Rusty Wallace will be making his 44th and final start in the August 21, GFS Marketplace 400, while son Stephen Wallace will make his superspeedway debut during the August 19, ARCA RE/MAX Series Hantz Group 200. In preparation for the special weekend at MIS, both Wallace’s visited the 2-mile oval on Wednesday, August 3 for an ARCA RE/MAX Series testing day, where Rusty took to the wheel first to shake down the car, but quickly gave the wheel to son Stephen. The now 17-year old Wallace didn’t take long to get up to speed, and turned a lap time of 40.20 on just his third lap, while eventually running a time of 40.10 during the morning session. “I drove the car and really bombed one lap off and ran pretty quick,” said Rusty. “My lap time was 39.80. I told Stephen to take it nice and easy. I don’t care if it takes all day long to get comfortable. On his third lap, I looked and saw 40.20. He has never been on the track before and I said ‘Oh boy, here we go’. We’re here preparing and doing some race runs and qualifying runs and hopefully coming away from this day with some confidence. Our goal today is just getting up to speed, make some changes, and don’t put dents in anything. It’s important to have a good, clean race on August 19. It’s going to be tough weekend emotionally. I’m going to be here with Stephen on Wednesday night before the race and all day on Thursday. Nearly the entire #2 team is going to be here to support him,” said Rusty. “The whole family will be here. It will be a great time. We don’t dare leave the racetrack because we have so much racing going on that weekend. We’ve got Stephen in the ARCA car, my Busch car will be here and my Cup car will be competing. It’s going to be a big weekend and I’m excited about it.” Stephen shared his father’s enthusiasm about racing during the same weekend at MIS. “It’s a lot different racing at these big tracks like Michigan. It’s wild. This is by far the biggest track I will have raced at,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing my dad race in his final event at MIS. Hopefully we can both be successful that weekend. My goal is to win at Michigan for my Dad and Roger Penske (who is supplying the car for Stephen in the race). I think we’ll run around 10 ARCA and 10 Busch races next year. Hopefully we can make it to the Cup circuit a few years down the road.”
Stephen Wallace wasn’t the only driver participating in the ARCA RE/MAX Series test session with a famous race car driving father, or driving for a NEXTEL Cup affiliated team. Kraig Kinser, son of World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser took laps around the 2-mile oval in a MBV Motorsports prepared car, the same team the fields NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series entries for Joe Nemechek and Scott Riggs. Kinser is also expected to make his ARCA RE/MAX debut in the August 19 Hantz Group 200 at MIS.(MIS PR)(8-6-2005)
