Wallace eager to get back on winning track at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Rusty Wallace has never tried to hide his love for Bristol Motor Speedway, where he's one of the winningest drivers with nine victories.

Toss in the quick start he's off to this season and Wallace hopes to coast around the high banks during today's Food City 500 and into the winner's circle for the first time in almost a year.

"It's seemed like forever since I last won a race," said Wallace, who won at California Speedway last April. "But we're at Bristol now, my favorite race track in the whole world, and I think we've got a darn good chance to get into Victory Lane there." Wallace, who has climbed to fourth in the points standings, starts 15th in Sunday's race. Defending series champion Jeff Gordon is on the pole.

There's a ton of things Wallace loves about Bristol, the .533-mile concrete bullring that reminds him of the Midwest tracks he competed on early in his career.

He loves the 180,000 fans who pack the stands and aisles and favors the door-to-door bumping and banging over the 500 laps.

And he loves his success here, he's got seven poles and won the race four times from that spot. Plus, he won two of the most significant races of his career at Bristol, earning his first Winston Cup victory in 1986 and his 50th career win in March 2000.

"I cut my teeth on short tracks," Wallace said. "As for Bristol, every time I get a chance to run there and do good like we normally do, you end up really liking the place." Wallace has become something of a short-track master, earning almost half of his 54 wins at facilities shorter than one-mile in length. His nine Bristol victories are the most among active drivers, second only to Darrell Waltrip's mark of 12.

BUSCH SERIES: Jeff Green outlasted a battered field at Bristol Motor Speedway on to win the Channellock 250, a race that ended with Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle at odds.

Green survived a record-tying 14 cautions to win his 15th career Busch series event. Mike McLaughlin was second and was followed by Scott Wimmer, Jimmy Spencer and Biffle.

The race was stopped with nine laps to go after Biffle and Harvick got into each other in Turn 4, contact that wrecked Harvick's car.

The two were racing for fifth place and fighting for track position when Biffle bumped the back of Harvick's left rear, sending his Chevrolet hard into the outside wall, then back across traffic before he came to rest on the frontstretch.

Crew members had to pull the two apart after Harvick confronted Biffle after the race.

IRL: Eddie Cheever Jr. earned the first Indy Racing League pole for both himself and the Nissan Infiniti engine in qualifying for today's Yamaha 400 at California Speedway near Fontana.

Cheever's 221.422 mph lap around the 2-mile, banked oval was good enough to beat the 220.909 of Jaques Lazier.

-- From wire reports