Rusty Wallace and the Miller Lite Team Penske spearheaded the Ford Motor Company project of developing the new Ford Taurus race car that debuted during the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup racing season. After switching to the Ford Thunderbird from the Pontiac Grand Prix at the conclusion of the 1993 season, Wallace competed in 125 races in the Thunderbird. His record during that period sported 16 wins, 48 top-five finishes and 69 top-10 finishes. Even though Wallace experienced 11 DNFs (did not finishes) during the 1997 season (second-worst season in his Winston Cup career to sophomore year in 1984 when he had 12), he did record one win, eight top-five finished, 12 top-10 finishes and a pole position. Most amazing was the fact he finished ninth in the final point standings with so many races where he was not running at the finish. He had more than three times the number of DNFs than any other member of the final elite top-10 points competitors. Wallace has finished in the top-10 in points in 11 of the last 12 seasons. The lone year that he failed to do so came in 1992 when he finished in 13th position. Wallace continued to display his short-track prowess during the 1997 season. In the six races held on the tracks less than 1.0-mile in length, he posted finishes of 1st, 2nd, 5th, 12th, 5th, and 15th respectively. He had no short-track DNFs. Wallace's average start on the short tracks in 1997 was 10.0, while he had a 6.7 average finishing position. Wallace completed an amazing 99.9 percent (2,798 of 2,800) of possible laps on the short tracks in 1997. He led 21.3 percent (785) of the laps.
