PHOENIX - NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and radio host Rusty Wallace stopped by 12 Today and talked about racing coming back to the Valley this fall, driver safety and much more.
Wallace won 55 races in more than 20 years as a NASCAR driver. He was also inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2013 and currently is a host for NASCAR radio.
"I do miss being in the car," Wallace told 12 Today. "That's all I did my whole life is drive these things. And I've raced at many, many tracks."
That includes the Phoenix International Raceway, where Wallace won in 1998 in a rain delay.
"I had a great car all day long," Wallace said. "With just a handful of laps to go. And I told everybody -- 'hey man, I thought it never rains in Arizona' -- but it rained that day."
PIR has made a number of changes since Wallace raced here, including widening parts of the raceway and adding progressive banking on the turns.
"A lot of people used to show up at the track with the same ol' designed car and set-up. But now that's changed quite a bit because of the design of the track," Wallace said. "It's really been a good thing."
Another good thing, Wallace told 12 Today, has been improvements in driver safety. This includes the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device that prevents a driver's head from snapping forward in violent crashes. Also, NASCAR is adding SAFER Barriers to the racetrack walls. The soft walls absorb a lot of energy from a crash and can take up to 40 percent of the impact off the driver and car.
Wallace knows all about crashing. He was involved in a number of horrific crashes in his racing days. His worst collision was at Talladega, Alabama when he collided with Dale Earnhardt in 1993. Wallace's car went airborne and flipped end-over-end a number of times.
"I went flying across the line upside down," Wallace recalled. "But the thing I remember is the car being in the air. It comes out of the sky straight down and it broke both my wrists off when it hit."
Wallace still has a pin in his left arm that goes from his wrist to his elbow.
"Why haven't I taken it out?" Wallace jokingly asked. "It hasn't bothered me and it doesn't go off at the medal detectors at the airport."
Wallace also told 12 Today that many drivers now use cue cards when they're in the winners circle and doing live interviews.
"A lot of those speeches would roll off my tongue," Wallace said. "Nowadays it's so big-time important to mention your sponsors, that the PR [public relations] guys will actually stand in front of the driver with a card in victory lane and will hold the card up. The driver, you can watch his eyes, he'll look straight out and say ... I'd like to thank Goodyear, Chevrolet, I'd like to thank this guy, that guy..."