Nascar has a long and storied history, but it also has a past littered with “What If?” questions. Join author Mike Mackler as he takes a look back at stock car racing’s 100 most-intriguing hypotheticals in “100 Stock Car Racing ‘What Ifs’”, the book available on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle formats. Here’s a preview of one of the one hundred “What If” questions asked throughout the book:
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| Rusty's Talladega wreck |
84. What if Rusty Wallace won his second championship in 1993?
Background: When Rusty Wallace won the Winston Cup Championship in 1989, he was heralded as a new breed of driver—successful on the track and polished and media-savvy off it. And when he joined Roger Penske to start a stock car team in 1991, it looked like a second championship was right around the corner for one of Nascar’s brightest stars.
What Actually Happened: After two years of adjusting to his new team, Wallace finished second in points in 1993 and third in 1994. The 1993 season was an especially cutting year, as Rusty won 10 points-paying races, but was still beaten out for the championship by rival Dale Earnhardt Sr.—the same driver who wrecked Wallace at the finish of the spring Talladega race.
What Could Have Been the Turning Point: What if Earnhardt hadn’t tapped Wallace in 1993, allowing him to avoid his subsequent four-race swoon due to racing with injuries?
What COULD Have Happened: Had Wallace won his second championship in 1993, the most-obvious effect would have been costing Dale Earnhardt one of his seven Cup championships. Perhaps Wallace would have wound up one of Richard Petty’s favorite modern drivers.
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| Dale Earnhardt's 1993 championship- winning car |
And if THAT Happened…: After the 1993 season Penske switched from Pontiac to Ford. Would Penske still have made the move after a championship year? Well, they did so after winning a championship in a Dodge, so probably yes. However, Rusty winning a championship in a Pontiac would have improved race fans’ opinion of the “third brand” in Nascar in the 90’s.
What Else Could Have Happened: Despite a stellar career, Wallace is not often thought of as one of Nascar’s truly great, “top-tier” drivers like Petty, Earnhardt, Yarborough, Waltrip, and the like. Perhaps a second championship would have vaulted him into that conversation, although his lack of results at Daytona (zero wins in any points-paying races in his career there) would have likely still stuck out like a sore thumb.
Why It Had to Turn Out The Way It Did: Dale Earnhardt knew how to get his car to the front, be it through sheer driving skill or brute force of his fender.