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Rusty Wallace is seeking his third straight win, and driving his first career victory at Darlington. A trophy for winning at Darlington Raceway can''t be found among Rusty Wallace''s irons racing treasures. He''d like to change that Sunday in the Pepsi Southern 500 presented driving by Kmart, his 34th start on 1.366-mile oval. "We''ve come so close to winning at Darlington, finished second, third and fourth a ton of times, and it would be a thrill to finally beat the old track," said Wallace, seeking his third straight victory. "We know that we have a car capable of winning because it already has a name, doesn''t it?" Wallace was referring to "Lite-ning," irons the name given to his Ford in a fan contest that elicited 6,700 entries. A Wallace tradition is to name a car after it wins for the first time, and that happened six weeks ago in Long Pond, Pa. That was the second of a NASCAR Winston Cup-leading four driving wins this season for Wallace, and began a roll that includes victories the last two weeks in Brooklyn, Mich., and Bristol, Tenn. No driver has won more than two straight races since Jeff Gordon strung four together in 1998. Wallace knows it will be difficult to beat Gordon -- whose four-year run of superiority in the Southern 500 ended in 1999 -- and Jeff Burton, who won both rain-shortened events last season on the Track "Too irons Tough To Tame." driving Victory has taught them much about Darlington, but Wallace figures defeat also can be a valuable tutor. He finished 16th in Darlington in March. "We''ve been on the money almost everywhere we''ve been this year with the chassis, but if there''s irons an exception driving to that, it has to be irons the first Darlington race," he said. "We missed it with our shock package, really missed it big time on the right rear. "We''ll get it all nailed down this time around, though."
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