CONCORD — Rusty Wallace thought '97 would be his season. For the first time, he took a strong engine to Daytona. That engine gave out midway through the race. It was the beginning of a season where Wallace ran fast but failed to finish nearly a dozen times.

"I made a lot of mistakes, lost a rear end one race," Wallace explains. "We had things happen that were no characteristic of our team. We're going to fix all the problems."

He can't escape the questions. And so team Penske has made changes to put this former champion back up front consistently.

"The fans are dictating it too," says Wallace. "We've gotten loads of e-mail saying what's wrong. We want to see you back up front. The sponsors are asking questions. So we had to move a lot of people around."

Wallaces crew has answered the challenge, working on these cars every day except Christmas. There will be no rest in the shop until the two car is number one.