Wallace dominant at Thunder Valley
Staking
His Claim
For some 20 years he has raced at the high-banked, concrete track and on nine occasions he has driven his "hot rod" into victory lane. Two of those wins came this season as he claimed the track's March race for his 50th career Winston Cup win. Now, with a Bristol sweep, that career total has grown to 53. "I learned a long time ago not to brag, but there's one thing I can brag about and that's my team," said Wallace, who led five times for 279 laps in the 500-lap race. "Anytime you've got eight poles and nine wins at Bristol and four wins this year and close to 2,000 laps led (actually, 1,439), I'd have to say that in my book, they're the best team. "I mean, being consistent and getting points is one thing, but, man, I've gotta tell you, I like going out and winning those races and sitting on those poles and leading all those laps and just getting out there and getting after it." The win left Wallace fifth in the Winston Cup point standings, 290 points behind leader Bobby Labonte with 11 races remaining. Even though Wallace holds the distinction of owning the most wins this season, he said it's quite simple why he's not leading the points race - inconsistency early in the season. "Early in the year we had that one blown engine at Talladega where we lost a lot of points, and then we had a really bad handling car at Las Vegas and it rained us out," Wallace said. "Then, two race tracks that I thought were gonna be my best tracks to gain a lot of points on my competitors were the two road courses. I generally do great on those road courses. At Sears Point, I spun out myself trying to get through the pack, trying to take the lead and then a couple of weeks ago at Watkins Glen I had a great car and lost the brakes and got off the race track. Then, I had to pit because I flat-spotted a tire and finished 34th, so those two tracks killed me in points. "I can deal with a couple bad finishes and not great runs like we had at Vegas or the first race at Darlington or something like that, but those ones that actually park you in the back, those are the ones that got us." Just as is the case with any Bristol win, this one didn't come easy for Wallace. In fact, two close calls in the race's final 50 laps could have turned his evening into a disastrous one. The first occurred on lap 453 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun into turn one after his Chevrolet was popped in the rear by Ken Schrader's Pontiac. In the race back to the caution, Bobby Hamilton made a run to regain his lost lap. Immediately after passing the start/finish line, he slammed into Jeremy Mayfield's Ford, and it was a narrow miss for Wallace.
"That was a huge wreck that I was able to just turn left and get away from," Wallace said. The second close call occurred with 11 laps remaining when he ran upon two lapped cars entering turn one. At that time, Wallace led Tony Stewart by more than 2.3 seconds, but his advantage quickly evaporated to about a second as he avoided another incident that could have been a victory robber. "I go down into turn one and there were a couple of lapped cars that were racing each other a little bit and, man, I dodged one of them," Wallace said. "I pulled down and when I pulled down, he pulled down in front of me and, boy, I thought that was gonna be a tough time going into turn one. "I had to lock the brakes up. I locked the brakes up and looked in my mirror and the 20 car (Stewart) was right there after I had about a 2 1/2-second lead on him and that was about it. "I had a couple of close calls tonight, but I've gotta tell you, I've had wins here where I've had a whole pile of close calls. Those were little close calls tonight. Those weren't too bad." An alert call by Wallace's spotter also proved extremely beneficial. "We were staying out (during the 10th caution period). I was gonna wait until the last minute before we turned off and just about the time it was a make-it or break-it call, David Kenny, my spotter, said, 'Hit pit road,' and I just immediately jerked it down and missed the wall by about four feet to make it on pit road. Everybody erupted on the radio, 'It's perfect, perfect. This is great. It's exactly what we needed.'" Even though the 1989 Winston Cup champion defeated Stewart by less than a second, it was a night where he constantly had to battle Stewart and Mark Martin, while avoiding 13 caution flags that consumed 85 laps. Wallace led the first 52 laps before relinquishing the top spot to Ward Burton when he pitted on lap 53 during the second caution period. It took him until lap 65 to regain it. But during the race's longest green-flag period, which covered 133 laps, Stewart was the dominator, setting the pace for 70 of those circuits. Once during that segment, on lap 205, Stewart possessed a 2.711-second advantage over Wallace.
"Early in the race we were just a little loose," said Wallace, who won $107,540. "We started working on the chassis, getting it better and better." Before Wallace could get his car to perform the way he wanted, nine other drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Martin, Jeff Burton and Stewart led the event. After relinquishing the lead on lap 147, Wallace didn't hold the No. 1 spot again until lap 322 when he won the race off pit road during the sixth caution period. "The 6 car (Martin) got their turn at leading. The 40 car (Sterling Marlin), along with Stewart, they all led a little bit, but we kept working our car throughout the day," Wallace said. "We finally tightened it up so much that I got it too tight two runs before the end. "I had to take some air pressure out of the front tires to get it back right and when we got the air out of the front tires it was just perfect. Then I had a heck of a hot rod." Wallace, 44, has never been hesitant about expressing his affection for Bristol. "I just love Bristol," he said. "It's a track I got my first victory on a long time ago. I like the shape of it and I feel like I know how to get around it, but the one thing that's most important about Bristol is all the people around it. I go to a lot of race tracks and some people have their favorite tracks, but this has always been my favorite race track because all the people are always so nice and I feel like they're friendly and I get along with them. They really treat you good and that's been my whole career here at Bristol." Wallace also admits he's more relaxed at the track, even though the racing is more intense than at some of the other facilities the Winston Cup circuit visits. "It's the toughest track on the circuit," he said. "It's the hardest to drive. It's the most physically demanding and hardest to get around, but for some reason, I feel more comfortable here than I do most tracks." While Wallace and his Penske Racing South team were happy, it was an extremely good day for owner Roger Penske. Before flying to Bristol, Penske detoured by Kentucky Speedway where he watched the organization's new driver, Ryan Newman, earn his second ARCA victory this season. "I tell you what, it feels good to win a race by just truckin' on and rockin' and rollin' out there and winning," Wallace said. "You really like winning races like we won tonight where you just get out there and truck on. "I think as tough as NASCAR is nowadays, I think that this year is more dominating than that year was in '93 (when I won 10 races). I'm just proud of the numbers. I'm really damn proud of those eight poles, and I'm proud of those 2,000 laps led, and I'm really proud of these four wins, because four wins in this type of environment, man, that's almost impossible to do." Related stories: |
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