April 30 1999
No Qualifying today. Rain in Fontana California at the California Speedway. Both the Busch and the Winston Cup races will have their starting positions determined by owner points. Rusty will start in the sixth spot. That puts him on the outside of the third row.
This should be a pretty exciting race with all the top points leaders starting in their respective positions. The best of the season all lined up as they have progressed this year.
The California Speedway is another of Roger Penske's tracks. Mark Martin won the last cup race there.
April 26 1999
Nascar posted an article today about how Tony Stewart and Mike Skinner had made up over the big crash that eliminated several top point contenders from the Talladega race. A little ironic since Stewart and Skinner are touted as being friends anyways and no mention of the drivers that were eliminated from the race altogether. Have they all made up with Stewart and Skinner? Words to think about. :)
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April 25 1999 Rusty involved in serious crash at Talladega! Rusty started 5th but fell back in the pack early on in the race. Somewhere around lap 49 Mike Skinner, and Tony Stewart got together and slid into the grass sideways. Skinners car slipped back up into the track and spun Jeff Gordon's car |
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around sideways, directly into the path of Rusty. The team worked diligently to repair the damage but Nascar ordered Rusty's car off the track after only two laps, no longer able keep a safe speed on the speedway. A disappointing 41st finish for Rusty. Gordon's Car although heavily damaged was repaired and was able to complete some laps. |
Also involved in the crash but unable to get back into the race was Chad Little. Others involved in the same accident were Chad Little, Kenny Irwin, Jeremy Mayfield, Brett Bodine and Wally Dallenbach.
As Skinner's car was towed back into the pits there was an altercation with the Skinners pit crew and the towing crew. Skinner was penalized 2 laps in addition to laps he had already lost due to the incident.
Stewart went on to a top 5 finish.
The winner today, Dale Earnhardt followed closely by Dale Jarrett with Mark Martin just a car length behind. Rusty's team mate, Jeremy Mayfield finished a disappointing 15th after working his way into the top five. Still a good finish for Mayfield, who has had very bad luck this year.
Race results were as follows:
|
place |
Car number |
Driver |
|
1 |
3 |
Dale Earnhardt |
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2 |
88 |
Dale Jarrett |
|
3 |
6 |
Mark Martin |
|
4 |
18 |
Bobby Labonte |
|
5 |
20 |
Tony Stewart |
|
6 |
33 |
Ken Schrader |
|
7 |
55 |
Kenny Wallace |
|
8 |
9 |
Jerry Nadeau |
|
9 |
43 |
John Andretti |
|
10 |
94 |
Bill Elliott |
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11 |
99 |
Jeff Burton |
|
12 |
16 |
Kevin Lepage |
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13 |
44 |
Kyle Petty |
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14 |
45 |
Rich Bickle |
|
15 |
12 |
Jeremy Mayfield |
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16 |
23 |
Jimmy Spencer |
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17 |
7 |
Michael Waltrip |
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18 |
60 |
Geoffrey Bodine |
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19 |
10 |
Ricky Rudd |
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20 |
25 |
Wally Dallenbach |
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21 |
00 |
Buckshot Jones |
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22 |
77 |
Robert Pressley |
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23 |
71 |
Dave Marcis |
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24 |
98 |
Rick Mast |
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25 |
40 |
Sterling Marlin |
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26 |
66 |
Darrell Waltrip |
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27 |
58 |
Ricky Craven |
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28 |
75 |
Ted Musgrave |
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29 |
21 |
Elliott Sadler |
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30 |
26 |
Johnny Benson |
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31 |
4 |
Bobby Hamilton |
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32 |
22 |
Ward Burton |
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33 |
41 |
David Green |
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34 |
42 |
Joe Nemechek |
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35 |
28 |
Kenny Irwin |
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36 |
31 |
Mike Skinner |
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37 |
1 |
Steve Park |
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38 |
24 |
Jeff Gordon |
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39 |
5 |
Terry Labonte |
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40 |
36 |
Ernie Irvan |
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41 |
2 |
Rusty Wallace |
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42 |
97 |
Chad Little |
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43 |
11 |
Brett Bodine |
Point standings after Diehard 500.
|
Pos |
Driver |
Points |
points behind leader |
points behind next position |
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1 |
Jeff Burton |
1369 |
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2 |
Dale Jarrett |
1329 |
-40 |
-40 |
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3 |
Mark Martin |
1285 |
-84 |
-44 |
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4 |
Bobby Labonte |
1220 |
-149 |
-65 |
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5 |
Jeff Gordon |
1159 |
-210 |
-61 |
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6 |
Rusty Wallace |
1087 |
-282 |
-72 |
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7 |
Tony Stewart |
1082 |
- 287 |
- 5 |
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8 |
Terry Labonte |
1074 |
- 295 |
- 8 |
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9 |
Dale Earnhardt |
1054 |
-315 |
-20 |
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9 |
Mike Skinner |
1054 |
-315 |
-20 |
April 24 1999
Rusty finishes second in todays IROC race! Rusty took over the lead about half way through the race but could not hold off Dale Earnhardt on the last turn who had Mark Martin in tow. It was the second IROC win in a row for Dale and a great finish for Rusty.
other
driver and was taken out early.
