Well, 'Rusty' Wallace, in the announcers' booth for today's Nationwide Series "Heluva Good! 200," (nice family-sensitive name, that) carried on ESPN2, couldn't hold it in anymore, giving very public voice to the good ol' American xenophobia which can be found in many NASCAR garages, with Wallace almost challenging NASCAR to "level the playing field" between Toyota and its Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge competitors.
It'd been a great week, so far, for NASCAR, with TV ratings for the "Coca-Cola 600" beating-out those for the Indianapolis 500, and Formula 1 refugee Scott Speed, who was the only American driver in F1 in the past several years, winning Dover's "AAA Insurance 200" Craftsman Truck Race in only his sixth start. (Photos --- Above, Denny Hamlin does burnouts after winning the Dover Nationwide race in his Joe Gobbs Toyota Camry; Below, Rusty Wallace, who apparently has "issues" with Toyota engines).
Maybe it was the three-hour rain delay before starting the Nationwide race making for a longer-than-normal-lunch 
among the announcers, but with wild cards like Wallace in the booth, you know something silly might be said, you just can't predict when and how bad it will be. But Wallace did deliver, and how, with comments so insipid and uncalled-for that he made NASCAR's semi-official Toyota-hater, Jack Roush, sound like the General Director of the UN.
With fewer than 10 laps left in the Nationwide event at Dover, in the middle of one of Wallace's ongoing, never-ending monologues about how great any team associated with the Wallace name is doing, Wallace broke open his personal dam of anti-Toyota feeling.
With Denny Hamlin leading the race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, Wallace chimed in with (and we admittedly paraphrase, waiting for the official transcript), "These Toyotas are making so much horsepower ... When you put them on the engine dynos after the race, well, a lot of people just ... I wonder if NASCAR is going to do anything to level the playing field with them" and then his tirade ended, with absolutely no comment or response of any kind from his more experienced, more professional colleagues in the booth. They knew Rusty had just put his foot in it, and they weren't about to help him scrape any of it off. These are the times in "show biz" when you really find out who your friends are --- and the answer is, almost always, "Nobody". (Photo --- Scott Speed exults with crew after winning Dover's Craftsman Truck event in only his sixth start ... By the way, he was driving a Toyota).
We hope NASCAR and Wallace both realize the serious problems with what he said; there are NASCAR announcers who still sound as if they purposely mis-pronounce the Toyota name (something Lee Iacocca used to enjoy doing with both the names "Toyota" and "Mitsubishi").
With Jack Roush, who has used Fords for his teams since dirt was young, having not let-up in his criticism of Toyota from the day they announced their entry into Sprint Cup racing, today's comments by Wallace, heard around the world, question not only if Toyota "plays by the rules," but unnecessarily throws gasoline onto the anti-Japanese fire which already burns too brightly not only in the sport but, judging by visits to NASCAR-oriented blog sites, among too many of its fans, too.
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