There's something about racing at Martinsville Speedway that brings out the best in Rusty Wallace.

Uh, wait a minute, scratch that … make that used to bring out the best in Rusty Wallace.

Wallace, who hasn't won a Winston Cup race since April 2001, likewise has seen his domination at the .526-mile Martinsville short-track become a thing of the past.

Sure, the record book shows that Wallace is the best active driver at Martinsville heading into Sunday's Subway 500. He leads all current drivers in wins (six, including five in a seven-race stretch from spring 1993 through spring 1996), top-five finishes (15), races led (27) and total laps led (3,488). He's also earned three poles and is the last driver to win both races in the same year there, turning the trick in 1994.

But since Wallace's last victory at the southern Virginia track in April 1996, the veteran Winston Cup driver has endured mostly bad luck. In the 14 races since that victory, Wallace has recorded no wins and finished in the top-10 only seven times.

It's almost as if Wallace has been victimized by a seven-year curse; he was so outstanding there for so long, but has found far too many ways to lose the last seven years.

That's why, with Halloween around the corner, the No. 2 Dodge team is looking to snap two lengthy curses in Sunday's race by getting back to Victory Lane at Martinsville and also by breaking Wallace's overall 30-month winless stretch.

"We have a great car ready for Martinsville," crew chief Bill Wilburn said. "It's the car we debuted at Richmond last month with a top-five finish. I think it's one of the best, if not the very best short-track car we've ever built. It's right in there with Rusty's other favorite cars and we know we can win with it."

Of his recent non-winning outings at Martinsville, Wallace added, "We've been strong and led laps. We've just not been able to be there up front at the right time and lead the most important lap, the last one."

Take, for example, Wallace's last three starts at Martinsville. He's qualified in the top-five each time and has led at least one lap in each event, but his best finish has been eighth-place.

	Rusty Wallace remembers his old days in Victory Lane, and he says he can still make it back there.

"We've definitely had a car capable of winning in each of those races, that's for sure," Wallace said.

If there's one common denominator in Wallace's tough stretch at Martinsville in the last seven years, it's race strategy. Rather than just mashing the gas pedal to the floor and holding on for dear life, as used to be the norm at bull rings like Martinsville and Bristol (Tenn.), races at short tracks have become endurance contests where pit strategy is usually the deciding factor.

"Just like about every other place we go now, you have to make the best calls strategy-wise," Wallace said. "Pitting at the right time and playing the tire deal just right has become the most important way to win these things."

That's why traditional fender banging and keeping the accelerator stuck to the floor for 500 laps at Martinsville has become a thing of the past, for the most part.

"Things have changed so much in this sport during the last few years and what has happened at Martinsville pretty much reflects that," Wallace said. "We won a ton of races there during the early and mid-90s and those wins weren't the strategy, gambling-type wins that are so commonplace today, even at Martinsville.

"I mean, yes, there was a strategy back then -- it was to qualify near the front, take the lead early, lead the most laps and put a real spanking on them. That's the way our wins have come at Martinsville. We've won them in dominant style. We won because we had the best handling racecars. Back then, the tires would wear, you'd come in and take on fresh rubber, then get back out there and rocket back up through the field if you had a strong enough car to do so and we always seemed to have just that strong of car.

"But with the harder tires we've been running and the importance of track position, it has become almost impossible to do that, even at a short track like Martinsville. We're coming in there this time around hoping to put another spanking on them, but taking a realistic view about it. We want to get a good starting spot, so we can get a good spot on pit road. But we know we have to have great pit stops and make all the right calls on pit road."

In a surprising twist, this past April's race was reminiscent of old-style racing at Martinsville, where Jeff Gordon won from the pole, leading more than one-third of the event en route to victory. Rather than worry about fuel mileage or tires, Gordon simply went out and dominated en route to Victory Lane, much the same way Wallace used to do at Martinsville.

But go back to last fall's race there, and Wallace's point is perfectly illustrated. Eventual winner Kurt Busch started 36th and needed the first 389 laps to work his way up through the pack to take the lead. And the only way Busch managed to get that lead was to focus on track position rather than worry about pitting for tires every 60 laps or so.

It's a risky gamble, but the potential payoff is worth it in most cases, as Busch showed there last fall.

"(Jeff) Gordon was pretty strong from qualifying day on at Martinsville back in the spring and he was able to win," Wallace said. "But that's almost the exception to the rule when you look back at some of the other races. Busch won there last fall and started almost from the rear. Just like they've done at Bristol for the last couple of years, Jimmy Fennig (Busch's crew chief) and those guys played the no-tires-for-track-position deal and won the fall race at Martinsville last year.

"That's so typical these days, too, and that bunch is really great at pulling it off. Even though there is getting to be a pretty good outside groove going at Martinsville, the track position is just that incredibly important. We go there now and you just stay out there forever on tires. The handling doesn't go away, so you just find yourself running bumper to bumper, lap after lap."

With the frustration of being shut out of Victory Lane for more than 30 months -- the longest winless streak of his Winston Cup career -- rumors have begun increasing recently that Wallace may be mulling retirement after the 2004 season, even though he has long-term contracts with team owner Roger Penske and primary sponsor Miller Lite.

When he was asked earlier this season about the prospect of hanging his firesuit up for the last time, Wallace said he wasn't in any hurry to do so, adding he still feels he has several more Winston Cup wins inside him. But talking about winning and actually doing so in this day and age are two entirely different things, he lamented.

"Man, it gets so frustrating not winning when you're so used to winning," Wallace said. "It tears at you, gnaws at you, eats at you. There's one simple way to change that: just go out and win. But with the competition as close as it ever has been in Winston Cup, that's a lot easier said than done."

But at the same time, it's not impossible, either.

"It's to the point that I don't care how pretty it is, a win is still a win," Wallace said. "We just want to be there leading that last lap at Martinsville on Sunday."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.