Dale Jr was out early in this race with a blown engine. Jeff Burton suffered ignition problems and was not a factor in the race but did continue in the race out of the draft and out of contention to win.
The IROC series offers a total of 750,000 in prize money which is awarded at the end of the IROC season.
Next up Talladega!
The next IROC race is set for June 12th at Michigan Speedway. It will be aired on ESPN.
Stop back in on June for the results of the next IROC race!
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Talladega |
Indy |
driver |
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1 |
1 |
Dale Earnhardt |
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2 |
9 |
Rusty Wallace |
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3 |
3 |
Mark Martin |
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4 |
5 |
Jeff Gordon |
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5 |
4 |
Kenny Brack |
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6 |
7 |
Adrian Fernandex |
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7 |
2 |
Bobby Labonte |
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8 |
11 |
Eddie Cheever |
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9 |
6 |
Greg Moore |
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10 |
3 |
Dale Jarrett |
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11 |
12 |
Jeff Burton |
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12 |
10 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
April 23 1999
Rusty Qualifies 5th at Talladaga! A great effort for Rusty today. Unfortunately Rusty's team mate Jeremy Mayfield will be no where near the front leaving Rusty with no drafting partner to start with. Rusty had a great run at Daytona leading a bunch of laps but finishing a 8th after being being knocked out of the lead by Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt.
Rusty's best finish at Talladega is 5th (back in 1988), and he has 9 top-10 finishes in 32 races here..
Rusty's only Talladega win came in 1991 when he won the IROC event. Rusty will join 11 other drivers in the True Value IROC Series race on Saturday.
Below are the top twenty five qualifiers. Second round on Saturday as usual.
Congratulations to Ken Schrader for his first Bud Pole of the year, that qualifies him for the Bud shoot out in the year 2000. Ken also got the pole position for Saturday's Busch race. A bud pole sweep for Ken.
Rusty Wallace was 2nd fastest in practice before qualifying. Speeds picked up quite a bit from practice. Schraders practice time was nowhere near as fast as hit qualifying time. Track conditions and the line around the race track appear to make a great difference.
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April 18 1999 Well, not a win today for Rusty but a top ten finish. Rusty led the most laps but after the last caution he lost 4 positions in the pits then dropped off the pace some towards the end to finish in 7th. Rusty led the most laps at the Goody's Body Pain 500 at the Martinsville Speedway. For leading a lap and for leading the most laps, Rusty will receive 10 bonus points. Looks like this new car will not get a name though. It was reported on ESPN that on the last pit stop for Rusty, the tire changer was slowed down because there was a great deal of brake dust on the lug nuts. Something you don't normally see, this week Kenny Wallace finished ahead of big brother Rusty. A good run for Kenny. Congratulations to John Andretti who was the surprise winner. The top 7 finishers are listed below.
This finish brings Rusty up to 6th in the Winston Cup point standings. Jeff Burton still leads the point standings. The top ten points standings are as follows:
Rusty is 192 points down from Jeff Burton, those points will be hard to make up the way Jeff Burton is going this year..
April 17 1999 Rusty's official website has received a face lift! Although the site is now somewhat commercialized with adds for merchandise, it does contain a news section now. (There is a great article recapping the race at Bristol). Site also contains a coming soon interactive zone. If you haven't visited Rusty's home site yet, stop into rustywallace.com to see what's new there. April 16 1999 Rusty qualified 5th at Martinsville today! a great run, the top 24 drivers were all above the track record speed. Tony Stewart got the pole, and now holds the track speed record. Looking forward to a great race this weekend. Rusty will be driving another new car this week. Good luck Rusty!
Top five qualifiers were as follows:
We'll all be watching to see if Rusty can get by Jerry Nadeau before Jerry decides to spin out! :) April 15 1999 Rusty Wallace chatted with fans today on Nascar.com. To read the chat transcript follow this link. Chat transcript.
April 14 1999 Rusty will be in chat on Nascar.com on thursday. Time of the chat is at 3:30pm Eastern time. Nascar has a feature that let's you post messages before the chat actually begins. Stop in and add your questions before the big day! April 11, 1999
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