Monday, February 15, 1999
Worn-out tires cost Wallace
Late gamble costs veteran chance to win
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Rusty Wallace seemed set to break his 0-for-16 career Daytona 500 drought, but a late gamble failed to pay off.
Wallace led for 104 of the 200 laps Sunday, and he and Penske Ford teammate Jeremy Mayfield were running 1-2 with just 27 laps left. But the two elected to stay on the track while the other leaders pitted during a caution on lap 173. It cost them in the end.
Worn tires were part of the reason Wallace slipped back to finish eighth, while Mayfield suffered a flat tire and faded to 20th.
“I still think the decision was fine,” Wallace said. “Looking back on it right now, maybe if I would have had a little bit more grip in the tires I might have been able to hold that bottom line a little bit better, but the car still handled good.”
Wallace, the 1989 Winston Cup season champion and perennial top-10 finisher, has long had bad times at Daytona. He had a led a grand total of only 11 laps in his previous Daytona 500s, and has had his share of wrecks.
Sunday, he took the lead on Lap 58 and held it most of the way, but Jeff Gordon passed him with a daring move on the front straightaway apron with 11 laps remaining.
“I knew it was gonna be on the bottom of the race track, I just didn't know he was gonna be able to get me,” Wallace said.
Roger Penske, the motorsports mogul who is team owner for Wallace and Mayfield, took a positive tack afterward.
“I was cautiously optimistic,” Penske said of having his two men leading late in the race. “At the end of the day we can look at it and say it was good that we didn't get in a wreck, and both cars came home.”
Mayfield, a rising star at age 29, backed the decision to stay on the track.
“We were more worried about fuel than tires,” he said. “I felt like we were as good as anybody out there.”
For Wallace, the sorrow was profound. With all the rotten luck he's had here, Sunday may have been the worst.
“Probably so, because I just had a great car,” he said. “I can't believe this happened.”
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