Editing Rusty Wallace (section)

====Penske Racing====
In 1991, Wallace took the Miller sponsorship with him to [[Penske Racing]],<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DB123DF93AA25755C0A966958260 |title=Wallace Revs Up in Bid for Title – New York Times |newspaper=The New York Times |date=19 June 1990 |access-date=2017-02-12 |archive-date=2021-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423173346/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/19/sports/wallace-revs-up-in-bid-for-title.html |url-status=live |last1=Siano |first1=Joseph }}</ref> and he continued in the No. 2 [[Miller Genuine Draft]] [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]]. He also won the 1991 [[International Race of Champions|IROC]] championship. While 1992 only carried him one win, the win at the Miller 400 was satisfying;  it was the first win for Wallace in a car which arguably was his best known chassis for his career, one affectionately known as "Midnight" after the win.  With this nickname, the car raced for six seasons, carrying various race wins before being taken out of the fleet in 1997.

The [[1993 in NASCAR|1993]] season was arguably his most successful season despite two major accidents at Daytona and Talladega, in which his car went airborne and flipped several times. He won the second race of the season on February 28, 1993, at North Carolina Motor Speedway. The season was also a sad one, as Wallace's friend and reigning NASCAR Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed flying into Bristol in April 1993. Because of this, when Wallace won the race at Bristol, in respect to Alan Kulwicki, he did a "[[Polish victory lap]]"—turning his car around and driving around the track the wrong way, as made famous by Kulwicki. In every race Wallace won that year he performed a "Kulwicki victory lap". He won all three races in April (Bristol on April 4, [[1993 First Union 400|North Wilkesboro on April 18]], and Martinsville on April 25). Also, he won the first ever race at the New Hampshire Speedway, starting 33rd, on July 11.
In 1993, he won 10 of the 30 races,<ref name="penskeford">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/02/sports/auto-racing-hey-rusty-wallace-and-roger-penske-have-you-driven-a-ford-lately.html?pagewanted=1 |title=AUTO RACING; Hey, Rusty Wallace and Roger Penske, Have You Driven a Ford Lately? |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 January 1994 |access-date=2017-02-12 |archive-date=2016-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112063413/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/02/sports/auto-racing-hey-rusty-wallace-and-roger-penske-have-you-driven-a-ford-lately.html?pagewanted=1 |url-status=live |last1=Siano |first1=Joseph }}</ref> but finished 2nd in the final points standings, 80 points behind Earnhardt. He ended the season strong, finishing in the Top 3 in all but two of the final 10 races of the season.

Penske switched to [[Ford Motor Company|Fords]] in [[1994 in NASCAR|1994]].<ref name="penskeford"/> In 1996, sponsorship changed from Miller Genuine Draft to [[Miller beer]] sponsorship. At the end of the 1996 season, NASCAR hosted its first of three exhibition races in Japan, the first of two at [[Suzuka International Racing Course|Suzuka]]. Wallace was the winner of that first race.

[[File:Old School NASCAR&nbsp;– Rusty Wallace 1994.jpg|thumb|left|Wallace at [[Michigan International Speedway|Michigan]] in 1994 with his MGD paint scheme]]
[[File:Rusty Wallace Penske South Ford Nazareth 1996.jpg|thumb|right|Wallace's only Truck Series start was at [[Nazareth Speedway]] in 1996]]
[[File:RustyWallace1997Pocono2.jpg|thumb|right|1997 paint scheme]]
In [[1997 in NASCAR|1997]], Miller changed the team's sponsorship to [[Miller Lite]], replacing the black and gold with a blue and white scheme. In 1998, Wallace won the [[Bud Shootout]] at Daytona, a non-points race for the previous years pole winners and past winners of the race. It was the first win for Ford's new [[Ford Taurus|Taurus]], and Wallace's only victory at NASCAR's premier track (as well as his only victory in any [[restrictor plate]] race) in a Cup car.

In 2000, he secured his 50th career win at Bristol, becoming the 10th driver in NASCAR to win 50+ races. He is also the only driver in NASCAR history to win his 1st and 50th career victories at the same track, and in the same race. He would also score three more wins at Pocono, Michigan, and the night race at Bristol (season sweep at Bristol). He finished 7th in the final points standings after some inconsistency in the championship race. The next year, he won at California for his 54th career win. He won on what would have been [[Dale Earnhardt]]'s 50th birthday and paid tribute to him with an Earnhardt flag. Wallace almost won the 2002 Sharpie 500 after being bumped out of the way by his rival Jeff Gordon.

