Last week, NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace returned to victory lane at Richmond International Raceway. However, this time around the man, who ranks as the third all-time winner at Richmond with six victories, was not there to celebrate a race victory. Instead the former driver of the Miller Lite #2 car cruised into victory lane behind the wheel of a new white Ford Mustang as part of a promotional partnership between RIR and Loveland Distributing- a local distributor of Miller Lite and Miller-Coors.

  “It’s great to be back in victory lane,” Wallace said. “This is my seventh time tonight and I feel good about it. It’s really cool to see Miller back in Richmond. I won a lot of races here when Miller was the sponsor and it seems real appropriate that Miller’s back here.”

  Wallace, along with RIR President Doug Fritz and Mark Stepanian, president of Loveland Distributing, unveiled the Miller Lite Richmond Race Experience Sweepstakes.

  The contest is designed to award local NASCAR fans an ultimate experience for the September 11 “One Last Race To Make The Chase.” Ten grand-prize winners will receive six tickets to the race, six admissions to the Miller Lite Tailgate and six Miller Lite hospitality passes.

  Fritz feels that the track has come up with the perfect partnership by joining with Miller Lite. “They’ve been involved with sports for a long, long time,” he said. “They’ve been involved in NASCAR for a long time. It’s just a great fit for them and a great fit for their products.”

  Stepanian agreed. “It didn’t make sense that our company, after being in business for 50 something years here in Richmond, and RIR with the biggest sporting event in the state of Virginia, didn’t have some kind of relationship. So with that, Doug and his team have been very accommodating in putting something together that we think is going to benefit race fans, our beer drinking customers and our retail partners. We think this partnership is going to be a longstanding win-win for all involved.”

  Wallace, who currently serves as a NASCAR commentator, appeared genuinely pleased to be back at RIR. “I love Richmond’s race track,” he said. “You know when I first starting winning up here everything was sponsored by Miller. Then that arrangement went away for whatever reason and when I heard it was coming back, man I got pumped up about it. I won a lot of those 400s that Miller was sponsoring.”

  With making the promotional appearance in Richmond, Wallace hopes to continue building the sport of NASCAR, something he feels not all of the current drivers are doing.

  “I think the drivers need to have pressure put on them to do what they need to do to make this sport grow,” he said. “I told them when I retired. I stood right over there in that tent and told them; ‘Let me tell you something guys, it’s a privilege to drive one of these cars. It’s not like you’re doing anybody a favor. So if you get to this point, get to this level of NASCAR, you respect it and you work hard for it and you try to make it grow.’

  “For the most part, most of them do it,” Wallace said. “There are some of them that are a little lazy, who just want to drive the car and go home, but other than that, most of them are doing a pretty good job.”

  Wallace would not elaborate on which drivers he believes are not pulling their weight.

  It was also evident that there are at least a few regrets in the wake of Wallace’s retirement in 2005. “I miss driving that car so bad it’s stupid,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a race goes by where I watch something going on, when I yell, man I want to go down there and put my costume on and get back in that thing and go. There’s a lot of races I want to do that.”

  And though his son Steve now competes in NASCAR Wallace said it is difficult to live vicariously through him. “I have a lot of fun watching him but it’s not as much fun as when I was driving because it’s a lot of pressure and a lot of frustration.”
 
To enter the Miller Lite Richmond Race Experience Sweepstakes, fans 21 years of age, or older must follow the entry instructions, which can be found at select Miller Lite retail locations throughout the Richmond region. Participants must be from the Richmond area and will have two ways to enter, via the official entry instructions at the Miller Lite retail location, through text messaging or standard U.S. mail.