Tag Archives: Mike Wallace

You might have missed the following statistic in the hustle and bustle of Speedweeks, which tends to have so many storylines throughout the week(s) that certain developments feel like ages ago once NASCAR arrives at Atlanta Motor Speedway, even if it’s only been about a week or less. Denny Hamlin‘s …

Here we are again with another race weekend that the Camping World Truck Series sits silent, waiting for next weekend’s Friday night event at Kansas Speedway. While the XFINITY and Sprint Cup series head off to Talladega Superspeedway, I’m left getting my Truck Series fix by watching previous videos. I …

It has not been the year that Mike Wallace planned for. Starting out the year for Premium Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, he was left without a ride following the third race of the season. However, JGL Racing hired him to race at Daytona, and he was scheduled to …

Motorsport.com’s Lee Spencer reported on Wednesday that Premium Motorsports has withdrawn the No. 66 entry from this weekend’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.  The reasoning for the withdrawal can be traced directly to funding. “The No. 66 is not a sponsored team,” team owner Jay Robinson told Spencer …

The Wallace family was off to a hot start for the 2015 season. Two of the family’s younger drivers, Matt and Steve recorded victories at New Smyrna Speedway while one veteran made it into the Daytona 500. Since then, things have cooled off and as of Saturday? They’re now ice cold. …

Looking for the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How behind Sunday’s race? Amy Henderson has you covered each week with the answers to six race day questions, covering all five W’s and even the H…the Big Six. Who… gets my shoutout of the race? Despite a seemingly endless string …

*In a Nutshell:* Joey Logano made a strong bid early, but Kyle Busch again dominated the Nationwide Series field, leading 137 laps to score a relatively easy win in Friday’s Dollar General 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Busch was briefly challenged in the race’s final laps by Jeff Burton, who, unlike the other leaders, opted for four tires on his final pit stop. Burton, however, was unable to make up enough ground on the high side to clear Busch’s No. 18. Busch’s win did not come without controversy. On several restarts, he appeared to stack up the field, leading to two major wrecks that eliminated half a dozen cars and caused a warning from NASCAR about picking up his speed coming to the green. The second crash, involving Mike Bliss and John Wes Townley, led members of Burton’s No. 29 crew to besiege NASCAR officials to black flag Busch’s No. 18. But Busch refused to take responsibility for any of the wrecks, insisting that he maintained a steady speed and that, as the leader, it was his discretion as to where to restart the race. Burton and third-place Brian Vickers both also suggested that the No. 18 brake-checked on late restarts.

A defining race like Sunday’s slugfest at Talladega Superspeedway is only as important to those viewing it as the network covering the broadcast allows it to be. If details are left out or if the excitement factor is either too hyped or not ratcheted up enough, then the whole complexion of a race can turn out differently. ESPN did a pretty good job telling Sunday’s story on a macro level; but the ever-changing small details were the ones that often fell through the cracks. The Amp Energy 500 had more different leaders than any race in NASCAR history, meaning that many different drivers shared the limelight -- including some that ESPN was not prepared to cover very well. Mike Wallace, driving the Richard Childress Racing No. 33, ran in the front briefly, fell back after the first round of pit stops, then was almost up to the front again before blowing a tire and falling out of contention. Yet after receiving significant mention while leading, ESPN did not mention or attempt to explain Wallace’s descent to the back of the pack. The next time his name drifted over the airwaves was when his right rear tire blew and brought out the caution flag.

In a sure sign that life moves pretty fast and I’m getting older by the day, we’re down to just seven races to go before the crowning of the inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion. I feel like it was only yesterday that I wrote a “Nuts for Nationwide” column entitled “Four down, 31 to go.” And yet here we are at the very sharp end of the season with just a handful of races left on the schedule. This weekend, the drivers of the second series get a well-earned break and one final chance to juice up their engines for the stretch run. Both the top two drivers in the second series, Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards, will instead concentrate on what you could term their “day jobs” at the Sprint Cup level with each man itching to make solid starts to their respective Chase campaigns. So with a momentary pause at the Nationwide level, let’s take a look at the Top 10 drivers in the current standings and see who is where they should be, who isn’t and who’s overachieving.

It’d be kind of ironic -- given that I wrote a column on driver marketability a few weeks ago -- if the topic had been shot to the forefront of the sport, wrapped around what is probably close to the last of the major teams’ driver signings. Yet, that’s exactly what happened when Penske Racing South made David Stremme the official driver of the No. 12 Dodge for 2009 and beyond, a move that might at least score them the award for Worst Kept Secret of the Year. And, despite being long rumored, the move still surprises me -- because Penske could have done better.