ESPN will let Rusty Wallace own a Cup team

In an apparent shift from past policy, Rusty Wallace can own a Sprint Cup team and keep his job as an ABC/ESPN analyst, a network executive said Tuesday.


When Wallace started as a race analyst in the booth for the Indy Racing League in 2006 and then for NASCAR in 2007, he said he was not allowed to have ownership in a Cup team. He wasn't even allowed to be a consultant/driver coach for Chip Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya in 2006 and 2007.

ESPN hired Ray Evernham as a contributor to the network at the start of the year, mostly for NASCAR-related shows during the week. Evernham's job was different than that of Wallace.

But with studio host Brad Daugherty buying into JTG Racing and the new JTG Daugherty Racing team going to Cup next year, it appears the policy for Wallace - whose job primarily changed this year into a studio analyst as well - has been relaxed.

"The choice for Rusty to go into Cup racing is Rusty's choice and we have relayed our position to him on that," ESPN Vice President of Motorsports Rich Feinberg said during a teleconference with reporters Tuesday.

Wallace owns Rusty Wallace Racing, which fields two Nationwide Series teams. When asked about the possibility of his team going Cup racing in the past, Wallace has cited his ESPN contract as a hurdle.

Speaking on the call to talk about the network beginning the Sprint Cup portion of its contract this weekend with the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Feinberg said there will be no restrictions on its announcers who also own parts of race teams.

"I don't think Brad's partial ownership and interest in a team will have any impact on how we cover races - we certainly wish him success in that venture," Feinberg said. "We don't anticipate any changes to his role with us. We really weren't surprised. In the back of my mind, I knew Brad had a history of ownership and as he got it going, he shared some conversations with various members of our team.

"My advice to Brad and the gang is the same as it is to Rusty and Ray and anybody else who has an interest beyond broadcasting, and it's a very simple concept: When you put on those headphones or sit in that pit studio and wire up that mic, you need to leave behind your intuitive response as an owner and let come out your intuitive response as a journalist and a broadcaster. And if there is a fuzzy area, then the recommendation is stand back."

Feinberg said he felt that last year Wallace handled it fairly well when his drivers, including son Steve, had issues on the track. He also said he has no concerns with Daugherty.

"It's on our radar," Feinberg said. "We all talk about it collectively. And I think for the most part, it's sort of a separation of church and state. We monitor that process and overall we've seen success."