[[File:RustyWallaceRIR98.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Rusty Wallace.|Wallace at [[Richmond Raceway|Richmond]] in 1998.]]
In 2003, Penske Racing switched to Dodge and appropriately, in 2004, Wallace won his 55th (and final) race on a short track: the 2004 spring [[Martinsville Speedway]] race. It was also the last win for the track under the ownership of the [[H. Clay Earles]] Trust; the death of Mary Weatherford (matriarch of the trust) forced the Trust to sell the track a month later.

[[File:2005 Dodge Charger - Flickr - exfordy.jpg|thumb|right|2005 Nextel Cup car at the [[Goodwood Festival of Speed]]]]
On August 30, 2004, Wallace announced that the [[2005 in NASCAR|2005]] NASCAR [[NEXTEL Cup]] season would be his last as a full-time driver. Although at the time the possibility remained that he may have continued to run a limited schedule after the 2005 season—as semi-retirees [[Bill Elliott]] and [[Terry Labonte]] also have done, Wallace's broadcasting contract at the time prevented him from doing so. Kurt Busch would replace Wallace in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in 2006–2010. In 2011, [[Brad Keselowski]] began driving the number 2.

In 2006, Wallace returned to his [[General Motors]] roots when he raced a Crawford-Pontiac sportscar, painted black and carrying the familiar stylized No. 2. The car was sponsored by Callaway Golf, in the [[Rolex 24]] at [[Daytona International Speedway|Daytona]], teamed with [[Danica Patrick]] and [[Allan McNish]], In 2008, his [[Nationwide Series]] cars switched from Dodge to Chevrolet.

Rusty Wallace finished his career with the 1989 Winston Cup Championship, 36 career poles, and 55 career wins. As of 2022, the 55 wins is 11th on NASCAR's all-time wins list. They include victories at [[Charlotte Motor Speedway|Charlotte]] as well as the series' last three road courses ([[Riverside International Raceway|Riverside]], [[Infineon Raceway|Infineon]] and [[Watkins Glen International|Watkins Glen]]), but none at [[Daytona International Speedway|Daytona]], [[Darlington Speedway|Darlington]], [[Indianapolis Motor Speedway|Indianapolis]], or [[Talladega Superspeedway|Talladega]]. He has the most short track wins in NASCAR history with 34, and therefore he is considered among the best short track drivers in NASCAR history. He retired after the 2005 season with a 14.4 career average finish.

In 2014, Wallace ran at Daytona for testing before the [[2014 Daytona 500]] as part of a promotion for Miller Lite's 40th anniversary, marking the first time a [[NASCAR Hall of Fame]]r has driven in a NASCAR test.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gluck|first=Jeff|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/01/08/daytona-500-2014-rusty-wallace-brad-keselowski/4370741/|title=Rusty Wallace to drive No. 2 at NASCAR Daytona test|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=January 8, 2014|access-date=January 8, 2014|archive-date=January 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111062813/http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/01/08/daytona-500-2014-rusty-wallace-brad-keselowski/4370741/|url-status=live}}</ref> When asked about the testing, Wallace stated, "It all started at [[Homestead-Miami Speedway|Homestead]]. I was standing between the 48 ([[Jimmie Johnson]]) and 2 (Brad Keselowski) cars joking around and those guys were egging me on to get back in a car and when Brad got wind of it, he called me up two weeks later and was serious about it and Roger (Penske) was all for it. Everyone in the world has been on me to test. 'Why haven't you been back in a car?' This here kind of got me."<ref>{{cite web|last=Cain|first=Holly|url=http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2014/1/8/rusty-wallace-daytona-test-preseason-thunder.html|title=RUSTY WALLACE RETURNS TO NO. 2 AT DAYTONA TEST|publisher=[[NASCAR]]|date=January 8, 2014|access-date=January 8, 2014|archive-date=January 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109043749/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2014/1/8/rusty-wallace-daytona-test-preseason-thunder.html|url-status=live}}</ref>