Photos and story © 2005 Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Driver, No. 66 stock car

"You got to take it as it comes."

Please welcome the son of Rusty Wallace, Steve Wallace. You might want to ask your own questions about a youthful work in progress, a son on the fast coattails of an immensely successful and recognizable NASCAR standout. We felt that you might want that, but we asked questions to ourselves first.

Do driving skills transfer to genes? Maybe. Maybe not. Does drive run in families? Probably. Does it take a name to compete at high speed? Maybe. Maybe not. Does it take money to make it happen? Definitely. Sponsors are the oxygen in any air that produces a high-speed performance. Does it take more than money? Always. We all should know that money can't create a high-speed turtle.

We believe too that our quest to define the drive within racers is a pure goal with some science and many intangibles. While we ignore all obstacles in that quest, please enjoy the quick and direct responses of Steve Wallace.

At 18, he is ready to move up to NASCAR Busch Series and work to fill some very big shoes that have been a few closets away for all of his life. Young Wallace talks fast and he drives fast. We slowed our recorder to bring you his words at your reading pace. Wallace is also on a fast pace to slip into Rusty's big shoes. Fast shoes. Winning shoes. Welcome to the next step.

Time: late season 2005
Place: USA International Speedway - Lakeland, Fla.

Dwight asked Steve Wallace:

"What's in me or what's in drivers in general?"

"I think once you're driving and you're going fast you have to know your race car. You have to drive often. You have to build all your cars. You have to work on them hard, you know. You're working at night and you're working at 6 a.m. You have to do what we've been doing for the past three months now. We've had to do that a bunch. But that's what really makes a good race car driver, knowing the cars. Knowing every single part that needs to go on it and all that stuff. That's what most car owners look for is that kind of driver. "

"I don't know. That's a good question. Like an old watch, I've just been racing hard-core. I've been doing this forever since I was six years old, racing go-karts and all that stuff. Now it's starting to get to be a job and aggravating doing all this hard stuff. You're gone all the time. You're always on the go. "

"I think I have a lot of my daddy in me. It's like father and like son. You've just got to do what your dad did. Do it the way you like first for a lot of people, you know what I mean. It's a tough road for a single guy."

"I think a lot of fans misunderstand the competition in this sport and how hard it is. All the fans think all we do is drive around in circles real fast and stuff like that. There are a lot of other things to it. There's a lot of hard work that goes into these cars. It takes a lot of talent to be able to drive one of these cars and drive up front. I think a lot of fans misunderstand that purpose of racing."

"You know, I don't. If everything sticks and it stays the way it is right now. We're running pretty good. We're not running too good tonight, but will be running good later. We won Michigan and we've run some good races this year, so we'll just keep up with that and see what the outcome is. We're going to run the full-time Busch Series next year with Dodge and we'll just see where that takes us."

"You just race. You know. There's not a whole lot of strategy that goes into it. The only strategy you got is in my heart, you know. Stuff like that. It's not a big window. Like I'm going to go fast this week, or I'm not going to go fast that week. You got to take it as it comes."

"No. I sure don't. Racing is everything in my whole life. The only thing I ever do is race and that's about it. "

"Heck, I don't know it seems like everybody is young now. You look at dad and people like Mark Martin, they're getting out of there. You got Kyle Busch and Reed Sorenson, we're all the same age. I'm a little bit younger than them, but it should be a cool deal. "

"I'm not far, really, it's just how I feel. You just try. You do what you do. You gain experience with every lap in a race car. It's really all about experience. You hear he's not capable of running at Daytona Things like that. That's not true, I think."

"Oh, I'm out."