RUSTY WALLACE, Owner, Rusty Wallace Racing

What are some of your memories from St. Louis and what Gateway Raceway means to you?

“I’m really sad to see this race go, I really am.  I’ve been to a lot of race tracks around the country and when Gateway was awarded a second Nationwide race, I really got excited about it because I love coming to the area.  I love the people here and it’s been good for our teams, our cars run good here.  When I heard it wasn’t going to make it, I was devastated.  It was a tough call to get — no doubt about that.  Nothing we can do about it right now except try to do the very best job we possibly can on this last race.  I feel like we have three — out of my team — three really good cars, three really well prepared cars and I’m excited to be here to do this.  I know we’re going to put a lot of effort in it with ESPN.  We have meetings here in about a half-hour to talk more about it.  It will be well represented on the network tomorrow afternoon.  We’re covering all of practice here later, we’re covering qualifying and the race, so we’re going to really do a good job, there’s no doubt about that.”

What do you think about 5-Hour Energy sponsoring this weekend’s race?

“I need to mention this, this is a real important weekend for our team because 5-Hour Energy is sponsoring this race — it’s the 5-Hour Energy 250.  They’ve really got behind the race, behind the track and are putting a lot of effort into it.  They really care about this last event.  There will be a lot of 5-Hour around here.  Steve (Wallace) knows he’s got to get up on the gas and stand up in his seat and have a good run.  I don’t want to put any pressure on him.  Kenny (Wallace) with his new sponsor of the Illinois Corn Growers, that’s a really cool deal with Ethanol coming on and announcing to NASCAR — this is a perfect fit and we’re really excited to have the Illinois Corn Growers here for this event.  Like I said, the car he’s got is a real fantastic car.  In fact all three of our cars this week are prepared equally.  All these cars are obsolete next year and that’s really the reason I was able to do this.  We had some excess cars that we could do this with.  I can’t wait to see how practice gets going here to see how this things turn out.  Obviously that’s one race and then the next is qualifying because they need to qualify well here.  They’ve got to get up front because the competition being so tough, it’s hard to come from the back up to the front in a short race.  This is only a two hour race, two hours and change.  I hope we have a good crowd tomorrow.  We’re going to have good weather – I’m pretty optimistic – I’m hearing about rain but I think it will go away, so we’ll see what happens.”

What do you think about Gateway International Raceway?

“One thing I want to add too is that I differ from what some of them say about this track.  I personally like this track a lot.  I like the shape of it.  I think it’s a real challenge.  I used to come here and test for Phoenix, Arizona.  When I left here I went to Phoenix and won the race.  I liked the tight turn one and two, I liked the big turn three and four and we had one of the most exciting races here the first race, it was unbelievable.  The big crash at the start/finish line, Steve (Wallace) had a fifth-place finish.  We left here thinking ‘wow, this is one hell of a race.’  It puts on a great race.  I understand a lot of people talk about the shape and things why it was hard to make it tough, be successful.  It does put on a good race and we love coming to St. Louis to race here.  I can tell you that, there’s no doubt about that.  Again, I’m sad that this place is going.  In NASCAR, with the drivers we have now, we can put races on anywhere.  This was unique.  We saw a lot of guys downshift in turn two last time here, which they never thought about doing.  We saw a lot of passes off of turn four, which I didn’t think they could do.  It’s got its own unique character.  It’s pretty cool to tell you the truth.”

What do you think about the fan following Danica Patrick has received since starting racing in the NNS?

“Danica (Patrick) was fantastic at California.  Both practice sessions, we (ESPN) covered them and she was right there top-10, top-5 in both sessions.  She got in the race and had a fast car.  She looked fantastic and I think she’s really starting to catch on.  She showed a lot of that in Charlotte last weekend.  She’s been here before, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she surprises people again here.”

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TOYOTA NSCS Gateway Notes & Quotes — Wallace — October 22, 2010, Page 2

 RUSTY WALLACE, Owner, Rusty Wallace Racing (continued)

Would you consider becoming an investor in the Gateway race track?

“I haven’t thought of that at all.  Part of the benefit, I’m really involved in Iowa Speedway, I own part of that race track.  I designed it and it’s been real successful.  The good part, bad part when Gateway lost its date, we got it at Iowa.  The second date that Gateway lost, it’s never been placed and the series was cut from 35 races to 34 because of that.  There’s been no thought about doing that because the money is tough right now.  We’re not out of this thing.  We’re all in a ditch right now still with the economy.  We still struggle finding the sponsors we need for the speedway.  The one thing we haven’t struggled for is the people.  The people have been showing up in groves.  We had 55,000 for our last Nationwide race there and Indy Cars about 45,000.  We’ve been having good crowds.  But still, you can add all those people together all year long and pull the cash register and you still need more to make money.  Everybody is just barely breaking even or losing money.  That’s just the way it is.  We’re having a tough enough time doing what we’re doing.  I like designing tracks and I kind of like owning them as long as we can put enough people in the grandstands and the sponsors.  Man, the sales and marketing team are everything for a race track – that’s the lifeblood.  It’s the same as a team though.  The race team is all about sales and marketing, it’s all about getting a sponsor so these guys can drive around in circles and put on a show.”

