1. Rusty Wallace won the 1984 NASCAR Cup series Rookie of the Year and the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship.
50 Facts About Rusty Wallace
1. 2.
In 1980, Rusty Wallace made his NASCAR debut at Atlanta, driving the No 16 Chevrolet for Roger Penske.
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Rusty Wallace ended up finishing second in the race after qualifying seventh.
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Rusty Wallace made nine NASCAR appearances over the next three years, finishing inside the Top 10 in only one more race.
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In 1984, Rusty Wallace joined the Winston Cup circuit full-time, winning NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors and finishing 14th in the final points standings.
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Rusty Wallace drove the No 88 Gatorade Pontiac for Cliff Stewart with a best finish of fourth, along with two fifth-place finishes and four further Top 10s.
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Rusty Wallace stayed with Cliff Stewart for 1985 but this time, he drove the No 2 Alugard Pontiac.
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In 29 races, Rusty Wallace had two Top 5s and eight Top 10s.
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In 1986, Rusty Wallace switched teams to the No 27 Alugard-sponsored Pontiac for Raymond Beadle's Blue Max Racing team.
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Rusty Wallace finished the year with two wins, four Top 5s, and 16 Top 10s in 29 races.
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Rusty Wallace finished 6th in the points, making this his first Top 10 finish in the standings.
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In 1987, Rusty Wallace gained sponsorship from Kodiak tobacco, establishing the No 27 Kodiak Pontiac livery his early career is most remembered for.
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Rusty Wallace's wins were at Michigan, Charlotte, North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, the final race ever run at Riverside, and the season finale at Atlanta.
14.
In 1989, Rusty Wallace won the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship with crew chief Barry Dodson, by finishing 15th at the Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta to beat out close friend and fierce rival Dale Earnhardt by 12 points.
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Rusty Wallace won The Winston in a controversial fashion, by spinning out Darrell Waltrip on the last lap.
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The four-year sponsorship deal was tied specifically to Rusty Wallace, meaning it went to whichever team Rusty Wallace went.
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However, Rusty Wallace was stuck with the team for 1990 due to his contract.
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In 1991, Rusty Wallace took the Miller sponsorship with him to Penske Racing, and he continued in the No 2 Miller Genuine Draft Pontiac.
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Rusty Wallace won the second race of the season on February 28,1993, at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
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In every race Rusty Wallace won that year he performed a "Kulwicki victory lap".
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Rusty Wallace ended the season strong, finishing in the Top 3 in all but two of the final 10 races of the season.
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In 1998, Rusty Wallace won the Bud Shootout at Daytona, a non-points race for the previous years pole winners and past winners of the race.
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Rusty Wallace is the only driver in NASCAR history to win his 1st and 50th career victories at the same track, and in the same race.
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Rusty Wallace finished 7th in the final points standings after some inconsistency in the championship race.
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Rusty Wallace won on what would have been Dale Earnhardt's 50th birthday and paid tribute to him with an Earnhardt flag.
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Rusty Wallace almost won the 2002 Sharpie 500 after being bumped out of the way by his rival Jeff Gordon.
27.
In 2003, Penske Racing switched to Dodge and appropriately, in 2004, Rusty Wallace won his 55th race on a short track: the 2004 spring Martinsville Speedway race.
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In 2006, Rusty Wallace returned to his General Motors roots when he raced a Crawford-Pontiac sportscar, painted black and carrying the familiar stylized No 2.
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Rusty Wallace finished his career with the 1989 Winston Cup Championship, 36 career poles, and 55 career wins.
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Rusty Wallace has the most short track wins in NASCAR history with 34, and therefore he is considered among the best short track drivers in NASCAR history.
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Rusty Wallace retired after the 2005 season with a 14.4 career average finish.
32.
In 2014, Rusty Wallace ran at Daytona for testing before the 2014 Daytona 500 as part of a promotion for Miller Lite's 40th anniversary, marking the first time a NASCAR Hall of Famer has driven in a NASCAR test.
33.
Rusty Wallace's legacy, besides being a close rival of Dale Earnhardt, was a number of severe wrecks he endured, especially at restrictor plate racetracks.
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The first one happened in 1983, when Rusty Wallace was attempting the Daytona 500 through the Gatorade Twin 125's.
35.
Rusty Wallace was tapped by Rick Wilson, got airborne, and went on a spectacular series of flips that left him hospitalized.
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Earnhardt was visibly shaken by the incident and did make sure Rusty Wallace was okay by checking on him after the race had concluded.
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Rusty Wallace finished 80 points behind Earnhardt in the final points for 1993.
38.
Rusty Wallace had an airborne crash in his last Gatorade Twin in 2005 when Dave Blaney clipped his right rear tire and sent his car off the ground.
39.
In 2016, Rusty Wallace competed in the Ferrari Finali Mondiali at Daytona.
40.
On January 25,2006, it was announced that Rusty Wallace would cover auto racing events for ESPN and ABC.
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Rusty Wallace joined the NASCAR broadcasting team for both networks when they started coverage of the sport in 2007.
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Rusty Wallace signed a six-year deal with ESPN in 2006.
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Rusty Wallace returned to commentate for the 2007 Indianapolis 500 won by Dario Franchitti.
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Rusty Wallace worked with ESPN from 2007 to 2014 until their contract with NASCAR expired.
45.
Since the 2015 Daytona 500, Rusty Wallace has worked with Motor Racing Network as a booth announcer.
46.
Up until 2012, Wallace owned and operated Rusty Wallace Racing, which fielded the No 62 Pilot Flying J Toyota Camry driven by Michael Annett and the No 66 5 Hour Energy Toyota Camry driven by his son Steve Wallace.
47.
However, Steve Rusty Wallace confirmed on his Twitter account that the team would return for the Nationwide Series race at Richmond in May 2012 in a former Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang, powered by a Roush-Yates engine in the No 4 sponsored by LoanMax Title Loans.
48.
In late 2005, Rusty Wallace broke ground on his "Signature Design Speedway" in Newton, Iowa.
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The track is noted for its structural similarity to Richmond International Raceway, where Rusty Wallace has won six times.
50.
Rusty Wallace made a cameo appearance in the movie Days of Thunder.