NASCAR O'Reilly

Bristol II: Rusty Wallace Racing preview

RWR at Bristol. RWR AT BRISTOL: In 21 starts at Bristol, Rusty Wallace Racing cars have posted three pole wins and 12 top-ten finishes, including four of their last five starts. David Stremme and Steve Wallace posted top-five and top-ten finishes, ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:21 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

RWR at Bristol.

RWR AT BRISTOL: In 21 starts at Bristol, Rusty Wallace Racing cars have posted three pole wins and 12 top-ten finishes, including four of their last five starts. David Stremme and Steve Wallace posted top-five and top-ten finishes, respectively, for RWR in last year's running of this weekend's event. Brendan Gaughan won the pole for RWR in this year's spring race at Bristol.

STEVE WALLACE AT BRISTOL: Quickly becoming known as one of the Nationwide Series' short track aces, Steve Wallace enters this weekend as one of only four drivers--and the only Nationwide Series driver--with top-ten finishes in both of the two previous races at "Thunder Valley." Wallace scored his first career Nationwide Series pole at Bristol in the spring of 2007 and has three top-five starts in six attempts at the track. He won the inaugural Food City 150 UARA race at Bristol in 2004.

BRENDAN GAUGHAN AT BRISTOL: Brendan Gaughan has shown speed at Bristol in all three of NASCAR's national series. He was the pole winner for RWR in this year's spring Nationwide Series event at Bristol. In five career truck series starts at Bristol, Gaughan has three top five starts (two outside poles) and two top-five finishes--including a runner-up effort in 2007. In the spring Cup Series race in 2004, Gaughan started seventh and seemed poised for a top-five finish until a late-race accident relegated him to a lead-lap, top-20 finish.

Notes of Interest.

DRIVER APPEARANCES: Brendan Gaughan is tentatively slated appear--on behalf of 5-Hour Energy--at Food City Race Night in Bristol, TN on Thursday evening. Steve Wallace is tentatively scheduled to appear at Food City Race Night in Knoxville, TN on Wednesday evening.

TIRE TEST: Steve Wallace was one of two Nationwide Series drivers who participated in a Goodyear tire test at Bristol in early July. He and No. 27-Jason Keller joined drivers representing all three of NASCAR's national series, in an attempt to determine the optimal tire compound for this weekend's event at Bristol.

WELCOME ABOARD: Rusty Wallace Racing and 5-Hour Energy are pleased to welcome Food City as a partner on Brendan Gaughan's No. 62 car for this weekend's event at Bristol.

RUSTY AT THE WHITE HOUSE: Rusty Wallace is part of a NASCAR delegation that will be honored by U.S. President Barack Obama in an event on the South Lawn of The White House this Wednesday. The delegation will also include the Top-12 in the 2008 Chase for the Cup and several former past champions, among others.

MOVING ON UP: Through the 23-race mark of the year, Steve Wallace's statistics are up in almost every key statistical category over his 2007 and 2008 seasons. For example, Wallace's average finish of 16.0 is over ten spots better than 2007 and more than two positions better than 2008. His 15 top-15 finishes are 12 more than at this point in 2007 and seven more than 2008. His sixth-place ranking at the 23-race mark is nine positions better than in 2007 and seven positions better than his ranking in 2008.

Chassis Information.

NO. 66: STEVE WALLACE: Wallace's primary chassis for this weekend is RWR-035. The "35 car" boasts two top-fives and five top-ten finishes in nine overall starts with Wallace aboard. It has made three starts in 2009, all with Wallace at the controls: ORP, Milwaukee and New Hampshire. In those three races, chassis 035 scored one top-five and two top-ten finishes, with its worst effort barely missing the top-ten: an 11th-place run at New Hampshire. Wallace's backup car for this weekend is RWR-038, which scored a top-15 earlier this year at Texas, in its only start.

NO. 62: BRENDAN GAUGHAN: Brendan Gaughan's primary car this weekend is RWR-025. Car 025 has made four starts with Gaughan in 2009, at Nashville I, Darlington, Nashville II and Iowa. It posted top-15 starts in three of those events. Gaughan's backup for the weekend is RWR-020, which scored a top-ten finish earlier this year at Auto Club Speedway.

The Wheelmen on Bristol Motor Speedway.

STEVE WALLACE (NO. 66 USFIDELIS CHEVROLET): "It's Bristol. That's all I need to say. It's hands down my favorite racetrack and is somewhere that I know we're capable of running up front and hopefully, competing for the win.

"My whole family has had success at Bristol, so it'd be a perfect place to pick up my first win. Our team has been pretty steady as of late, but now, we've got to step up our game and start running further up front. This weekend would be a great time to start making that happen."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (NO. 62 5-HOUR ENERGY EXTRA STRENGTH CHEVROLET): "I love racing at Bristol, especially under the lights. It's going to be a packed house on Saturday night and this race is one of the races that everyone wants to win the most.

"I've had a pretty good amount of success at Bristol in the past in all of the NASCAR national series. We had a great car there in the Spring; we sat on the pole, but just had a freak tire failure right at the beginning. After that, we were one of the fastest cars on the track, but we just didn't get the chance really to show it. I'm ready to change that this time around."

-credit: rwr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Bristol II: Series round 24 preview

Next article Bristol II: Trevor Bayne preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Five things to look out for at the F1 Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

59 min

Five things to look out for at the F1 Mexico GP

Every time NASCAR took a win away due yellow line violations

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

1 h

Every time NASCAR took a win away due yellow line violations

Max Verstappen sits out for Red Bull in Mexico GP FP1

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

Max Verstappen sits out for Red Bull in Mexico GP FP1

Eduardo Barrichello: The second-generation racer forging his own path

WEC

WEC WEC

Losail

1 h

Eduardo Barrichello: The second-generation racer forging his own path

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts