Rusty Wallace Provides Full Throttle Tips on Mooresville
With 55 wins over the course of his 25-year career, Rusty Wallace is not only one of the most successful drivers in NASCAR history, he’s also one of the top five money winners with over $50 million in earnings.
Though he’s retired from racing, Rusty Wallace shows no signs of slowing down and he hasn’t strayed far from the racetrack. Wallace now relishes his role as team owner of Rusty Wallace Inc., and is the lead auto racing analyst for ESPN and ABC Sports.
Born in Missouri, Wallace and his wife, Patti, live just south of Mooresville in Cornelius, but Wallace says he chose Mooresville as the location of the RWI complex because of the growth in the area.
“(Mooresville is) a good location and it’s very easy to get on and off the interstate,” Wallace says. “We had a lot of friends that were building in the area, so we went with the idea.”
Wallace says that when he and his family spend time away from work in Mooresville, they take advantage of everything the community has to offer, including Soirée, Wallace’s pick for a nice dinner out on the town.
In previous incarnations, the South Main Street space was a saloon; a dry goods shop in the late 1800s called the Rankin Store; and the Morrow Brothers Furniture Company before becoming a Mooresville favorite for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. The historic spot has an eclectic menu that encompasses everything from Brunswick Street crab cakes and chilled peach soup to a duck breast entrée with North Carolina muscadine wine sauce and a decadent dessert called Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!
For breakfast, Wallace fuels up at hearty standbys Cracker Barrel or Bob Evans and lunch usually involved a pit stop at Jimmy John’s sandwich shop in the Mooresville Town Square lifestyle development.
In close proximity to Redeye Martini Bar, Cartucci’s Italian Restaurant and Lavendar and Sweet Grass boutiques, Jimmy John’s picked a prime location in one of the town’s many new developments, which are another asset to the area, Wallace says.
“A lot of shops have been built in the area, so the convenience of everything is great,” Wallace says.
His says his own shopping tastes often result in eyeballing the latest electronics at Best Buy in the Mooresville Crossing Shopping Center on Highway 150 and Williamson Road. The recently built 155,000 square-foot destination also includes a Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, Staples, Petco and specialty shops.
These days, Wallace doesn’t need a waving checkered flag to be competitive. An avid pilot for many years – he’s accumulated more than 15,000 flight hours of in the cockpits of everything from jets to his own helicopter. He’s also been enjoying a bit more time to focus energies on another pastime, golf. Lucky for him, the Mooresville area has no shortage of places for him to play should he choose, including Mooresville Golf Course and Mallard Head Country Club on the shores of Lake Norman.
Of course, golfing is just one of many things to do on Lake Norman, according to Wallace.
“There is a lot to do on the lake during the summer,” Wallace says. “The shore line goes on for miles.”
That’s 520 miles, to be exact, making it the largest man-made lake in the Carolinas.
Professionally and personally, Wallace is making an impact on Mooresville, and is enjoying watching it expand.
“There is a lot of potential for the area because of the location,” he says. “It’s growing every day.”
