BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) – Many of Rusty Wallace’s finest moments came on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway.

His first victory came on the tough Tennessee track, the same place he later notched his 50th career win. Set to retire at the end of the season, Wallace is looking to make one more memory.

Wallace, who leads all active drivers with nine career Bristol victories, is looking to score his 10th win Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 – his final race at his favorite track. He qualified 20th Friday, when Matt Kenseth won the pole.

“I’m going into this baby with all the intentions that I can win the race,” Wallace said. “This race is definitely one of the races I have targeted for victory. I think I can win it. I feel confident about winning it.”

No driver can climb into his car at Bristol with the same level of confidence Wallace has. He was comfortable the first time he raced around the 0.533-mile bullring, a track similar to the venues he ran across the Midwest during the early years of his career.

In the 43 times he’s come to Bristol, Wallace has the nine wins, seven second-place finishes and 21 top-fives. He’s led 3,734 laps – third-best in track history behind Cale Yarborough and the late Dale Earnhardt.

Wallace swept the spring and fall races here in 2000, the most recent of his Bristol wins. But he’s come close twice since.

He was leading with two laps to go in 2002 when Jeff Gordon bumped him out of the way to steal the victory, and Wallace finished second here in 2004 to winner Kurt Busch.

Wallace had a strong car here in April, leading a race-high 157 laps before a flat tire relegated him to a 13th-place finish.

“We’re looking at it like we have some unfinished business to take care of this weekend,” said Wallace, back to race in the same Dodge. “The fact is that we had a car that should have won the spring race at Bristol and looked like we were certainly headed that way until we had a right front tire to go down.”

Not every race at Bristol has been a good one for Wallace, who also has also had his share of mishaps.

In 1988, he had one of the scarier accidents of his career, with a blown tire sending him into the wall and flipping down the frontstretch in practice.

He was able to start the race the next night, but had to get out of the car for a relief driver.

In 1995, Wallace had an angry postrace confrontation with Earnhardt.

Upset that Earnhardt wrecked him early in the race, Wallace threw a water bottle at him during a heated argument.

The first of two bump-and-runs from Gordon came in 1997. Wallace had led a race-high 240 laps and was heading into the final turn when Gordon knocked him out of the way and passed him for the win.

Gordon did the same thing in 2002, and the bumps are two of the most played highlights in recent NASCAR history. Gordon and Wallace had a heated rivalry and strained relationship dating to Gordon’s NASCAR debut, and the Bristol bumps did little to help it.

“When I first came in the sport, it was sort of like his time to be the top guy,” said Gordon, second in qualifying. “I don’t think he was expecting a young guy … to come out as strong as we did and become as popular as we did. He and I kind of had a rivalry starting in 1994 and it carried on for a number of years.”

It was Earnhardt who finally forced the drivers to come an agreement, mostly because he was weary of seeing them run into each other during races.

“I think Dale could see when we were out on the race track, anytime Rusty and I were around one another, we’d started bumping and banging one another for no apparent reason,” Gordon said. “I don’t know if we necessarily talked about it, we just stopped doing that.

“Dale played mediator there for a little while and finally got us both to come to our senses and we’ve both been racing one another clean and good ever since.”

But that could chance Saturday night if Gordon and Wallace are anywhere near each other with a victory on the line. Wallace wants it to close out his career and Gordon needs it to make it into NASCAR’s playoffs.

Gordon, who has five Bristol wins, is racing hard to qualify for the 10-race title chase. Wallace is almost assured of a spot because he’s currently fourth in the standings.

“Bristol is a place where things happen really fast, and it can have a big impact on the points deal,” Wallace said. “We’re hoping to have a big night here on Saturday night, both in the race and in the points.”

AP-ES-08-26-05 1944EDT

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