Rusty Wallace readies for Sturgis charity ride with same passion he showed in NASCAR Hall of Fame career

During his NASCAR Hall of Fame career, fan favorite Rusty Wallace always looked forward to a number of events every year, including the Daytona 500, racing at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Brickyard 400.

But for the past 19 years, Wallace, who retired from NASCAR racing in 2005 with 55 Cup wins, has had another event always circled on his yearly schedule, one that he looks forward to with great anticipation: his annual trip to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

For the past six years, Wallace‘s trip to Sturgis has taken on an even greater personal meaning as he has turned his time as an Easy Rider into raising money for a variety of charities, including The NASCAR Foundation, Special Olympics and several South Dakota-based charities.

RELATED: Learn more about Rusty‘s charity ride

“The crowd that’s hanging out there include folks like Clint Bowyer and his dad and his mom and his brothers, they’re all there,” Wallace said. “We’re always talking racing and talking motorcycles.”

Wallace has raised several hundreds of thousands of dollars for the causes, enjoying not only his time on the open road, but also hanging out and just having a great deal of fun with fellow bikers and NASCAR fans who come to Sturgis.

“I‘ll tell you, when you get out to Sturgis, there’s over 700,000 people that will be there, and nearly every one of them are NASCAR enthusiasts,” Wallace said with a smile. “They love NASCAR racing. They love their motorcycles. They love to meet different people. They love to drink some beer and have a great time. And they love to accessorize their bikes and show up with the coolest bad-to-the-bone motorcycles you‘ve ever seen in your life.”

Officially known as the Sturgis Buffalo Chip‘s Rusty Wallace Charity Ride presented by Harley-Davidson, this year‘s Ride will be Aug. 9. It‘s sponsored by major Rally supporter Buffalo Chip Campground and Bar, on the outskirts of Sturgis.

Wallace first got hooked on coming to Sturgis by former NASCAR President Mike Helton, who more than 20 years ago began organizing rides from Charlotte to Sturgis and back with NASCAR drivers and announcers such as Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Brad Daugherty.

“Mike would always invite all kinds of different people and it got to where we would go to Sturgis every year and just have a hell of a good time,” Wallace said. “Mike eventually turned the reins over to me. I got so excited about it, really loving going to Sturgis.

“The charity thing began six years ago when I got a call from Rod Woodruff, who owns the Buffalo Chip, the largest biker bar in the world. They draw almost 20 to 30,000 people a night, with gigantic acts like this year with stars like Kid Rock, Bret Michaels, Travis Tritt, Jelly Roll and Quiet Riot.”

Helton convinced Wallace to join his two-wheel riding pack in 2006 and Wallace was hooked, not having missed a Sturgis event since then.

“Betty Jane France put Mike in charge of The NASCAR Foundation, as the chair of The NASCAR Foundation, and he still is the chair and president of The NASCAR Foundation to this day,” said Wallace, who sits on the Foundation‘s board. “He opens up all of our board meetings. He’s really, really involved.”

Wallace used to ride all the way from Charlotte to Sturgis, but this year, he‘ll ride in an 18-wheeler that will contain not only the bike that he‘ll ride in the Rally, but also several bikes that will be on display and for sale from Wallace‘s business with son Stephen, Southern Country Customs, which produces high-end custom Harley-Davidsons.

“We‘re going to bring about 16 motorcycles with us plus a couple of other trailers for service and sales,” Wallace said. “We‘ll have bikes for sale, bikes that are ours, bikes that are customer bikes, just a host of everything. And obviously the special charity ride bike will be on one of the trailers making its way out there to be auctioned off.”

All the proceeds raised from the Ride this year will go to The NASCAR Foundation and the Rapid City Special Olympics Flame.

RELATED: Learn more about The NASCAR Foundation

Wallace will also auction off a special 2024 Road Glide that his company has built, a two-wheel “showstopper,” as Wallace puts it. All proceeds will also go to charity.

“For the special custom motorcycle itself, we’re hoping to raise anywhere between $150,000 to $200,000,” Wallace said. “The bike raised $120,000 last year. And right now we’re already $80,000 ahead of where we were last year (in terms of overall fundraising).”

“We‘ve had some real awesome stand-up people that want to help the cause, and really, they know that our bikes from Southern Country Customs are some of the coolest, badass motorcycles you’ve ever seen on the planet. And a lot of people want to have one. We‘ve already sold 117 of them so far. Because they‘re custom builds, each bike is truly a piece of art.”

This year‘s ride will take on a different type of look. Wallace believes the Ride will attract more than 300 bikers and several thousand fans who will line the route along the way, cheering on Wallace and his fellow riders.

The Ride will hit the road from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in nearby Deadwood, South Dakota, go through the picturesque Spearfish Canyon, and then return to the Hard Rock for a massive after-ride party, Wallace said.

Over his nearly 20 years of coming to Sturgis, Wallace has compiled enough stories to write a book. One of his favorite stories occurred more than a decade ago, when a hailstorm on a mountain near Mount Rushmore forced him and his wife, Patty, to take cover.

“We’re all under the tree. It was just the damnedest thing to see. I said to myself, ‘How do we go from 80 degrees at the bottom of this mountain to now the top of this mountain and we’re getting our (butt) kicked and hailed on?‘

“We have laughed and smiled and we count it down every year. It’s like our bucket list thing to do. We can’t wait to get to Sturgis, and so I’m excited about it.”