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.
CROSSVILLE, TN.- Last Tuesday, July 17th, Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace were in town to do some dirt track racing at the Crossville Raceway. An early afternoon rain came across the track threatening the nights racing activities, but nobody gave up hope. While waiting out the rain, I hogtied Kenny Wallace for an interview, but it soon became a story telling marathon.
When the subject of Furniture Row Racing expanding to a second team for 2008, Kenny was quick to mention Sterling Marlin and the fact that he was let go that morning from Ginn Racing. “Sterling looks like he is getting close to retirement, and he and Nemecheck just got let go from Ginn Racing, and I would love to have Sterling help us. He said he doesn’t want to run more than 20 races next year, so if we can find a sponsor and I can have a teammate, Sterling Marlin is one of the best guys around.”
While rumors surrounding Sterling Marlin potentially moving to Morgan McClure Motorsports have proven unfounded, Sterling has been quoted as interested in working at Furniture Row Racing and Kenny has been quoted now as interested in working with him. Another rumor has Sterling as a potential driver for the BAM Racing 49 at Indy. However, Kenny Schrader appears to have the leg up on that ride.
But wait there is more. Back to Joe and Kenny's story telling.
Now I have heard a lot of story’s about Sterling and back in March I listened as Kyle Petty was telling some stories about Sterling and he mentioned an incident with Sterling and Rusty Wallace’s son Steven. Kyle never went into detail, and left the story hanging, so this was a perfect opportunity.
When I asked Kenny, he started to laugh and said, “Well, Sterling is from rural Tennessee, where the roads are still dirt. Sterling thinks a quarter stick of dynamite is no big deal, in Missouri we used to call them M-80’s, but these aren’t no M-80’s. So he gave my nephew Steven a whole bunch of them things. Well Steven lights one of these things and throws it under a van, and it blows up, the van lifts about 2 feet of the ground and blows the rear tires right off the thing.” Kenny assured me that no one was hurt so they all laughed about it, but I knew there was more so he continued. “ Well, about a year ago Steven got really bored at the house, he was home and his mom was home, so he lit one of these quarter sticks of dynamite. As soon as he did, Steven decided this wasn’t a good thing to do in the house. So he went into the downstairs bathroom and threw it in the toilet figuring the toilet would put it out. Well it didn’t just blow the toilet apart, it blew the plumbing right out of the wall.” Steven had to spend a few days at Kenny’s house till his mom stopped spitting nails.
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