Sitting 8th in the point standings, Mike Wallace looked forward to arriving in Loudon, NH, and making up ground on the Top 5. Unfortunately, the Germain Racing team raced with heavy hearts, as team owner Bob Germain’s father passed away at 85 years of age in Naples, Florida, on Friday night.
After the green flag dropped Mike, Wallace and the Gecko immediately found themselves in danger when Brad Coleman caught their right front fender, causing damage that the GEICO pit crew would work hard to repair. Also, Mother Nature proved that she has a sense of humor when she provided temperatures in the 80’s on Friday during practice, but on Saturday she provided 64-degrees. This affected the set up of the race car and Wallace battled it all afternoon.
Wallace and the Gecko ran as high as 11th and ran solidly in the Top 15 for the balance of the afternoon. Consequently, when the checkered flag waved under overcast skies, Wallace recorded a 15th place finish. While the finish is not what the GEICO team was hoping for, it still kept Wallace in the 8th position in the point standings.
“We had a good points day, but we were hoping to get another Top 5 for GEICO and Sport Clips,” Wallace said. “It was unfortunate to learn of Bob’s (Germain, team owner) father passing away on Friday night and we are keeping the Germain family in our thoughts and prayers. We will be making the trip to Naples this week to attend services and pay tribute to such a great man.”
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Daytona Beach, Florida, which is the site of Wallace’s last win. On July 2, 2004, Wallace passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Jason Leffler coming out of Turn 4 to hand GEICO and Sport Clips their first NASCAR victories.
Mike Wallace (No. 7 GEICO Toyota) has completed more laps this season than any other driver in series competition with 1,912 —failing to finish only six total laps thus far.
David Reutimann (No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota) is one of only two drivers among the top 10 to have not led a single lap this season.
Watch for two series-only regulars to run up front – Jason Leffler (No. 32 Great Clips Toyota) and Kenny Wallace (No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet). Leffler has finished in the top 10 in each of the last two Darlington races and has scored a Driver Rating of 104.8 and Average Running Position of 10.2 during that span. Kenny Wallace knows his way around Darlington as well. He’s scored a pole (1990) and eight top ten finishes in the Nationwide Series, with a career best runner-up finish in 2005.
Due to Morgan Shepherds "oh so excellent" and most popular 13th place finish at Talladega - and all of the support streaming in from within the NASCAR community and racing communities in general - TheHotLap.com has decided to start a "Sticker Tires For Faith" fund with the goal of donating a set of tires for Sat May 24th's NASCAR Nationwide CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
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.
With five races remaining in the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Point’s Championship, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. has moved into a tie for fifth in the standings. Following Saturday’s race at Kansas Speedway, Hamilton moved into a tie with Nextel Cup driver David Ragan for fifth position. Only one true Busch Series driver, Jason Leffler, stands ahead of Hamilton in the point’s race. Full time Nextel Cup driver Carl Edwards continues to lead Nextel Cup driver David Reutimann in race for the championship.
“We are excited to be inside the top-five in point’s right now,” Hamilton said. “This team has worked hard all year in what has been the toughest year ever for competition. We are looking forward to the last five races of the season.”
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