Coming to the checkered flag out of Turn 4 last Friday night July the 4th in Daytona, Mike Wallace was in position to record another Top 10 finish for the GEICO Racing team when his nephew Steven Wallace (say it ain't so Joe) decided fireworks were in order. The younger Wallace moved up the race track and sent his uncle into a 200-mph spin across the infield grass that culminated with the #7 GEICO Camry hitting the inside retaining wall hard. Mike Wallace and the GEICO Camry rested just a hundred yards or so from the finish line, with a destroyed race car and a 22nd place finish. Despite the misfortune on the last lap, Mike Wallace and the Gecko still sit in the 8th position in the point standings.
Eighteen year old Joey Logano started from the pole for the second consecutive week in the No. 20, in only his third start in the Nationwide series. The race ended with Logano making history as the youngest Nationwide Series winner ever. Scott Wimmer garnered a second place finish; Mike Wallace and the Gecko came in third!!
”Dave and the guys worked on the car from the minute we unloaded," Logano said. "I didn’t know what we would have going into lap one. We never gave up…loosening up, loosening it up…about the last pit stop, we got it about right. Overall it was a good night. “ Dave (Crew Chief Dave Rogers) told me we were going to win this thing tonight one way or another and I believed him. ..so, with the last twenty laps to go, I was praying for it to stay green. I expected to win at Dover…I’m getting in one of the best cars out there-I have to win races.”
Wimmer, the second place finisher added “We were just free at the end after the last pit stop. We had tight conditions all night long until then. Seems like the only way we could get close to the No. 18 and the No. 20 was to run free. I just stayed free that whole run.”
Coming off of two consecutive Top 10’s, the GEICO Racing team entered the Bluegrass state looking to extend a run that has them rapidly moving towards the Top 5 in the point standings. Success has become a habit for Mike Wallace and the Germain Racing team and the last few weeks have shown that they both expect to win. Unfortunately, as the race wound down, Wallace suffered a couple setbacks during pit stops. When the checkered flag waved over the Meijer 300, Mike Wallace and the GEICO Racing team recorded a 3rd place finish in a hard fought battle that challenged both Wallace and the Germain Racing team.
” The car was really good," said Wallace. "We had a few obstacles on pit road. I’m really happy with the whole Germain Geico team- the best run I’ve had all year; the best run in a couple of years. It’s nice to know you can go out there as a driver and compete with everyone. We found some things in our race cars that have made them run better and we finished third. Wish we could have had a caution with about five to go, so we could have challenged Scott and Joey.”
Concord, NC (June 4, 2008) – As the first half of the NASCAR season begins to wind down, Mike Wallace and the GEICO Racing team find themselves in a good place. The driver is sitting 9th in the point standings and is coming off a string of good runs, which most recently included his 8th place finish at Dover last weekend.
Sure, it would be easy to point out that Wallace and the #7 GEICO Camry finished 25th at Darlington and 22nd at Charlotte, however it would not be indicative of his actual performance. In Darlington, he was sitting in position to record a Top 5 finish before a melee under a green, white, checker finish found the GEICO Camry more resembling a pinball than a race car. Charlotte would be more of the same story. While the finishes were less than desirable, Wallace ran both of those races solidly around the Top 10, even in the Top 5 at Darlington, before disappointment set in on the final laps.
“We’ve worked really hard to run well every week and put ourselves in position to win races, and I feel as though we’ve been successful at that,” Wallace said from his North Carolina home. “This Germain Racing team has worked really hard week in and week out to prepare the #7 GEICO Camry and I think you can see that it’s really paying off. We’re showing what the driver and team can do and we will continue to do it until we’re all standing in Victory Lane.”
Next up for the Gecko? Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday Night. 7:00 p.m. Eastern, on ESPN2.
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.
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