Legends Near Finish Line

Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin have been hauling their stock cars to Southern California for more than 20 years and the last time may be this week.

The two NASCAR legends announced before the season that this would be their last in Nextel Cup -- Wallace in Roger Penske’s No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge and Martin in Jack Roush’s No. 6 Viagra Ford -- so that makes Sunday’s Sony HD 500 at California Speedway their final appearance here in what Wallace calls his “Last Call” and Martin his “Salute to You” tour.

Wallace, 49, and Martin, 46, each have a win on the two-mile track where the Kaiser Steel Mill flourished when both were breaking into racing in the 1980s.

“I ran my first race out this way in 1980, a USAC [U.S. Auto Club] race at Ontario Motor Speedway,” Wallace said. “I brought my own car and finished fourth. A.J. [Foyt] won, Bay Darnell was second and Joe Ruttman third.

“After that I hired on with the Blue Max team and we won the last two NASCAR races at Riverside International Raceway. We won what they called the last race there in 1987, but NASCAR ran another one in 1988 and I won it too. I’ve always been pretty proud of closing out the history at such a great track.”

Martin’s first race locally came in 1982 when he drove his Jolly Rancher/Apache Stove car at Riverside. He qualified 17th and finished eighth.

Both old warriors are having one of their better seasons in years. Wallace has clinched a berth in the “Chase for the Championship” and Martin will qualify for the 10-race championship shootout by finishing fifth or better Sunday or if he loses no more than 35 points to 11th place this week.

“When I decided I was going to retire one time or another, I decided I couldn’t stand it if I went out a loser and that’s what I was the last couple of years,” Wallace said. “I had finished in the top 10 for 16 years and I wanted people to remember me as a driver who knew what he was doing. I think this year, thanks to Larry Carter’s work as my crew chief, I’ve shown my true colors.

“We’ve got a real chance at the Nextel Cup and wouldn’t that be something to win and then step away?”

If he won, would Wallace reconsider?

“Absolutely not,” he said. “It would solidify even more what I wanted to do, and that’s go out on top. Now that we’re in the Chase, I’m going back to my old style and be more aggressive in these next two races. I’ll take more chances, do some more testing and then get after it.”

Sunday’s race and the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 the following Saturday night at Richmond, Va., are the final qualifying races for the 10-driver, 10-race chase that will begin Sept. 18 with the Sylvania 300 at Loudon, N.H.

Martin won at California Speedway in 1998 and was leading in the inaugural race the year before when he ran out of fuel on the final lap and finished 10th. He also won his only Busch series race there in February.

“Fontana is my kind of track and that seems to be the type of place where this team excels,” Martin said. “We were seventh there in the spring and we’ll be looking to build on that this week. We had a really strong run in this race last year and we are excited about going back and hopefully giving our fans out West something to cheer about.”

Martin has dedicated his “Salute to You” tour to “thanking everyone who has played a role in [his] success, including team members, fans, NASCAR and the media.”

Retirement for both Wallace and Martin may have been hastened by having precocious offspring.

Wallace’s son, Stephen, had a memorable three-day run last month. On a Thursday, he turned 18 and got his driver’s license. On Friday he graduated from high school. On Saturday, he won an ARCA race at Michigan International Speedway, driving one of Roger Penske’s cars.

“What made it so special was that he had to be 18 before he could drive on a track longer than a mile and he made the age limit by two days and then won the race on a two-mile track,” Wallace said. “He’s won about 70 races, maybe the biggest last December when he won what is called the biggest short track race in the world at Pensacola, Fla., with 157 entries.”

Martin’s son, Matt, is only 13 but he’s on a fast track too. After winning quarter-midget races all over the South, the youngster received permission to compete with older drivers in the FASCAR Pro Truck series, driving a Ford F150. On the high-banked, half-mile New Smyrna Speedway track, near the Martin home in Daytona Beach, Fla., he already has a win to his credit.

“This was really a blessing because we would have wasted a year of Matt’s development as a race car driver if he’d been unable to race against adults,” Martin said on Matt’s website. “One problem, though, the Pro Truck series pays money and Matt wants 90% of the purse.”

Noting that he never had that good a deal in 25 years of racing, Martin said, “I think it may be time for a little tough love.”

Although Wallace and Martin have announced an end to Nextel Cup racing, it doesn’t mean their racing days are over.

Martin has announced plans to drive in the Craftsman Truck series next year for Roush, but it would not be surprising if he also was back in the No. 6 Ford. Roush had planned to replace him with Jamie McMurray, but McMurray has another year left on his contract with Chip Ganassi and Ganassi has said he plans to hold him to it.

In that case, Martin’s loyalty to Roush, for whom he has driven since 1988, may cause him to take one more Nextel tour in Ford’s new Fusion model next year.

Wallace has no such problem, although a driver has yet to be assigned to the No. 2 car. Kurt Busch will drive it in 2007, but like McMurray he is tied up -- with Roush -- for another year.

Wallace plans to delve into sports car racing. He expects to drive a Crawford prototype in the Daytona 24-hour race next year and perhaps three or four more races in the Grand American series.

“I’ve never done anything like that before and I’m looking forward to it, but I’m sure there will be no more racing a Nextel Cup car for Rusty Wallace after this year,” he said.

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By the numbers

Career records of Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace:

*--* MARTIN WALLACE 626 Starts 694 34 Victories 55 41 Poles 36 $50,220,229 Winnings $47,109,650

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