As last Sunday's race South of the border in Mexico City, Mexico began to wind down, Mike Wallace found himself outside of the Top 10, but still at the front of the field in the #7 GEICO Camry. On the final laps, Wallace and the Gecko would withstand a series of taps to the rear bumper by Max Papis’s heavily battered race car and go on to record a 12th place finish in the first of three road course races of the season.
“We were able to go out and run really well today and get a decent finish down here,” Wallace said. “It was a fun race and it was nice to be able to have the #7 GEICO Camry running up front and competing with the best road course racers in the business. Max Papis and I battled hard during the final laps and I appreciate him not turning me around when he probably could have.”
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Talladega, Alabama, for their second restrictor plate race of the 2008 season. Mike Wallace is well known as a restrictor plate specialist and he looks forward to arriving at the 2.66-mile high-banked race track.
“I’ve always experienced great success at restrictor plate tracks and I look forward to getting to Talladega and putting the #7 GEICO Camry up front all weekend,” Wallace said. “We’ve worked really hard on our cars and I am sure it will pay off and we’ll have a good chance of putting GEICO, Sport Clips and Smith Transport in Victory Lane. Talladega is always a fun atmosphere, so we’re going with the notion of having fun and running up front.”
The Aaron’s 312 is on Saturday, April 26th, and it will be televised live on ABC beginning at 2:30 PM (ET), while the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast.
If you say it was fixed you are a fool. The man dominated the race on Sunday more than any other driver on the road to his record breaking win giving him a total of 77 and one more than the late Dale Earnhardt. Gordon in the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet won by every definition of the word the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway to move into sole possession of sixth place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. Leading 67 of 191 laps is leading roughly one third of the race folks. That's dominating a restrictor plate race. Gordon extended his lead in the championship standings to 203 points over second-place Jeff Burton.
"I never caused a riot before for winning -- well, maybe once or twice,'' Gordon said refering to beer cans that were thrown at him for a third time in his career by angry Dale Earnhardt fans. "I thought Junior had more power. I thought they'd throw toilet paper, which is what he asked them to throw. I saw maybe one roll.'' There are a lot of fans out there who are Earnhardt fans who don't want to see [the record] broken,'' he said. "I appreciate the enthusiasm ... the opinions of all the fans out there. What are you going to do?''
In his first start at Talladega Superspeedway, Rookie of the Year contender, Kyle Krisiloff scored his career best Busch Series finish. He started the Haas-Carter Motorsports #14 Clabber Girl Ford 23rd in the lineup and finished the Aaron's 312 in 5th place. This was his best finish in 13 Busch Series starts since his 16th in the March 2007 Mexico City race. Former NASCAR Cup team owner Travis Carter is back in racing as the team manager for rookie Krisiloff's Busch Series team after a three-year layoff. Krisiloff is 20th in the series standings.
Carter still has his sense of humor intact, describing his role as "general manager, chief flunky and all that." Still, Carter seems to be enjoying his return to NASCAR. Carter last appeared in the sport in 2003, running the National Guard program with driver Todd Bodine. He went Hooters Pro Cup racing with his son for a while and says that he wouldn't mind doing that for a living. "If I had the money and didn't need to work, that's what I'd do is just race and have fun."
Marcos Ambrose has made a strong start to proceedings for this weekend’s Aaron’s 312 at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Mike Wallace was fastest in opening practice at the 2.66-mile track and Mike Bliss the quickest driver in final practice.
“We had a productive day and we were happy with the speed of the Kingsford car,” said Ambrose. “It’s really important to have a car that works well in the draft around Talladega and that’s what we’ve been working on.
In NASCAR, the name Robert Yates has always been synonymous with winning and horsepower, especially on superspeedways. Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion, is confident that this weekend will be no exception for Saturday’s running of the NASCAR Busch Series Aaron’s 312. Leicht will be making his 32nd NASCAR Busch Series start and second at Talladega.
"I know that Robert Yates horsepower is going to be a huge advantage for me this weekend. If I can just keep my head up and stay out of trouble we should get the CitiFinancial Ford a great finish,” Leicht said. The No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford will feature an in-car camera for this weekend’s Aaron’s 312. The 117-lap event will get the green flag at 3 p.m. EST live on ABC.
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