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing

What are some of your memories from St. Louis and what Gateway Raceway means to you?

“It’s a real sad time.  Two of my favorite race tracks, you’ve got Memphis has gone away and then you have the St. Louis race too.  Two of the really cool standalone events have been taken off.  This track is really cool because of all the family ties and stuff and I really enjoy racing here.  We had a really good finish here last year.  I have a lot of really cool memories, it’s just sad to see it go.  It’s just a tough time out there right now.”

What do you think about the fan following Danica Patrick has received since starting racing in the NNS?

“Well, (Danica Patrick) is a good looking girl, but on top of that there’s not a lot of female racers that have been real successful either.  I think the looks definitely help on that part.  There were a couple times there at Charlotte when I looked in the mirror and there was the green No. 7 car there, so she definitely got a lot better, for sure.”

KENNY WALLACE, No. 28 Illinois Corn Farmers Toyota Camry, Jay Robinson Racing w/Rusty Wallace Racing (RWR)

What are some of your memories from St. Louis and what Gateway Raceway means to you?

“My family has said it all.  I just want to point out that when they built Gateway, it opened up some opportunities for me to do things in St. Louis as a kid that I had never dreamed that I could do.  What happens is they call you in to help promote the race track and some of my most memorable moments from Gateway was, they said, ‘Go to Busch Stadium and we want you to promote the NASCAR race this week in town.’  I was able to meet Jack Buck (former Cardinals broadcaster) in person, I was able to throw out the first pitch, I was able to meet Stan Musial (retired Cardinals player and member of the MLB Hall of Fame) and Stan signed my shirt and he spelled my name wrong.  It was Kenney, so I guess the moral of the story is this race track — when we were kids and we were all behind Rusty’s (Wallace, brother) career, I lived, eat and slept Rusty Wallace.  We spent nights in the shop until two in the morning to go NASCAR and then when Rusty finally made it to NASCAR, it was like you’ve got to be kidding me — we’re going NASCAR.  All those years later they bring a NASCAR date back here, it was really awesome.  The race track also made me do some things, like I said that I would have never done — tour Anheuser-Busch, go to see the Rams practice facility — so I guess the moral of the story is I just want everyone to know the race track opened up opportunities for me as a kid that I would have never got to do.  That’s meeting those legends and watching the Rams practice, get free tickets to every game there is in town.  I want to thank the people that put this race track together.”

Will you be the national spokesperson for the Illinois Corn Growers or is it a one race deal?

“I hope so.  I’m here to make people knowledgeable about ethanol.  There’s a lot of myths out there and with NASCAR announcing that we’re all going to run E-15 next year in all three top touring series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Trucks.  Of course the Indy Car Series is already running ethanol.  I have so much to say, I just urge everyone to follow me on Facebook and Twitter because the corn growers have hired me to spread real knowledge, that’s what I’m here to do — besides win the race.”

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TOYOTA NSCS Gateway Notes & Quotes — Wallace — October 22, 2010, Page 3

KENNY WALLACE, No. 28 Illinois Corn Farmers Toyota Camry, Jay Robinson Racing w/RWR (continued)

Do you think anyone else should buy this race track to keep NASCAR in St. Louis?

“As much as I am behind this race track, I think we’d have to make the track shorter and make it easier to get to.  I’ve always thought that there’s two things that this track needs to be done and I’ve said it from the start.  The track is too big, they used up all the land.  They need to make it like Richmond.  They need to hire Rusty (Wallace) to come in here and redesign the track.  If somebody wants to come here and redesign the track and make it like Iowa and open up about 100 acres to parking, then it would be successful and move the date to October.  Heat and the track and the no parking are what hurt us here.  The track will make it.  One thing about growing up in St. Louis, there were no lack of — you’ve got Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, McDonald Douglass, Purina — we live right in the epicenter of business besides Chicago, New York and Atlanta.  This town has all the money it needs, you just have to have someone do it right.  This was not done right.”

Do you think this race track closing will limit opportunities to future race car drivers from the St. Louis area?

“I don’t think so.  You look at Jamie McMurray who just got done winning the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte and Carl Edwards.  I truly in my heart think that they followed the footsteps of Rusty Wallace and Ken Schrader.  There’s no doubt, we have to be honest.  This town was built on Rusty Wallace and Ken Schrader.  You have to be truthful.  I think Rusty and Ken Schrader took St. Louis to another level and for that every young kid owes a debt of gratitude or respect to those two drivers.  Let me tell you something.  Everybody says, ‘You’re not as good as your brother.’ I say, ‘Listen, I never planned on being as good as my brother, I just wanted to do what the hell he was doing.’  I just wanted to race and I think that’s what you’re going to see a lot of Missourians do.  That’s the way I feel about it.  I think Carl Edwards and those guys, I think that’s why they wanted to be race car drivers.  They saw Rusty and Schrader come out of St. Louis which is a baseball town.  That’s pretty hard to do and Rusty and Ken Schrader did it.”

What do you think about the fan following Danica Patrick has received since starting racing in the NNS?

“I’m happy for her because to me she’s against all odds.  She doesn’t ask for the attention.  She doesn’t have people out there saying ‘give me attention.’  She’s just fielding it all.  The last two races, she’s done really, really good.”