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Wednesday, February 13
Updated: February 16, 4:29 PM ET

Rusty Wallace
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com

Team: Penske Racing South
Car/sponsor/make: No. 2 Miller Lite Ford

Rusty Wallace
Wallace

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Poles
Top-5s
Best finish

2001 7 1 0 8 1st, California

Career 54 35 182 1st, 54 times

2001 recap
The good: Having been in the series since 1984, Wallace continues to hope to add at least one more championship to his 1989 title. Until the latter stages of 2001, Wallace was a constant threat to not only have strong finishes, he also was a threat in the standings. But after dropping to ninth in the points after the fall race at Richmond, Va., his title hopes evaporated. Still, Wallace was happy with finishing seventh in the standings for the second straight season, but he definitely has his sights set on building upon last season for an even higher finish in 2002.

Season highlight: Wallace's win at California in April extended his streak of at least one win each season since 1986, when he raced for former drag racer-turned-Winston Cup team owner Raymond Beadle. Other key finishes in 2001 for Wallace were third-place showings in the Daytona 500 and the spring race at Richmond. He also posted a fourth-place effort at the inaugural race at Kansas.

The bad: For the most part, when Wallace finished badly, it was due to something out of his control. For example, of the four races he finished 40th or worse, three were due to crashes or mechanical mishaps. The most disappointing race had to be Las Vegas, where he completed just eight laps before being knocked out of the event by a crash. What's more, Wallace came into that event atop the standings. After the crash, he dropped down to 11th.

Season lowlight: After earning nine poles in 2000, Wallace failed to start even one race from the top spot in 2001, the first time he's gone without a pole since 1996.

Rusty Wallace
Through the last 17 seasons, Rusty Wallace has consistently finished in the top-10 in points.

Key stat: Not only is Wallace one of the most consistent drivers on the circuit, his win at California last April extended his current streak of winning at least one race per season to 16 consecutive seasons.

2002 outlook
What needs to be done: Wallace starts the new season with a new crew chief, Bill Wilburn, who is no stranger to the team, having served in various capacities with Wallace for the past 17 years. Wilburn replaces Robin Pemberton, who left the team after last season citing burnout from the long schedule and tremendous workload. Pemberton has since joined Petty Enterprises as vice president of operations, taking much of the day-to-day duties of running the team off the shoulders of Kyle Petty.

As for Wallace, because of his familiarity and comfort level with Wilburn, along with several other veteran crew members, don't expect a sudden drop in performance or in the standings now that Pemberton is gone.

Prediction: Don't expect too many surprises from the No. 2 camp. Consistency is its mantra, and Wallace is the guru. Look for him to have yet another top-10 finish in 2002, which would extend his current streak to 10 consecutive seasons -- and the 15th time he's wound up in the top-10 in the last 17 seasons.

Your take
Will Wallace notch another solid top-10 season? Or will he finally begin to slide down the standings? Here are your thoughts.

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