Rusty Wallace thinks NASCAR made the right choice with this NC track. He’s biased
If you were down on pit lane last year, right before fireworks lit up the May North Carolina sky, you probably heard the debate.
It was pretty simple:
Should the success that North Wilkesboro Speedway has had the last three years — selling out crowds, putting on great races, delivering on NASCAR’s promise to reconnect with its longtime fans — propel it to a points-paying race on the Cup Series schedule?
Or should that very success be the reason it remains the site of the NASCAR All-Star Race?
Drivers and other sport stakeholders weighed in. Many diverged on their opinions.
But if you would’ve asked Rusty Wallace, the NASCAR Hall of Famer would’ve said that there wasn’t much of a debate to be had.
“The amount of money and effort and how popular that area is for racing, where it started — I wanted it to be a points-paying race,” Wallace told The Charlotte Observer earlier this week.
And it will be. The Cup race on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, TNT, Performance Radio Network) will mark the first Cup points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years.
“And look, I was just so appreciative that it was able to come back and be an All-Star Race,” Wallace continued. “That’s unreal. And if it had to stay that way, it’d be great. But I wanted it to be on the schedule. I wanted it to be one of the main, decision-making racetracks. I mean, now it’s all repaved, and they’ve done everything they’ve done. And last year, when Christopher Bell in the 20 car won, I remember he said, ‘This is the best short track I’ve ever run.’”
He added: “It deserves a Cup race. … I think it’s worthy of it.”
Just for full disclosure’s sake: Yes, he might be biased.
Wallace won three Cup races at North Wilkesboro Speedway, racing on the 0.625-mile oval through the bulk of his NASCAR career, which spanned 1980 to 2005. He won both races there in 1993. The NASCAR Cup Series left North Wilkesboro Speedway in 1996 and threatened to never come back — that is, not until a perfect storm of events revived the racetrack in 2022.
Does your success at Wilkesboro influence your opinion on this debate, Rusty?
The 1989 Cup champion — who will also serve as the grand marshal ahead of Sunday’s race — laughed.
“Yeah, maybe a little bit,” Wallace said. “But what influences my opinion on it being back on the Cup schedule is the heritage. You were always talking about Wilkesboro all the time. You were always talking about Junior Johnson. … And whenever I went up there, I ran good, and the stands were always packed, and everyone was enthusiastic.
“So that would be my decision on why I would want it to be back as a points-paying race as it is now rather than stay an All-Star Race.
“Obviously, you run somewhere good, and you like the track. I like all racetracks where I ran good.”
Anticipation for North Wilkesboro history builds
For what it’s worth, Wallace isn’t the only one who is mightily excited heading into the first points race since North Wilkesboro’s resurrection.
Count Christopher Bell in his camp.
Bell won the All-Star Race last year and was a massive proponent of North Wilkesboro Speedway landing on the points schedule. He said Wednesday that he’s excited to see how the racing at Wilkesboro will differ this year than in years past.
“Racing for the lead in the All-Star, I don’t think I’ve experienced anything more intense than that,” Bell told The Charlotte Observer. “But whenever you’re in the back of the pack, and you’re not racing for the lead, your effort level dwindles. … Whereas this year, you still have everything to race for. So while the race for the lead will change, I think the racing through the pack will be much more intense.”
He’s also excited to be out of a cast, which he had on mostly as a precautionary measure in Atlanta last week. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver broke his wrist last month and has been driving through the injury since.
“I’m not 100% healthy,” Bell said. “I’m still not allowed to bear any weight on my wrist or anything like that. But yeah, as far as driving the car, I would assume that I’m pretty close.
“Through my simulator sessions, I felt really good and comfortable. I don’t know that I would say 100% yet, but pretty darn close.”
Who does Wallace think will win the Wilkesboro race?
Ask Wallace all sorts of questions, and he will have the answer to them. And understandably — he’s biased for most of them. (His most memorable run at Wilkesboro was his first win there, for instance, outlasting Geoff Bodine.)
He’s even biased for who he thinks will take home the win Sunday.
“I’m gonna say the 2 car,” Wallace said.
Wallace, of course, ran the 2 car for Team Penske through the bulk of his career. The 2 car will in fact run in a special paint scheme that honors Wallace’s accomplishments behind the wheel; Austin Cindric gave Wallace a personal tour of the Penske race shop that ended with the special car unveiling.
“He won St. Louis,” Wallace continued of Cindric, backing up his choice, no matter how from-the-heart it was. “He’s really good at this style of racetrack, Austin is. … I know whether it’s him, (Joey) Logano or (Ryan) Blaney, they’re going to run good there.”
