It’s an understatement to say that NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace knew his way around North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The 1989 Cup Series champion won at the North Carolina short track three times and had 21 top 10s in 26 starts at the track. He finished 10th in his last Cup Series points race in 1996.
It’s only fitting that Wallace is the grand marshal for Sunday’s Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro, the first Cup Series points race at the track in nearly 30 years.
Rusty Wallace is being honored at North Wilkesboro
“It’s an honor, it really is,” Wallace said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s such a big race. I’ve personally been calling in the inaugural comeback to Wilkesboro, because it’s a points paying race. We’ve had some All-Star races there, it’s been fantastic, but this is the big one.”
Austin Cindric, who drives the No. 2 Team Penske Ford that Wallace made iconic from 1991-2005, will run a throwback paint scheme resembling the “Midnight” Miller Genuine Draft livery that adorned Wallace’s car in the early 1990s as part of the 60th anniversary of Team Penske.
Wallace, 69, won at North Wilkesboro for the first time in 1988, driving the No. 27 Pontiac for Raymond Beadle. He then swept the two Wilkesboro races in 1993, driving for Penske.