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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 2, 2001
That rumbling noise with less than 40 laps left in the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway was more than the roar of Winston Cup engines on the 1.5-mile track.
It was the sound of Rusty Wallace fans.
"Arrrrgggh!"
Wallace has dominated two of the past three races, clearly the car to beat, only to take himself out of contention at the end with greedy decisions and stupid mistakes.
Wallace led a race-high 118 laps at Kansas and was leading through 230 of 267 when cars entered pit road for the final stop. Determined to maintain his lead, Wallace was nabbed for exceeding the 45 mph speed limit exiting pit road.
A 20-year veteran.
Speeding on pit road.
The penalty dropped Wallace to 17th on the restart. That he worked his way back to finish fourth should only make him feel worse.
"I should have won. I had the fastest car," Wallace said. "But I sped out of pit road, I guess. ... I've never seen that contested before, so you've got to say, "Okay,' and do the best job you can and try to get back to the front."
Three weeks earlier at Richmond, Wallace led 276 of 400 laps. His No. 2 Ford out-muscled every challenger on restarts, but on the final pit stop on Lap 345, Wallace called for an air pressure adjustment, just to be sure. It made the car loose, and he dropped to fifth.
Known -- and beloved -- for his aggressive driving style, Wallace has been penalized for speeding on pit road before.
"I wasn't surprised," said race-winner Jeff Gordon, laughing. "Rusty is always pushing the limits on pit road. You'd think a guy who has been caught for that quite a few times would maybe back it down a little bit, but he had the car to beat. He knew that, and he was doing everything he could to win. If Rusty had not had the penalty, I don't think anybody could have beaten him." Timing cars on pit road is a bit inconsistent. NASCAR does not have enough hand-held timing devices to time every car, so it checks drivers randomly.
"This definitely cost us a shot at winning the race," said Robin Pemberton, Wallace's crew chief. "With all this technology they have, I think you'll eventually be able to police it a little bit better. In order to do it right, you'd have to have an inspector assigned to every car that goes down pit road.
"If they've put a man on the moon, they can probably time cars on a piece of asphalt."
RAVE REVIEWS: The inaugural Winston Cup race at Kansas Speedway was marred by 13 caution periods, but drivers are encouraged the track will become one of the raciest on the circuit. "It has a lot of potential," Gordon said. "It is a one-groove race track right now. The fast way around was on the bottom. I believe the next time we come back here you'll really start to see that outside groove come in. It's like a fine wine: It just gets better with age. I think this racetrack is one that will do that."
ANOTHER VIEW: Not everyone was thrilled. Asked if there was any racing on the track, veteran Ken Schrader was blunt: "No. For some reason everyone thinks they've got to have a mile-and-a-half racetrack."
COUNTING DOWN: Gordon increased his championship lead to 222 over Ricky Rudd with eight races left. The earliest a Winston Cup championship was settled was in 1975, the inaugural year of the current point system when Richard Petty locked up the title with four races remaining.
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: Indianapolis Motor Speedway is collecting helmets and uniforms from Formula One drivers to auction with proceeds aiding victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the series' 22 drivers have contributed with others pledging to do so at the end of the season.
- Information from Times wires was used in this report.