Brickyard build up: Rusty Wallace.

Miller Lite Team Penske Ford driver Rusty Wallace already has his dream scenario for Sunday's Eighth Annual Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway firmly planted in his mind.

"A Penske Racing one-two-three finish would be a perfect day and something that would have them all talking for years to come," said Wallace, still looking for his first Indy win, after being a runner-up finisher in 1995 and in last year's edition of the prestigious race. "The thing is it's entirely possible.

"And after Penske Racing's performance in this year's Indy 500 where Helio (Castroneves) won the thing and Gil (de Ferran) finished second to make it a Penske Racing one-two finish, what better way would there be to write the history books for racing at Indy this year?" Wallace continued.

"We've been close enough to almost taste wins at Indy, Jeremy (Mayfield, Penske teammate and driver of the Mobil 1 Ford Taurus) and his guys led the way in all the pre-race testing entering this weekend...and everybody's already learned not to underestimate the strength of Ryan (Newman, Penske teammate and driver of the ALLTEL Ford Taurus) and his new team.

"With all the history that Roger has at Indy and with his teams returning to Indy and scoring big time back in May, it would definitely be icing on the cake for his three NASCAR teams to come out on top in the Brickyard (400).

"I didn't think that we had the greatest of tests when we were there several weeks back," said Wallace. "But Ryan had a really good test and Jeremy had what I'd say was a really great test.

"We've already been able to get together and compare some notes. We've discussed setups and all with both teams. I really think what Jeremy, Peter (Sospenzo, crew chief for the Mayfield team) and those guys hit on for their fast setup will work well with our car, too. The thing about it is that I'm not hearing about anybody who was just blown away by how good their test was, so I'd say that all three of our teams should be in good shape.

"It wouldn't surprise me if we're all (Wallace, Mayfied and Newman) right there in the top 15 or so on Saturday and all of us up front at the end of the race on Sunday. The place will be harder than ever to pass on. Track position importance will be at an all-time high. We showed last year that we could march to the front and I think with some patience and good work in the pits, we can do the same thing this time around."

Not only will the defending runner-up driver be looking for a win in Sunday's Brickyard 400, but Wallace will be driving the runner-up car, also... Rusty and crew will again race the car known as "Mad Max" this weekend at Indy.

The car debuted as the "PC-25" May of last year at Charlotte, where Rusty started 16th and finished eighth. In last year's June Michigan race, he started the car fourth and finished seventh. Then, in the August Indy Brickyard 400, the car started 10th and finished as the runner-up.

Rusty and crew tasted victory with the car in the August Michigan race, starting 10th and leading the most laps (seven times for 118 laps) en route to a dominating win. In Penske Racing South tradition, Wallace gave his winning car a name during the Victory Lane celebration.

He named the car "Mad Max" because, "not winning the Brickyard 400 made it mad as heck and then the car bounced back to perform to the max in winning at Michigan."

The car was also used last fall in races at Charlotte (started 22nd, finished 21st) and at Atlanta (started 20th, finished seventh).

This season "Mad Max" has been raced at Atlanta (started ninth and finished 12th), Texas (started 38th and finished 12th), California (started 19th and led five times for 276 laps en route to Wallace's 54th career series win), Charlotte (started 16th and finished 14th) and at Michigan in June (started 18th & finished 41st after getting involved in an early crash.