Kenny Wallace addresses fan's intrigue as he travels back in the 'late 70s' to share his short-track legend father's 'rare picture'
Veteran NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace shared a rare picture of his father Russ Wallace, racing at the Rockford Speedway. He answered a fan's question about racing on the now-demolished track.
The Rockford Speedway was a 0.25-mile track that opened in 1948 and sanctioned short-track races regularly. While it was demolished and is reportedly set to be reconstructed, its oval and high bankings have a lot of history around them.
Kenny Wallace shared one such memory while answering a fan's query 'if he had ever raced on the track'. He affirmed by sharing his father's picture, seemingly driving a #64 car. He wrote that his father too, raced on the short track.
"Absolutely. However. Here is a very rare picture of my dad, Russ Wallace when he raced the short track championship race in the late 70s at Rockford Speedway."
Born in 1934, Russell Wallace Sr. was an iconic racer, which fueled his son's ambition to follow the same track in his career. Russ had 400 victories in short-track races in the 1960s and 70s. His family became the first in NASCAR history to have produced four different Daytona 500 competitors.
The Rockford Speedway, although never used for an official Cup Series race, was the starting point of many notable NASCAR personalities like John Darby.
Kenny Wallace discusses what makes NASCAR so expensive in the modern era
Like any other sport, NASCAR had humble beginnings in 1949 with a few people wanting to race stock cars at the Daytona beach. Today, NASCAR has drivers with net worths running into millions of dollars. As a matter of fact, a new TV deal that the sport signed is estimated to be in the billions.
Discussing the sport's growth, Kenny Wallace also mentioned the design aspect of the cars.
“They were making these cars very light, very efficient, to where they were only good for one race. Yes, one race," Kenny Wallace said [4:50].
Wallace then talked about the strict inspection that was done on them.
“And at times, they were running one car per race because NASCAR’s tolerance level, their inspection process was so tight, they were using the lasers to measure it, and after one race, the car was already done. [6:20]”
He went on to explain that factors like inflation, running costs, sponsorships, etc., have turned it into a multi-million dollar industry.
“Just expenses, inflation, what we’re going through right now. The cost of metal, running more races… engineers, the cost of engineers. So the sport spiraled out of control because of the cost to go faster. Engineers running one car per race, team airplanes... And here’s the reason it got out of control… because sponsors could not keep up. The sport got so expensive that you could not find a sponsor to keep up with the cost.” [7:28]
NASCAR's growth rate spiked in previous years. Each charter in the sport is reported to generate around $8 million annually, bringing in profit for the teams to run and maintain their cars.