Wallace has fond memories of career as he prepares for 400th Nationwide start
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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Kenny Wallace Racing Inc. /
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Kenny Wallace doesn’t see one number when he talks about making his 400th start in NASCAR’s No. 2 series. He sees two.
Wallace will start this weekend’s Nationwide Series race at The Milwaukee Mile for his 400th race in the series. But he also thinks about the 343 Cup races and the 10 Craftsman Truck Series races he’s driven in during his long career.
So, yes, 400 is great. But so is 753.
“I could look at it two different ways,” Wallace said recently. “I could say, ‘Wow, I am getting old,’ or, ‘I’ve been around awhile.’ I choose to look at it my way, which is I consider myself a very lucky race car driver and that I’ve had success. It’s hard to stay in this sport this long. I have a lot of great friends that I can’t believe aren’t racing.
“I spent a lot of time trying to be a successful Cup driver. I have 343 Cup starts. The number that means the most to me is 753. At Milwaukee, not just will it be my 400th Nationwide start but it will be my 753rd NASCAR start. I choose to look at it that I am lucky.”
Wallace becomes the third driver to reach the 400-start level in the No. 2 series, joining Jason Keller and Tommy Houston. Wallace began his NASCAR career in 1988, driving Dale Earnhardt’s No. 8 Chevrolet at Martinsville, and he ran his first full-time season in what was then the Busch Series a year later.
Most of his NASCAR success came in the series, where he has nine victories, 63 top-five and 156 top-10 finishes. He’s been a longtime supporter of the No. 2 series and looks back with admiration of the drivers he raced against.
“I respect nostalgia,” Wallace said. “I respect Jack Ingram. I respect Sam Ard, Tommy Ellis and Tommy Houston. Those are the guys that molded me. They taught me how to race. I was so lucky that I came into the Nationwide Series in 1988-89 because I was able to race the great ones. I was able to race the guys that started this deal.
“When I came here, I would finish in the top five and the race would be over and every part of my car would be destroyed, and I would almost win."
Wallace said he learned how to race from guys such as Ingram and Ard.
“Those guys taught me how to hit people and move them out of the way without wrecking them,” Wallace said. “Those guys taught me how to rough them up because they roughed me up. When I first moved from St. Louis, they said the first thing I needed to do was make friends with Jack Ingram, and that’s what I did.
“In ’89, we’d run all of our shows [as] one-day shows. When we would get in the garage area, the first thing I would do was go down to Jack and help him unload his car. I’d sit around Jack for a half hour and just talk to him.
Wallace is on the back side of his driving career, as he’ll turn 45 later this year and has a burgeoning television career. But he still wants to race and still gets fired up every time the engines fire.
Wallace left his full-time Cup ride with Furniture Row Racing last year and returned to the Nationwide Series for 2008. But a ride with Fitz Motorsports dissolved, leaving him jobless – if only for a few hours.
“The last two years have been the most ridiculous time of my whole racing career,” Wallace said. “When I was with ppc [Racing in 2006] we were competing for top-15s, and we ran out of money. I drove the Furniture Row Cup car – and I was their very first driver – to going to the 50th running of the Daytona 500 [this year] and making it.
“The next step was, ‘OK, Armando Fitz is shutting down now.’ I would say there was a time in my career that I would have just been beside myself. I consider myself completely lucky right now. I won’t say that my attitude has changed because I still know that I belong in the top five in points, but I don’t feel like a dodo down here 24th in car owner points because I know that we’re improving.”
Wallace is talking about his Jay Robinson Racing team, which he joined a few days after the Fitz ride vanished. JRR is a smaller Nationwide team, but Wallace said they are getting better together.
“I think we are overachieving,” Wallace said. “We’re taking a team that was thought of us a backmarker team. We’re upgrading every week, and we’re getting better. … I joined Jay Robinson Racing because I felt like we could take this team with our new sponsor and upgrade it. We’re getting better every week.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Kenny Wallace
Comments
3 responses to "Wallace has fond memories of career as he prepares for 400th Nationwide start"
grandamgt Russell said:
Jun 19, 2008 at 12:18 PMGood Luck Herm and may you wind up in Victory Circle after your 400th Nationwide Start.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportemily bagwell said:
Jun 19, 2008 at 8:45 PMDitto, G. Russell
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» Confirm Abuse ReportDaniel Leith said:
Jun 19, 2008 at 9:51 PMKenny is real. Great entertainment on the Speed Channel and congratulations to the Speed Channel for having Kenny on their shows! Congrats on your numbers Kenny and I'm just one of the millions who say "race on!!" Thank you
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