PLAYING NICE: It's not a social club out there, and Rusty Wallace admits there are certain Winston Cup foes he could do without.
"There's a lot of guys out there people don't like," he said, "guys you generally don't like. But I'm not going to tell you who they are, and I'm not going to beat on them on the race track because every time I beat on them I end up getting myself spun out."
Wallace said "it's not cool" to punch someone in the nose, as Jimmy Spencer did to Kurt Busch on Sunday, incurring a $25,000 fine, a week suspension and probation until Dec. 31. But Wallace thinks NASCAR's reaction reflects a change in philosophy and image he does not like.
"I don't think we need to make a big deal out of it," he said. "Everybody's got their face punched in occasionally if they do something on the race track that gets one guy riled up. (But) nowadays there is no tolerance for it. The guys from NASCAR, they get so sideways about it. . . . Now they have cops and they have fines, oh my God. You cuss, you get kicked out, you get fined. We have a real cleaned-up sterile sport right now. Do I like it? Hell no, I don't like it that way, but that's the public way you have to do it these days."
TAKING STOCK: Though Sam Hornish Jr. is expected to announce soon that he will race in NASCAR next season, the two-time Indy Racing League champion said he will continue trying to win the Indianapolis 500.
"I think no matter what I do, I am going to make sure that I have the opportunity to run the Indianapolis 500," he said. "It is the place that I grew up going to and watching races and dreaming about winning. I think no matter what I do from now until the time that I retire from racing, I am going to make sure that I have an opportunity to go there and run and win that race."
