Wallace Is on Target, Gets His Victory

Need to regain your short-track edge and reach a Winston Cup milestone? For Rusty Wallace, the best place is Bristol, Tenn.

“I really put a big bull’s-eye on this place, it’s one of my favorites,” said Wallace, who defended his Food City 500 title Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway and became only the 10th driver in NASCAR with at least 50 victories. “I worked hard to get this one and pointed here.”

It was his eighth victory at Bristol.

After last year’s victory, Wallace was thinking he would win “five or six more times.” Instead, his Ford Taurus was shut out the rest of the season, leaving him stuck on 49 career wins and answering question after question about when the next one would come.

Wallace came close, including a fourth-place finish last month in the Daytona 500.

He tested at Bristol two weeks ago and told his crew: “I don’t want any excuses, I don’t want anything to go wrong this week.” The crew took care of its part and Wallace did his, passing Dale Jarrett with 75 laps left and holding on to victory. He joins Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson for eighth place on NASCAR’s career victory list.

“We kept talking about No. 50 and the wins just wouldn’t come,” he said. “It’s an honor to be tied with those guys.

“I’ve got that mentality now of what it takes to win these things.”

Wallace’s first victory on this 0.533-mile track was on April 6, 1986.

Wallace finished 2.622 seconds ahead of Johnny Benson, whose Pontiac picked its way through the 11 cautions to go from 33rd to second.

Ward Burton, last week’s Mall.com 400 winner at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, was next, placing two Pontiacs in the top three. Jeremy Mayfield, Wallace’s teammate, was fourth, followed by Terry Labonte in a Chevrolet, the first top five for a Rick Hendrick driver this season.

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Max Papis needed 60 starts to prove to everyone but himself that he could win on the CART circuit.

Once he took the checkered flag in the season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami, he couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Today, Max rules,” the beaming Italian shouted after he passed Paul Tracy 10 laps from the finish, then held off Roberto Moreno’s late challenge at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Papis unstrapped his belts and was halfway out of his Team Rahal Reynard-Ford, punching the air and raising his thumbs in celebration as he drove down pit road toward his first visit to victory lane. Once he scrambled from the cockpit, he punched the air repeatedly with both fists.

“You need to believe you are a winner in your heart,” Papis, a former sports car circuit driver, said. “Today was proof. I knew we had a fantastic car. I just had to wait for the opportunity, then I went for it. I was very concentrated.”

Papis, who averaged 164.788 mph, dedicated the victory to the memory of his good friend Greg Moore, who won this race last year and was killed in a crash during the season-ending race at California Speedway in Fontana.

“I’m sure glad to win here right after Greg,” Papis said. “I’m sure he was with me all race long.”

Moreno came up short of his first win in his first start for Patrick Racing by .620-seconds--about four car lengths.

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Germany’s Michael Schumacher won the Brazilian Grand Prix, his second victory of the Formula One season.

Schumacher, who also won the season opener at Melbourne in his Ferrari, completed the 71-lap race on the 2.671-mile track at Sao Paolo at an average speed of 124.525 mph.

“The season could not have started better,” Schumacher said.

McLaren driver David Coulthard of Britain finished second, 4.302 seconds behind. Giancarlo Fisichella of the Benetton team was third, followed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jano Trulli, his Jordan teammate.

Pole-sitter Mika Hakkinen, driving a McLaren, took the early lead, followed closely by Schumacher. Oil pressure problems forced the defending champion to drop out on the 30th lap, turning over the lead to Schumacher, who retained it until receiving the checkered flag.