TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Darrell Wallace Jr. — Notes & Quotes
Kentucky Speedway – June 26, 2014
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 Made in America Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
How eventful was the morning?
“Eventful was right on it. Walking in this morning I see a number of guys standing around my Toyota Tundra and the motor is out of it and I’m like, ‘Oh boy, this isn’t good.’ Had some trouble there and ended up taking a little bit longer than we expected so it delayed our practice. We only got 15 minutes in the first round, but jumped up to sixth, which was okay. I thought we might be a little bit worse than that, but Jerry (Baxter, crew chief) thought we would be a little better than that. We found some speed in the second round, but this place is so hot and gets so hot so fast and loses grip. We ended up eighth there so I’m happy with it. Of course we can always be a little better so we’re going to give it a little more of what we think will help us for tonight’s race and go have some fun. Definitely love coming here to Kentucky. Our Toyota Tundra was fast last year here — made a rookie mistake to take us out of contention, but that won’t happen again.”
What was it like to win Gateway on the heels of Wendell Scott being named into the NASCAR Hall of Fame?
“That was a good week for hearing that news and then going and winning St. Louis — it was as huge as the first one. I think the second one I like to say reinstated the first one. You never want to be in this sport a ‘one hit wonder’ and that’s it. You want to win multiple times to show the people and the naysayers that say you don’t belong or the negative things — you want to kind of shut them up. I don’t know if it did, but it made me feel good that it did for a little bit at least. For all that happened with the Wendell Scott family — it’s been an honor to be in a relationship with them and have that friendship with Wendell Scott Jr. He’s texting me every minute and getting mad when I don’t reply and thinking that I just sit there and stare at my phone all day. It’s so cool to have that friendship and relationship with the family because I’m carrying Wendell Scott’s torch down the road and to be able to do that and be successful and carry on his legacy and try to start off my career, it’s been fun and it’s been good.”
Are you looking forward to running in the Nationwide Series at Daytona?
“That’s it, that’s all I’m running is Daytona. This whole news has been spreading it out like it’s all of next year — I wish. That hasn’t been announced yet — I don’t even know if I’m going to be alive next year — you don’t know. I found out, it was in the talks a couple weeks ago. It was just, ‘We’re working on stuff, and we’re looking at Daytona.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll go focus on Texas or St. Louis,’ — can’t remember what day it was or what race it was around. I’ve been in contact with Steve DeSouza (vice president Nationwide Series operations, Joe Gibbs Racing) and Coach (Joe Gibbs) has been calling me a lot. I’ve actually missed both of his phone calls so hopefully he’s not mad at me. After St. Louis I haven’t talked to him. It’s cool to be back in the Nationwide Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing — another speedway race I know that, but I’m being optimistic about it and we’ll be just fine. We had speed at Talladega and just have to stay out of harm’s way. That’s the biggest thing. With Coca-Cola and the new campaign of ‘Share a Coke,’ it’s cool to be able to kind of promote that program and they’re taking their iconic logos off the bottles and putting names like Chris and Bubba and Ben and everybody on there. It’s really neat to do that and huge shout out to Coca-Cola for giving me this opportunity to be back in the Nationwide Series again and also with Toyota — racing another Toyota Camry and hopefully get my streak of top-10s back alive in the Nationwide Series.”
What makes Kyle Busch so good in the Truck Series?
“He’s (Kyle Busch) talented of course, but he just knows the ins and outs of every little thing no matter if it’s a Cup car, a Nationwide car or a truck. He knows about it and the difference for me is I’m still learning and he’s old compared to me — sorry, I just kind of made a lot of people mad. He just knows a lot more — it’s experience. Coming up against guys that don’t have that much experience here, you’re going to stand out more. That’s like me — I can’t really say going to run a go-kart race because I get beat doing that with kids weighing as much as anybody. It’s all about weight there. It’s just tough — it’s experience and that’s the biggest thing you can take from it. He can give you a whole rundown of things that he feels out there on the race track as to where I’m just feeling it for the first time and he already knows what to expect. I don’t and that’s just the biggest thing.”
How do you prepare for a night race when practice is during the day?
“We look back at last year and we pulled some stuff from that and then we also pulled some new stuff. It’s just one of those things — it’s always been like that growing up for a local Saturday night Late Model race where you show up at 2:00 PM and you race at 8:00 PM. You show up at the hottest point of the day and then race at the coolest point of the night. We’re used to it and it’s kind of a bummer, but it’s just the way it rolls. I like a one-day show — get in, get out, go home and enjoy the weekend. It’s just where you learn from — you can go test and test at night and test what you need, but when you come here you have to be ready for it. You have to test in the heat and this is a good test for when we run during the day at maybe Iowa — a different track, but the heat. You learn stuff from that. It’s kind of a pointless time to practice, but still you’re always learning something new every time.”
Do you feel more pressure to perform this weekend after winning at St. Louis?
“Not so much. Yes, momentum is on our side and we had a mess up on pit road in St. Louis and I stayed calm about it all. We come here calm about everything and saw what happened earlier before practice and it didn’t faze me one bit. We’re going to go take this race and finish — that’s the only goal I have on this is to finish this race. We can’t have anymore take backs or setbacks this year. We’ve had three or four and now we’re trying to play catch up throughout the points. We jumped up to ninth and two races ago or whenever (Ryan) Blaney finished third or second at Dover and he jumped up like six spots. You can tell when it’s getting later in the season when you’re only jumping up one or two spots after a win. It’s just tough, but that’s the biggest thing. Yeah, we won and got the first one out of the way and our second and third one of the year is going to come, but we’re not going to force the issue. I’m not going to force the issue — if we’re a second-place truck then we’re going to finish second. We’re not going to go make it a first-place truck when we’re a fifth-place truck. We just have to take it as the dice is rolled and go have fun with it.”
