Rusty's Rundown: Daytona 500

By Rusty Wallace, for Turner Sports Interactive
February 16, 2001
3:05 PM EST (2005 GMT)

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THE DAYTONA 500

I think you'll want to watch the Daytona 500 this year more than ever because of the aerodynamics rule changes. It's going to be a real nail-biter every single lap.

It's going to be a real tense race because the new rules aren't going to allow the cars to hardly get separated at all. I hope it's a good, safe race, but I expect some action to happen because of this new rule change.

Rusty Wallace finished eighth after leading the most laps in the 1999 Daytona 500.

And it's something that I'm a little concerned about, personally. I don't know how it's going to turn out. The Bud Shootout and the Twin 125s are just a preview of that. I don't expect it to be much different. But the race is a 500-miler, so people should have more patience in that thing than they do in the shorter races.

But, man, you never know. When we're running our first race and it's the Super Bowl of our sport, everybody brings their best equipment, their hottest-looking cars and they're all ready for it. And one other reason to watch that race is because you're going to see all the new paint schemes and all the new drivers. Everything that's new is going to be right there at that race.

WHAT YOU SHOULD WATCH FOR IN THE RACE

I think you need to keep an eye out for the ongoing changes in pit stops. There's going to be a lot of strategy going on -- who can make it longer on fuel, who has the best horsepower, who's going to have the best pit stops.

Some guy might pit earlier before other guys and get an advantage, but you better keep a real close look out for the pit stops and really track how your driver's doing throughout the race. Because a lot of these races are won by strategy rather than by who's got the fastest car.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY OF THE DAYTONA 500?

Boy, I've got to tell you, the last three years of the Daytona 500 have been fabulous for me. I've been in the top five almost every single race, and the last six races at Daytona, whether it's been the 500 or the Firecracker 400, that's been a race that I used to be horrible at, but it's become one of my favorite tracks.

But I think one of my favorite memories also has to be included with a disheartening finish when I led the most laps in the Daytona 500 all day long, and right there at the end with 12 laps to go, I had been battling Jeff Gordon, and he got a nose underneath me coming off of turn four.

And I just didn't see him in the mirror, or else I would have blocked him off and probably won the 500. But I didn't see him and he got underneath me and I got stuck in the center lane. And I went from first clear back, I believe it was all the way to eighth. That was a disheartening finish.

That was a great memory to log in my memory bank to not let it happen again. But I guess one of the best memories was when we first started the two-car team with Jeremy Mayfield and myself. We got down to Daytona and I finished fifth and Jeremy finished fourth and we both led all day long. Those two white and blue cars were in everybody's face throughout the day.

That's probably my best memory. My worst memory was in '93, when I had that terrible crash and rolled 22 times. That was a bad one back in the '93 Daytona 500. But since then, they've all been pretty good. And we're really prepared for this race. I think we're in good shape.

(Rusty Wallace will preview every NASCAR Winston Cup Series race this season for NASCAR.com with "Rusty's Rundown". For more great racing information, visit www.rustywallace.com.)