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thedrifter
03-03-06, 01:15 PM
Wallace "blown away" by IRL open-wheel racers
March 3, 2006

By Bruce Martin
SportsTicker Contributing Editor

HOMESTEAD, Florida (Ticker) After 30 years of racing stock cars, Rusty Wallace thought he had seen and done it all, having won 55 races in NASCAR's premier division.

On Thursday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the 1989 NASCAR champion drove an IndyCar for the first time and admitted it took his breath away.

"I've got to get one of these at home," Wallace screamed as he climbed out of the open-wheel racer. "That was fun. I'm going to talk Roger Penske into running a third car at the Indy 500. These are neat cars. I'm out of breath right now. That was a lot of work but that was cool."

Asked to describe the difference in sitting in the much lighter car, Wallace said, "It's like having your butt in a slingshot and then they sling it and let it loose. That's what it feels like."

Wallace was visibly excited about running the car even before he climbed into it and took it out on the track for the first time in his career.

"I feel like I'm about to go on a roller-coaster ride for the first time," Wallace said before taking the wheel. "At the age of 49, I get to run an IndyCar. I think this car looks like a piece of jewelry. The finish is just amazing on these cars. I don't see where there is any ball peen hammer work anywhere. They are very, very cool cars."

Wallace ran eight laps on the 2.21-mile road course. He will be serving as commentator for IRL telecasts on ABC and ESPN this season as he prepares for the same role in NASCAR when the networks assume coverage of that series in 2007.

Wallace's best time around the 14-turn course was in the range of 1 minute, 18 seconds. By comparison, Helio Castroneves had the day's best time at 1:11.0146 and Sam Hornish Jr. was at 1:11.1228.

Wallace, Castroneves and Hornish all drove Dallara/Honda combinations.

"The cars really stop on a dime and the acceleration off the corner is incredible," Wallace said. "The biggest surprise to me is when you leave the corner at such a high rate of speed and as you turn down, the front end gets super-hard to steer because of no power steering. These are incredible hot-rods. I'm blown away."

The stock car driver thought the best way to understand the series was to learn everything he could about its car. So Penske, Wallace's former Nextel Cup team owner, gave him the tools he needed to educate himself.

The day after the Daytona 500, Wallace flew to Penske Racing in Reading, Pennsylvania to go over the racers that two-time IRL champion Hornish and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Castroneves drive every week. Penske turned over Hornish's car to Wallace after Thursday's IRL open test.

"They walked me through the whole car, the wings, the wicker, the difference between the Panoz and the Dallara chassis," Wallace said. "The final chapter was I wanted to drive the car to feel the car, how they drive and how they brake.

"I could have never done that without driving one of these cars. I'm all about giving the race fan the best information I can give them."

In January, Wallace drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona with IRL regular Danica Patrick and sports car driver Allan McNish. The team was very competitive before the car broke in the early morning hours.

Considered one of NASCAR'S better road racing drivers, Wallace thought it was best to start his first IndyCar effort on a road course. He taped a segment for ESPN with two onboard cameras and a microphone so he could chronicle his lap to viewers.

"I want to bring a different perspective to the IRL and try to grow the sport," Wallace said. "I'm very excited about this."

Wallace took his laps while Castroneves and other IRL drivers watched from pit lane. They were impressed with his first-time effort.

"He did a heck of a job," Castroneves said. "He knows how it feels now and he was very good considering he has never been in an open-wheel car before. I had a lot of fun watching him. Well done, Rusty."

Wallace will drive the IRL's "two-seater" at every race on the series. The special car has the driver in front with a passenger in the rear to give a sense of what an IndyCar driver experiences on each track.

Wallace believes if he had a full day to run the open-wheel car, he could approach the speeds the IRL drivers ran in the open test. He also feels if he ran the full IRL schedule, he would be competitive for about 75 percent of the season.

"I'm already a racer and already a race driver, so I think I could pick it up," he said. "But I don't know if I could ever report on this sport if I hadn't driven this car."

Updated on Friday, Mar 3, 2006 1:07 am EST

Ellie