Rusty Wallace coming out of retirement?

[VilleneuveTracy]

I can see coming back but why with a mediocre team like DEI? Why not run a fourth car for JGR?

Jayski:

Rusty back to Cup? with DEI? from an article at SPEEDtv.com by Kenny Wallace: The hot NASCAR rumor right now is not something you’d hear anywhere other than around the race shops in Mooresville, N.C. Everyone wants to know if my brother Rusty Wallace is coming out of retirement to drive for Dale Earnhardt Inc. next season. I’m running the #00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega and was at Michael’s shop Tuesday being fitted for my seat. Six different crew members came up to me and said they’d heard a rumor Rusty was coming back to drive for DEI. These rumors get started in the Mooresville area because the shops are so close to each other and nothing can be kept secret for long. All I can say is that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And he is definitely considering stepping back into a race car. He’s considering this huge move because he watched Brett Favre come out of retirement in the NFL and his good friend Mark Martin is giving it another shot next year at Hendrick. If Mark had quit, Rusty would have been comfortable with his retirement. But watching Mark, who is a couple of years younger than my brother, stage this comeback has really tugged on Rusty’s heartstrings. Rusty has told me numerous times he can outrun half the drivers in the Cup Series and he truly is giving a lot of thought to returning to the track. If he wants to make that commitment, I’ll support him 110-percent. The decision is Rusty’s and his wife Patti’s, but I think the whole possibility is very inspirational and I’m looking forward to his answer. If he comes back, I think he’ll be a bit surprised by the new car. I predict Rusty will be successful but he’ll be shocked that he won’t have control of the chassis the way he used to. He’ll have an adjustment period because the cars are controlled by engineers, bump-stops and seven-post machines, technology that wasn’t in such great use when he left the sport. There is no doubt Rusty has the talent to run well but he’ll probably be upset he won’t be able to set up the car on his own or tell the team how to do it. Maybe we’ll know sometime soon if I’m right or not.(SPEEDtv)(10-1-2008)

[Dutton]

I'm not convinced it would be a good idea at the best of times, really, let alone with a very average outfit (it was a tad disheartening when Truex extended his stay with them, but I guess he can't have had any better offers on the table). He'd have to do it with a high-class team to make it worthwhile, but I guess his problem is that the top-drawer teams are not really going to be interested.

I would say Rusty's time has come, and, well, perhaps he needs to accept that. Fair play if he wants to do it, and he gets a drive, and all that, but I ain't sure there will be a great deal of success.

[StuiE]

The most surprising thing to me was that Rusty is 3 years older than Mark Martin! Rusty looks very well for his age, he might do ok.

[Cuckoo]

I think it would be a bad move for Rusty But he would bring much needed sponsorship to DEI