CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For all their individual accolades, the NASCAR careers of team owner Roger Penske and driver Rusty Wallace have always been inextricably linked.

Friday night, the duo became forever connected once more, as Penske joined Wallace as an inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the crowning jewel on an incredible motorsports career that has included more than 500 victories across all disciplines for the 82-year-old dubbed as ‘The Captain’.

Thirty-seven of those wins came courtesy of Wallace, who made his first-ever NASCAR start for Penske in 1980 and wheeled Penske’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars on a full-time basis from 1991 until his retirement at the end of the 2005 season.

After his own induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2013, Wallace told SPEED SPORT during this year’s induction ceremony that he was equally as excited to see his longtime car owner be honored in the same fashion.

“For me, I was so happy to see Roger get the nod for the Hall of Fame because he’s a guy who’s won in so many different disciplines in racing and he’s been such a mentor to so many people, both on and off the race track,” said Wallace. “He’s taught me so much that it’s unreal. He’s been like a second father to me. We’re great friends and for him to be in the Hall of Fame with the rest of us means so much to me.

“I think the surprising part to me was that it took so long for him to be voted in,” continued Wallace. “I would have thought that he would have beat me in there, to be honest with you. He didn’t, but he is there now.”

Wallace’s career record with Team Penske featured many stellar moments on the short tracks of the NASCAR circuit, but one of his most-memorable races actually occurred in 1996 at a facility which Penske owned for many years, Michigan Int’l Speedway.

On that June weekend, Wallace qualified an uncharacteristic 18th, an effort which led to a confrontation between driver and team owner prior to the 200-lap event.

“An extraordinary race for me driving for Roger came when I won at Michigan for him the afternoon after we’d had a huge argument,” recalled Wallace. “I had really qualified poorly that weekend and he told me, ‘We’ve got 2,000 people here and you keep winning these races, even though you’re qualifying bad, but can’t you do both and qualify better too?’

“We had that big conversation before the race and he was really disappointed because I started pretty deep in the field, but when all was said and done I’d won the Miller 400 that day,” Wallace continued. “He came into victory lane, shook his head and said, ‘You damn guy, you pulled it off again … but quit making it a nail-biter like that!’”

One of the qualities that both Wallace and Penske shared throughout their NASCAR tenures was a deep love of the sport of stock-car racing.

“All in all, he was a fair guy to me. He was a very, very serious guy … and there wasn’t a whole lot of laughing and smiling going on because it was all about business,” Wallace noted. “He sure was passionate about racing, though, and still is to this day.”

To his credit, Penske acknowledged Wallace’s many contributions to Team Penske’s years of success during his acceptance speech at Friday night’s induction ceremony.

“After spending a few years away from NASCAR in the late 1970s, we returned to the sport in 1980 with a young driver named Rusty Wallace,” noted Penske in his speech. “We didn’t compete again until 1991, when we won two races with Rusty. We won again in 1992, and then we won 10 races in 1993.

“We never looked back after that, and I’m so grateful for the support and all the years of service and friendship that Rusty gave to this organization in helping to build it into what it is today.”

From Wallace’s standpoint, Friday night’s incredible honor was simply the cherry on top of a versatile and incredibly-successful career for his Captain and dear friend.

“Coming off of his success in Indy cars with the Indianapolis 500 win, his championship in the Australian (Supercars) and then the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title with Joey Logano … to go right into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, that’s a strong statement, in my opinion,” noted Wallace.

“Really, how can you script it any better than that?”