'm really looking forward to these final four races with the Budweiser team. If we can just get a break or two along the way, I think we can contend in each of these last races."

Dallenbach dropped to 19th in the Winston Cup standings following last week's race at Talladega. He's only 74 points behind 15th-place Sterling Marlin and could easily pick up that much ground in the final four events.

With finishes of seventh, fifth, 14th and seventh in a four-race stretch in the summer beginning with the Jiffy Lube 300 at Loudon, N.H., in July, Dallenbach moved from 21st to 15th in the standings.

"With the way the points are right now, it'll be tough to make up six spots in the standings in the final four races, but I think we can move up to 15th. I've said all season long that this is a top 15 team, and I've said all year that we can win races.

"I still believe we can win. It sure felt great running out front at Talladega, and it'd be fantastic to finish that way. We've got good motors, good cars and a good crew. Everything is in place to win, and I really think we can give 'em a run for their money in these last four races."

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