Rusty Impressed By Son's Progress In Racing


The precocious Stephen Wallace has outrun a lot of his famous father's expectations this season, and only one week after making his Nextel Cup debut -- albeit in a test session -- "Kid Wallace" will make his next step Wednesday.

Rusty Wallace's youngest child, 17, will test an ARCA RE/MAX Series car fielded by Penske Racing in an open test session at Michigan International Speedway.

The session is in preparation for Wallace's big-track ARCA debut at MIS on Aug. 19, coincidentally one day after Stephen turns 18, which makes him legal to race in NASCAR's national tours, including the Busch Series.

"As far as Stephen, my whole goal with him is to get him as much seat time as I possibly can," said Wallace, the 1989 NASCAR champion who is in the midst of his final full-time driving season. "We've run him on the Hooters Pro Cup Series and it's good -- but it's all short tracks.

"I've got to get Stephen running faster."


Stephen Wallace with his sister Katie at Rusty's "Last Call" announcement.
Credit: Autostock

It's no secret that the elder Wallace's car owner, business and motorsports icon Roger Penske, has had his eye on the younger Wallace.

Penske is anxious to give Stephen some support similar to what he lent Rusty in 1980 when Wallace made his Cup debut in a Penske car at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Penske facilitated Stephen Wallace's recent test at Kentucky Speedway.

"Last Monday he had a real big deal -- Stephen tested a Penske Kodak (Nextel Cup) car," Rusty said. "I drove the car first to make sure it was driving good and then we put Stephen in it to work his way up to matching my time."

Stephen Wallace once again proved he's a quick study.

"It meant everything in the world for me to be able to have the time to go test with him," Rusty said.

To begin the test, the elder Wallace jumped behind the wheel of the No. 77 Dodge from Penske teammate Travis Kvapil's stable and completed a baseline lap of 32.65 seconds.

After some chassis tweaks it was Stephen's turn. By the end of his second outing, the younger Wallace had logged a best lap of 32.83 seconds, barely missing the time set by his father.

"We definitely accomplished our mission -- we wanted to get Steve some seat time at a bigger racetrack and, as usual, he impressed all of us," Rusty said. "It took us a while to get the car hooked up on Hoosier tires, but once we got it driving comfortably, Steve ran nearly as fast as I did.

"I couldn't be happier with how Steve is progressing. He was up to speed in nothing flat. The test was a great success.

"It took no time at all to get right up to speed. It was something down deep I really expected (because) I knew he could do all this. I just wanted to have a little insurance -- that's the reason I took him there, to see him.

"Right away, he was just wide open. It was amazing."

There is more support than Penske's alone going on at the Mooresville, N.C., racing conglomerate. Rusty said there are some other ties to his past set up for Stephen's Michigan debut.

"It's going to be car No. 27 and sponsored by Kodak," Rusty said of the number he used in his championship season. "It's a damn good-looking car.

"The whole team is from Team Penske and they're really excited about it -- all pumped up -- especially the 2 car guys, because it's my son.

"They really want to do this and (crew chief) Larry Carter said, 'I want to call the race -- I want my pit crew to pit this thing because I don't want nothing going wrong.'

"So I said, 'you call the race.' Earl (Barban, Rusty's Cup spotter) is going to spot, I'm going to be up top coaching him and the 2 team is going to pit him -- so we've really got a lot of effort going into Steve right now."

Rusty said moving forward the plan was to "run Stephen in the second Dodge development program car, which will be the No. 4 car, with Eddie Sharp at the Chicago ARCA race Sept. 10."

"Then, if everything's looking good I'm going to field him in a second Busch Series car at Memphis and then again at Phoenix, Ariz.," Rusty said of his plans for his own Rusty Wallace Incorporated Busch team, which already fields one full-time car.

"I'm going to run Stephen all I possibly can this year to get all the seat time he possibly can," Rusty said. "I'm going to run him in as many Hooters races as I can this year -- that still makes sense.

"Dodge has funding for one Busch Grand National race (and) they already have a pre-existing agreement with one of the teams. I'm going to be talking to one of those guys.

"I'd much rather run Stephen in one of my cars, but if they have a deal with this particular team, that team's already got points, where Stephen is already geared into the race -- we'll run Stephen in that car."

Wallace closed by saying the Busch Series is his ultimate goal for his son for 2006.

"When all that is said and done, then we're going to take a look at next year and say, 'Where have we come so far?' And I'm going to try to run Stephen all I possibly can in a second Busch car.

"I'm not saying that Stephen might fall right in the lineup of maybe 10 races in the 64 car, if we do use two drivers next year."

Wallace said before last weekend's Wallace Family Tribute 250 that he was contemplating running another multi-driver lineup akin to this year's combination of himself, Jeremy Mayfield, Jamie McMurray and Bill Elliott -- or possibly zeroing in on a single pilot.


Story by NASCAR.COM