Wallace in no mood to play nice at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- If someone bumps past Rusty Wallace to win at Bristol again, he might not let it slide this time.

"I'm not in much of a Mr. Nice Guy mood," he said. "I just want to get the wins and the finishes for my team, my sponsors and my partners. It's getting ridiculous right now."

It's been 67 races since Wallace made it to Victory Lane, a streak dating to April 2001 at California. The drought ended the record he shares with Ricky Rudd of at least one victory in 16 straight seasons.

It didn't have to be that way. Wallace was on his way to winning at Bristol Motor Speedway last August, only to have Jeff Gordon bump him out of the way with one lap to go.

"It might be a little controversial, but I don't care," Gordon said after the victory that ended his 31-race streak without a win. "I think anyone else in that situation would have done the same thing."

Wallace chalked it all up to two hungry drivers, and moved on. But the replay of the bump-and-run was played so many times -- at least a dozen times during the events surrounding the year-end awards banquet -- that Wallace grew irritated.

"I did get tired of seeing it over and over," he said. "I get along with the kid pretty good, but I tell you that boy has cost me a lot of money. He caused me a lot of problems, no doubt about that."

So Wallace heads back to Bristol this weekend, looking for his 10th career victory on his favorite race track. He won the first Winston Cup race of his career on the .533-mile bullring in 1986 and ranks second among all-time Bristol winners.

His crew would love to see him win Sunday, when NASCAR will be celebrating its 2,000th points race.

"It would be something to put on your mantel and have to talk about in years to come," crew chief Billy Wilburn said. "For NASCAR to be around and have 2,000 races is a huge deal, and for us to win it would be great. For our team to win their first race this year and put this winless streak that everybody is talking about behind us would be bigger yet as far as I'm concerned."

Wallace sure could use it.

He overruled Wilburn at Daytona, who wanted him to stay on the track and race against the rain. But Wallace pitted anyway, lost valuable spots on the track before the rain and finished 25th.

He enters Bristol 20th in points, with just one top 10 finish. Wallace insists the standings do not reflect the work ethic of his team or the strength of his Dodge Intrepid. After years of driving a Ford, Wallace says he is adjusting just fine.

"The car has been super strong," he said. "I wish sometimes I could rerun those races and get the finishes we really deserve."

The problem, he said, is that he's pressing so hard to win again.

"For me to go to Atlanta and be running fourth and getting ready to pass Tony Stewart and I get in the wall, was something ridiculous," he said. "I did something I used to laugh at people for doing. It came from a little overdriving on my part."

But Wilburn will take a little aggressiveness from a driver.

"I would much rather have a guy that's trying as hard as he can, running as hard as he can every lap," Wilburn said. "That's what it takes to win, and that's what it takes to be up front and win this championship."