Mike Wallace moved into the Top 5 and ran in the 4th position on just Lap 9. As the race wore on, the caution flag would wave and allow the GEICO Racing pit crew to shine, when they completed a tremendous pit stop on Lap 64 and returned the #7 GEICO Camry to the race track in the 4th position. Wallace and the Gecko would narrowly avoid a major crash on Lap 71. While he took a slight hit as he slivered through the colossal crash, it would not be enough to slow the #7 GEICO Camry. Wallace would run in the Top 5 for the majority of the afternoon, and even lead briefly when he overtook Dale Earnhardt, Jr. late in the race.
“I felt I was a car to beat", said Wallace. "(Greg) Biffle helped me dramatically -- he got us to where I almost had (Tony) Stewart cleared and I was just half a car length from clearing him. I didn’t want to force the issue."
Following a late-race caution flag that would provide the fans with an exciting green/white/checkers finish, Wallace restarted the race in the 5th position. Wallace jumped out of line with the #7 GEICO Camry in an effort to win the race, however a commitment made from a fellow driver would not be honored and, consequently, Wallace was ‘hung out to dry’.
"On the final restart the 38 (Jason Leffler) said they would work with us and we had a run and we went. I should have been smarter than that, I’ve been through this rodeo before."
Falling back as far as 17th position on the final lap, Wallace would hustle back to the front and record a 10th place finish.
"We were fortunate to hang onto a top-10. We had a good car, it drove really good -- we had no problems all day long.A Top 10 finish is great, but we had a car to win the race and we put ourselves in position to win, but unfortunately we got hung out to dry there on the final lap,” Wallace said. “We picked up some ground in the point standings and we also got great coverage for GEICO and Sport Clips. It was a fun race and we were lucky enough to barely miss the big crash.”
He continued, “This week will be special because we head to Richmond which sits only about 90 miles from GEICO’s corporate office. We always have a lot of GEICO guests in Richmond, so we’re hoping to take them to Victory Lane with us.”
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Richmond, Virginia, for a Friday night short track battle. Richmond International Raceway provides the Gecko a chance to visit home, as the ¾-mile race track sits less than a hundred miles removed from GEICO’s corporate office. The Lipton Tea 250 is on Friday, May 2nd, and it will be televised live on ESPN2 beginning at 7:00 PM (ET), while the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast.
I noticed that Mike Wallace had an excellant run on Saturday also. It will be exciting for the team to be running at the sponsors hometown track next week.
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