Topic summary
Rusty Wallace
Russell William Wallace Jr. (born August 14, 1956) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and team owner, who raced from 1980 to 2005 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 2 nicknamed "Midnight" for Penske Racing.
Prior to stock car racing, Wallace had an extremely successful career in short track and late model racing, winning over 200 races and two track championships in Florida.
Wallace won the American Speed Association championship in 1983 before joining the NASCAR Cup series full time in 1984 where he won Rookie of the Year and the later won the 1989NASCAR Winston Cup Championship and the International Race of Champions in 1991. Wallace won the 1990Coca-Cola 600 and claimed 55 total wins throughout his NASCAR career. He is often considered among the best short track drivers in NASCAR history with 25 of his 55 career victories coming at short tracks. He won a career best nine races at Bristol Motor Speedway. Wallace also won an additional three exhibition (non-points) races in his career, including the 1989Winston All-Star Race and the inaugural NASCAR race in Japan at Suzuka Circuit.
For the accolades over the course of his successful career, Wallace has been inducted into the three main motorsports halls of fame including the NASCAR Hall of Fame (2013), the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2013), the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2014) and additionally the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (2010). He was named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998, and one of 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
Since retirement, Wallace has transitioned into a commentator role for NASCAR events; he also designed Iowa Speedway and operated his own racing team called Rusty Wallace Racing.