From NASCAR.com:
Russ Wallace, the patriarch of the racing family that grew to include not only his three sons but also some of his grandchildren, died early Sunday morning from complications of a stroke he suffered only days earlier. He was 77. Long before sons Rusty, Mike and Kenny Wallace were winning races in NASCAR’s top national touring series, the trio stayed busy preparing cars that their father raced on dirt tracks around the St. Louis area – primarily in Granite City, Ill., and Valley Park, Mo. Russ Wallace was an accomplished and well-respected driver on dirt, where he once won 200 features during a four-year stretch from 1974-78 in machines that his sons helped build and repair. He generally won no more than $300 to $500 even on a good night, however, and had to work various jobs to support his racing obsession. Through the years he worked as a mechanic at a car dealership, as a newspaper carrier (again assisted by his sons, who frequently delivered the newspapers) and as co-owner of a vacuum and janitorial supply business in St. Louis.