| While our museum on the grounds of Daytona International Speedway is temporarily closed as we join the world in the fight against COVID-19, the stories of our 251 Heroes of Horsepower shine like an eternal flame. Here’s 2014 inductee Rusty Wallace talking this week about his last Cup car, on exhibit at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 14, 2020) – When 2014 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) inductee Rusty Wallace strapped into his Team Penske Miller Lite “The Last Start” Dodge Charger for his final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20, 2005, one would think that nothing short of a victory that day would have satisfied the retiring NASCAR champion. Instead, Greg Biffle took the win in the 400-mile season finale while Tony Stewart – who followed Rusty into the MSHFA as a Stock Cars inductee in 2019 – secured his second of three career NASCAR Cup titles. Wallace ran competitively all day, but a late issue dropped him to 13th at the finish. Rusty didn’t leave Homestead disappointed, however, as he received a prize cherished to this day as he stepped out of the familiar “blue deuce” the final time. Rusty’s team owner, Roger Penske, inducted into the MSHFA in 1995, was right there to greet his retiring driver. “I remember the last race at Homestead we ran really strong throughout the day,” Rusty said. “At the very end, I think we had a pit stop error, or something happened, that dropped me back. We finished the race and got out, it was a sad time, but I will never forget Roger Penske walking up to me. “Roger said to his guys ‘I want you to take that car right to Rusty’s shop.’ Right there and then at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Roger Penske gave me that car, had his guys load it up and they took it straight to my race shop in North Carolina. I have had it ever since.”  Active in the MSHFA and Museum since his induction, Rusty supported from the beginning the Hall’s move from Detroit to Daytona International Speedway (DIS) five years ago. His “The Last Start” Dodge has been on loan and a featured display the MSHFA Museum since it reopened at DIS in 2016. “When Ron Watson and I were talking about the Motorsports Hall of Fame moving to Daytona we mentioned that particular car,” Rusty said. “I said I would love to have the car on display at the Hall and Ron said he would love to have it there too, so it’s been on display there ever since. There’s a lot of history to it. A lot of people get to see it, and I am really proud that it is there. The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and Museum is a great place for that car. There is a lot of history in there.” A daily reminder of the Dodge hangs in Rusty’s North Carolina race shop. The car was entered as the “Miller Lite – The Last Ride” Dodge at the 2005 finale as a final component of the year-long “Rusty’s Last Call” retirement celebration. “A picture of that car is on the wall in my office in North Carolina,” Wallace said. “It shows it all hunkered down in a corner, just ripping through the corners, and it is about three feet tall and about six-feet wide, so it’s a big picture and takes up the whole wall. It’s great.” When the 1989 NASCAR Cup Champion retired, Rusty was in the all-time top-10 with 55 career race wins. Wallace was one of NASCAR’s best-known drivers in his prime, a popularity that continues today, and he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers during the sanctioning body’s golden anniversary celebration in 1998. Rusty not only made a cameo appearance in the Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder but the rival character “Russ Wheeler,” played by actor Cary Elwes, is generally regarded – at least in name – as being modeled after Rusty.  Rusty and his wife Patti Wallace found some time during this past February’s Speedweeks to swing by the MSHFA and Museum and see their Dodge. “Patti and I have been to the induction ceremonies, but she had never been to the actual Hall to see the car on display,” Wallace said. “When we were in town for Speedweeks she finally had the chance to see it. We got to walk up to it and just stand there and take a good look, reminisce a little bit and tell some stories. “And to see all of the greats that are in the Stock Cars wing, their plaques are on display, it meant a lot to Patti and it meant a lot to me too. At that particular moment, we had enough time to just relax and reflect instead of being in a big hurry. It was a really nice day I remember, and I can’t wait for all of us to get back there soon.” About the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America: The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) was founded by Larry G. Ciancio and Ronald A. Watson and conducted its first induction in 1989. Watson spent the next 30 years tirelessly building it into what it is today until his sudden passing in 2019. The original museum in Novi, Mich., relocated to Daytona Beach, Fla., in 2016 and greets more than 100,000 visitors a year. The MSHFA is the only hall of fame that encompasses all of American motorsports: cars, motorcycles, airplanes, off road and powerboats. Its mission is to celebrate and instill the American values of leadership, creativity, originality, teamwork and spirit of competition found in motorsports. The MSHFA is operated by the nonprofit Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame of America Foundation, Inc. |
