Rusty Wallace Runs Out of Gas but Still Wins at Watkins Glen

Rusty Wallace said he thought his race was over when he stopped for gas at the start of the final lap of Monday’s NASCAR Budweiser stock car race at the Glen.

Instead, Wallace easily won the rain-delayed event.

Wallace, 30, a native of Fenton, Mo., who lives in Charlotte, N.C., was cruising along with about a 22-second lead in the 90-lap, 219-mile race when his low-fuel warning light flickered on.

“I went about one more lap, but I know when that light comes on you have to get into the pits in a hurry or it’ll be all over,” Wallace said.

He drove his Pontiac into the pit and stopped for just 3.6 seconds, long enough to take on about one gallon of gas.

“When I stopped, the doggone car just ran completely out of gas,” Wallace said. “Then it didn’t want to catch. It was smokin’ and poppin’ and coughin’. I was nearly in tears at that point.”

But the engine came back to life, and Wallace cruised back onto the 2.428-mile road course well in front of pole-winner Terry Labonte, who finished 11.57-seconds behind.

The eventual winner started on the outside of the front row Monday and was in command most of the way. He led three times for a total of 63 laps on the way to his third career victory and first of the season.

Labonte’s second-place finish came despite a collision with Morgan Shepherd on lap 37 that dropped him from second to fourth.

“We got beat,” Labonte said. “Rusty could beat me real bad off the corners all day.”

Wallace averaged 90.693 m.p.h. in the race slowed by five caution flags for a total of 15 laps to break the record of 90.463 m.p.h. set in the inaugural Budweiser at the Glen in 1986 by Tim Richmond.

Dave Marcis finished third, followed by Ricky Rudd, Benny Parsons, Alan Kulwicki, Phil Parsons and Winston Cup point leader Dale Earnhardt.

Richmond, who gave up the lead to Wallace on lap 63, spun while running second on lap 68 but recovered to finish 10th.

Fifteen drivers finished on the lead lap, tying a NASCAR record set in 1985 in the Winston 500 at Talladega, Ala.