Motorsports

Bumping road for rivals

Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon like each other, until push comes to shove on track.

They like each other, now.

They smile.

They joke.

They tease.

But, eventually, their cars will touch. And the peculiar friendship between Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon will take a splendidly savage turn. Feelings and fenders are sure to be bruised.

Wham! Smack! Bump!

"We laugh about it all the time," said Gordon, driver of the No.24 Chevrolet. "We make fun of the situation and then we go out there and knock the heck out of each other. I don't know if it's entertainment or that we just happen to be around each other and we touch and get mad at each other."

In an era when NASCAR drivers downplay personal rivalries, Wallace and Gordon are not shy about swapping paint. They've been at it -- and each other -- for years. Now, a little tap is all it takes to set them off.

"I do like him," said Wallace, driver of the No.2 Dodge. "I really respect his talent. We joke around all the time. But seriously, neither one of us is going to tolerate getting bumped by each other."

That's a delectable notion as the Winston Cup series returns to the half-mile high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR's most volatile track and site of their most infamous run-into.

In August, Wallace was leading with two laps left in the Sharpie 500 when Gordon executed a textbook Bristol bump, ramming Wallace's rear bumper to move him out of the way. Gordon snapped a 31-race losing streak. Wallace, whose nine career wins at Bristol lead active drivers, failed to win for the first time in 16 seasons.

Other than winning the 1989 championship, that streak was Wallace's proudest accomplishment. Late in the season, when it became less likely he would extend it to a modern-era record 17, Wallace thought wistfully of Bristol.

Darn that Gordon.

"I told him he's like my dog," Wallace said. "You bring the old hot rod in there and feel real good and bond with that dude and you're getting real comfortable. Man, I really like this old puppy. And the sucker (poops) on the floor. What in the world happened? I thought I had him trained."

Through the years, Wallace, 46, and Gordon, 31, have bickered over real estate many times, but they always have not been able to laugh about it. In 1997, Gordon's reckless move onto the apron late in the Daytona 500 turned into a high-stakes game of chicken, in which Wallace relented. Three months later, Gordon bumped Wallace in the final turn to win the spring race at Bristol, beating the master at his own game.

Since then, they have twice tangled at Richmond. Wallace put Gordon into the wall in 1998, and heavy contact in the closing laps resulted in a nose-to-nose confrontation on pit road in 2001.

Not until Gordon battled back from the adversity of a difficult 2000 season to win his fourth championship in 2001 did he truly gain Wallace's respect.

"I get along with the kid pretty good, but I tell you that boy has cost me a lot of money," said Wallace, who has not won in 67 races, since April 2001. "He caused me a lot of problems, no doubt about that."

Like most rivals, they bring out the best in each other.

"If we got Rusty and Jeff to drive around each other all the time, we'd lap the field every week," said Robbie Loomis, Gordon's crew chief. "It's stressful for me to watch, but that's two great drivers who know how to take it right to the edge."

Their scrapes are rarely intentional. Or so they say.

"There were times last year when I would come up on Rusty and I'd say, 'All right, I'm going to pass him as clean as I can,"' Gordon said. "And all of a sudden, wham, we'd hit. 'Oh, no, here we go again."'

Late last season at Rockingham, Wallace was a lap down but battled Gordon anyway, until NASCAR officials warned him to knock it off. Two weeks later, they were at it again in the season finale at Homestead.

"I was just mad," Wallace said. "I said, 'If he hits me again, if he touches my car again, I'm going to pile-drive the hell out of him.' He probably feels the same way about me. I like the guy a lot. But I'm not going to tolerate getting bumped by him -- ever. That's the way it stands. And I think he knows it."

No question.

It's a mutual understanding.

"If we touch," Gordon said, "it's game on."

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