Wallace Hopes Texas Track Avoids More Controversy

Rusty Wallace isn’t looking to pick a fight with anyone at Texas Motor Speedway, and insists his outburst of two years ago was simply one of frustration.

“I’ll always think that I got a bum rap at Texas after that first race,” said Wallace, who crashed out in the troublesome fourth turn. “I hit the wall big-time. I had no more gotten out of the race car and a guy sticks the microphone in my face.”

Wallace said the track, which cost more than $130 million to build, needed a complete reconstruction of the turn.

“What I said had a lot to do with the fact that I had just crashed out big time and was all caught up in the emotion of it all,” he explained. “I didn’t even have time to gather my composure. But, what I said was really twisted around and misunderstood.

“There were people who thought that I slamming everything ... the track, the area, the people ... everything. That simply was not the case. In looking back, I should have probably buttoned my lip and shut up, but they just stuck that microphone in my face at the wrong time.”

Wallace insists he was only assessing the situation, not trying to blast the track during the inaugural race.

“Leading up to the race, I was a main defender of the place,” he said. “While it seemed like a lot of the guys were really saying a lot of negative things about the track, I was so proud of the great new facility and the fact that we were racing in Texas, a new place where we needed to be, that I was really pumping up the place.”

But the hard crash changed all that.

A year ago, there was more crashing, as well as a water seepage problem. After the second Winston Cup race, the track did what Wallace suggested so strongly the year before -- rebuilt turn four and smoothed out the transitions off the turns at a cost of more than $4 million.

“All that’s over and done with now,” said Wallace, who races Sunday in the Primestar 500. “They’ve reconfigured the track, and we’re all looking forward to getting back to Texas.

“To tell you the truth, what I am really hoping for is a great weekend of racing on the rebuilt race track without all the controversy.”

HAPPY PLACE: Even though Texas Motor Speedway has been reconfigured, Roush Racing teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Burton are happy to return.

Burton, who won the inaugural race, said he and his team liked what they saw of the track in winter testing.

“We didn’t see much chassis change from what we had in the past.” said Burton, whose victory in the 1997 TMS inaugural was the first of his seven in Winston Cup. “When we were testing, we were pretty close to what we had run here in the past. The car drove real well, so I think what’s worked in the past will work now.”

Burton was leading last year when he blew a tire, so he believes he could have won both races. Martin won last year.

Martin, who also won the Busch Series race the first year in Texas, says his teammate also could be 0-for-2 in Winston Cup races at the track.

“I still think we could have won the race in 1997,” he said. “We were leading when the engine blew and the car had been handling just great all day.”

PARITY: A year ago, the then-brand new Ford Taurus dominated the Winston Cup series, with only Chevrolet’s Jeff Gordon able to compete head-to-head with them.

So far in 1999, things appear more even.

Ford has won three races and Chevrolet two, and Pontiac has been competitive enough for some top-five finishes.

Pontiac driver Ward Burton--Jeff’s older brother -- says things are fairly even among the three makes in NASCAR’s top series.

“I think the parity is better this year than it was at the start of last year,” he said. “The (aerodynamic) rules are probably why we’re so even right now.”

But that doesn’t mean he and the rest of the General Motors entries are entirely happy.

“I still think the Ford Taurus is better for downforce.” he said. “They ought to be. They build a car that won’t fit any production stock car out there, and I think if we could do that we could make one better, too.

“But I’m not bashing Ford. I don’t think it’s a whole lot, but after you’ve run a long run, I think that’s when it shows up most.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Jeff Burton is definitely the hottest driver in Winston Cup heading into Sunday’s Primestar 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Burton has four consecutive top-five finishes, winning two of the last three races. He also has two fourth-place finishes this season, and leads the series standings.

Burton’s only bad result came in the opener in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he finished 35th with a handling problem.