As long as the sponsors and team owners were satisfied with the driver’s performance, he could race as long as he wanted [in the past]. But that’s about to change. And the pressure to kick the aging cans of veteran drivers isn’t coming so much from the owners or sponsors. It’s coming from NASCAR. “NASCAR has suggested to many, many people that some drivers cut back to partial schedules,” says Rusty Wallace, 47. “That might happen one of these days.” And that came from NASCAR? “Yes,” Wallace says. “One main NASCAR official suggested, ‘Why don’t you run a partial schedule? There’s nothing wrong with a partial schedule.’ ” OK. Although there have been 100 races since he last won, at California in 2001, what right does anyone in Daytona have to tell Wallace, the 1989 champion, when it’s time to hang up his helmet? But while NASCAR is ushering stars toward retirement, it’s putting out desperate help-wanted calls to washed-up veterans to fill fields. Funny, but I must have missed the Joe Ruttman and Kirk Shelmerdine souvenir rigs on the way to the Rock. Perhaps that’s where Ruttman’s pit crew was two Sundays ago, selling T-shirts.(see full Sporting News article at Yahoo Sports)(3-2-2004)
