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Posted: 11:55 PM Jan 23, 2005
Last Updated: 11:55 PM Jan 23, 2005
Reporter: Nascar.com
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It's last call for Rusty Wallace in 2005, but the argument could be made that the No. 2 team has been stuck in the pits (by Wallace's lofty standards) for more than a decade. But as his farewell season embarks, Wallace contends the Miller Lite team is getting back to basics, and it starts -- you guessed it -- in the pits.
Back in the day -- when "Young Guns" meant Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, et al. (and not a slick, advertising-driven moniker for Cup racing's youth movement) -- Wallace was a perennial front-runner. And when James Kenneth "Buddy" Parrott joined the Penske South team toward the end of 1992, he harnessed the talents of a burgeoning over-the-wall gang and made an immediate, tangible impact.
After barrel rolling down the backstretch and finishing 32nd at the season-opening Daytona 500 in 1993, Wallace posted top-fives at Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta and Darlington before winning at Bristol, North Wilkesboro and Martinsville. Much of that success was attributed to the tireless work of the pit crew.
The Wood Brothers Racing team, which featured driver David Pearson through most of the 1970s, once was considered the cream of the crop when it came to spinning lug nuts; their times were in the high 20-second range. Enter Parrott & Co -- and the two-pump jack, an improvement of the pit staple that once took six pumps to get the car lifted off the ground. At the Rockingham Pit Crew Competition in October 1993, the then-Miller Genuine Draft team changed four tires and added fuel in 22.454 seconds, eclipsing the old mark of 22.565 seconds set by the Bud Moore-owned team in 1991.
Indeed those were fast times -- on the track and in the pits -- for Wallace.
However, the team's run of success was short-lived. Parrott left at the end of the 1994 season to become head of racing operations with Diamond Ridge Motorsports. The Wallace-Parrott duo had won 18 races in two years, including a series-high 10 in 1993, but their split was the beginning of a slide in which Wallace has won just 16 races the past 10 years.
"One of the biggest things that has killed us over the last few years has been pit strategy -- particularly in 2002 and 2003 -- and it even bit us a couple of times last season. That's certainly not totally the fault of Larry Carter," says Wallace. "We brought Larry on as our crew chief last year and he has done an absolutely remarkable job. He's put together one of the best pit crews out there and we all have that killer instinct like we did back in the early '90s when Buddy Parrott was leading the team.
"He has done wonders to get our team turned around and headed in the right direction. There's an unbelievable team camaraderie we're enjoying that's been missing for several seasons now.
"Larry came in at the first of the season and promised me that he'd get the pit crew problem fixed and he did just that," says Wallace. "He practically started from scratch and rebuilt our over-the-wall gang. About a quarter of the way through the season, he had his new lineup out there and things really started clicking.
"By the end of the year, we had a level of consistency we'd been missing forever it seemed. The guys were lightning fast and I'd be willing to bet they were among the top-five fastest week in and week out."
For his part, Carter contends 2004 was a learning experience. "We all really got to know and understand each other really well last year and I think we enjoy a level of communication that many teams don't have even after working together for several years," he says. "I'm convinced that we've laid the foundation to come back and maybe even surprise people with our team's strength in 2005."
Wallace ended a 105-race winless streak last year at Martinsville for his 55th career victory, second among active drivers and tied for fifth-most in NASCAR's modern era. Still, he finished a career-worst 16th in points, and for the first time marked consecutive seasons in which he finished outside the top 10.
"The key to our team doing that is pretty simple," says Wallace, the 1989 Cup champion. "We just have to keep on doing what we've been doing, but eliminate some of the mistakes we made last season. If we can do that and have a little better racing luck, we can go out with guns a-blazin' -- with race wins and a championship bid to look back on when the season ends down at Homestead in November.
"People look back on the 2004 season and see that we did win a race, but we finished 16th in the final points," he says. "The fact is that we had a much stronger team than the record indicated and most of the insiders of our sport recognize that."
Testing at Daytona this week provided Wallace his first chance to drive the new Dodge Charger, but even without a new car the goal remains the same as the past 20-plus years: compete for the championship.
"That's our big goal for 2005; to be just as competitive as we were in 2004, but to eliminate those mistakes that we made," says Wallace. "If we play our cards right and can do that, there's no doubt in my mind that we can be up there and make the cut in the points and have a legitimate shot at getting us another championship.
"Larry saw that we needed to beef up things with our pit crew and he's done a helluva job in that department. We've got a group of guys out there now who are giving us consistently great pit stops that are among the top-five fastest in the sport and that is so critical these days.
"The bottom line is that we have all the necessary ingredients to make the 2005 season one of the most successful years of my career and you can bet that I'm dedicated to doing what it takes to make that happen," vows Wallace. "With Larry's leadership and the great work done by car chief Jeff Thousand, shock specialist Tom Hoke, engineer Derek Stamets, all of our team members and especially the guys over in the engine department -- this year holds so much promise."
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