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Phoenix: Rusty Wallace Racing preview

RUSTY WALLACE RACING AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY: * In 12 starts at Phoenix, Rusty Wallace Racing entries have posted three top-ten finishes. The most recent came with David Stremme behind the wheel of the Dale Ferguson-wrenched No. 64 in ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:50 PM

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RUSTY WALLACE RACING AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY:

* In 12 starts at Phoenix, Rusty Wallace Racing entries have posted three top-ten finishes. The most recent came with David Stremme behind the wheel of the Dale Ferguson-wrenched No. 64 in last year's running of this weekend's event.

* Steve Wallace has five career starts on Phoenix's desert mile, dating back to the fall of 2006, when the then-teenager debuted at Phoenix with a lead-lap 16th-place effort. As of late, Wallace has been consistently fast in the Phoenix events, but multi-car accidents on restarts have twice ended his chances for finishes representative of that speed.

* The majority of Brendan Gaughan's experience at Phoenix has come in the NASCAR Truck Series. In eight truck starts at the desert mile, Gaughan has posted six top-15 finishes, including a top-ten run in last year's race at Phoenix. In those eight starts, Gaughan completed 1209 of 1211 possible laps (99.8%)

CHASSIS INFORMATION:

* TEAM 62: RWR-037 makes its debut this weekend in the hands of Brendan Gaughan. Originally constructed by RWR for a potential run by Shane Huffman at Phoenix in the fall of 2008, the "37 car" is one for which the team has high hopes. Team owner Rusty Wallace has referred to it as "one of the best looking cars I've seen in a long time." Gaughan's backup car is RWR-032, the flat track workhorse for David Stremme and the No. 64 team in 2008. The "32 car" had three top-ten finishes in five 2008 starts, at Phoenix I, Richmond I and Gateway.

* TEAM 66: Steve Wallace's primary car for this weekend is RWR-035, raced by Wallace in nearly all flat track events in 2008. Wallace wheeled the "35 car" to a top-five run at Richmond in the spring of 2008, followed by top-ten efforts at O'Reilly and Memphis. Wallace's backup car is RWR-018, which made the last of its four 2008 starts at Phoenix in the fall. It was the "18 car" which Wallace piloted to his first career pole at Bristol in the spring of 2007.

NOTES OF INTEREST:

* GOOD ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR RUSTY: While RWR's strong start to 2009 has established it as of the premier Nationwide Series operations, team owner Rusty Wallace isn't quite satisfied. Said Wallace,"We've had a pretty solid start to the year, with both of our guys now pretty consistently running in the top-ten. With that said, the top-ten isn't where we aspire to be. We think that we have the capability and potential for our teams to run in the top-five and contend for race wins. We're working very hard to develop the systems and personnel to help us do that. We've been spending a lot of time in the wind tunnel lately, working on our bodies. Our guys are working really hard on the pull-down and seven-post so that we can better understand the cars. We're set on developing this team into a consistent championship contender."

* BRENDAN GAUGHAN (DRIVER, NO. 62 SOUTH POINT CASINO CHEVROLET IMPALA SS): "Phoenix is a track where I have a lot of experience, running in the Truck and West Series. Although it's a relatively slow, flat track, I've always seemed to get around there pretty well. We have a brand-new Chevrolet Impala SS that we're debuting at Phoenix this weekend and if it runs half as well as we think it will, we should be in good shape. This is probably the last race of the year for us with South Point as the primary sponsor, so it'd be really special to be able to bring home a trophy from out west this weekend."

* STEVE WALLACE (DRIVER, NO. 66 USFIDELIS CHEVROLET IMPALA SS): "Phoenix is one of those places where we always seem to run pretty well, but something always happens. I like racing there; we just don't have the numbers to prove it. The last two or three races, we've been caught up in someone else's mess on restarts. The last time, the leaders started the crash, so it really doesn't matter where you are in the field; restarts are always dangerous at Phoenix. Hopefully, we'll be able to stay out of trouble this time around and get another top-ten, or even better. Our team has a little bit of momentum right now, so who knows what could happen."

-credit: rwr

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