At the end of the 2005 Ford 400 at Homestead, Rusty Wallace bid goodbye to NASCAR. It was his 26th year in the Cup Series, and with that, he left with an illustrious career. Now, two decades later, the former Cup Series champion comes up to admit that he might have retired from the sport far too soon.

Wallace, who now works with NASCAR media, recently sat with the "NASCAR Live" podcast to take a trip down memory lane. While having a conversation about his career, he was asked about his retirement, and he said:

"I feel like I ended my racing career about three years too soon. The thing I felt bad about is my crew really wanted me to stay. Larry Carter and all the guys and I was having a great year. I made the Chase for the championship my last year and won the year before, and have a lot of top fives and second places in my last year."

Wallace was a frontrunner even during his final years in the NASCAR Cup Series. A driver for Roger Penske's team, he qualified for the Chase and eventually finished in eighth place. This showed that he still had the ability in him.

"So I feel like I still had it, but what happened was, I knew the end was coming for my driving career. And I talked to Mr. Penske. He said, 'Hey, look, man, he said you've done a lot of stuff already,' and talked to Mr. France, Bill France Jr., and he's like, 'It's time, it's time right now. This sport can use you in different areas,'" Wallace further added on the podcast.

Rusty Wallace had an illustrious Cup Series stint, where he picked up a championship (1989) and 55 wins in a career that spanned over 25 years. Besides this, he also raced in the O'Reilly Auto Parts and the Truck Series.

Wallace is also a recipient of several high-profile awards in racing, including being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. He was also included in NASCAR's Greatest 50 and 75 drivers.

Moreover, he remained connected with the sport even after retiring as a driver. But his broadcasting career had its share of hiccups.

Rusty Wallace unravels why he left ESPN

After retiring from NASCAR, Rusty Wallace joined ESPN as a television and guest analyst in 2006. He started as an analyst and continued to make guest appearances.

However, he did not stay with the renowned media company after ending a 10-year stint. On the aforementioned podcast, he said he enjoyed working more at Motor Racing Network than at ESPN. When asked to reveal the reason behind that, Wallace replied:

"I had a lot of bosses at ESPN, a lot of producers. A lot of people telling you how to talk, how not to talk, how to do this, how to do that? I was taking it all in, but I was getting sick of it too. So you know, just all these meetings just crap loads of meetings, and just everybody's got an opinion, and you're listening to it," he stated.

Rusty Wallace then moved to Motor Racing Network (MRN) as a booth announcer. Wallace, 69, has become one of the known faces and has worked as a broadcaster for 700+ affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak