Darrell Wallace Jr. finished fifth in the Hisense 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and snagged his first career top five in the XFINITY Series. As an added bonus, his fifth place qualifies him for the Dash4Cash competition which begins next week at Dover International Speedway.
Wallace, along with Regan Smith who finished fourth, Daniel Suarez (sixth) and Ty Dillon (seventh) were the top four XFINITY series regulars in Saturday’s race at Charlotte. The driver with the best finish at Dover will win the Dash4Cash prize of $100,000 and move on to the next round in July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
With four top-10 results this season, including a sixth place at Iowa last week, Wallace hopes to build on their success moving forward.
“This is a confidence booster for all of my guys,” Wallace said. “We just have to clean up ourselves on pit road. That’s been a struggle for us these last couple races, but we’ve been able to manage a couple spots on restarts and come away with our first top-five in the series.”
“This is where we need to be,” he continued, “We’re setting up ship for late in the season.”
Wallace expressed confidence about his chances at Dover based on his two poles at the track, one XFINITY Series pole in 2012 and a Camping World Truck Series pole in 2013. However, he emphasized that the team has to remain focused.
“Dover has been a very successful track for me,” he commented. “It would be nice if they paid for the pole there because I’m pretty good at qualifying there. I haven’t got the finishes I wanted, but I’m excited to be in the XFINITY Series and part of the Dash 4 Cash Series, so I’m glad to be one of the four. We just have to keep playing it smart and put ourselves in that position next week to come out on top.
While looking ahead, Wallace also took time to appreciate his first top five, saying, “That’s the first time I finished a top series race here, so that’s something to be proud of. Clean air is your best friend in these races, so we’ll build off of this. It’s a good top-five, a good momentum boost for our team. We needed this, so sixth, fifth, first sounds good for the next one.”
Wallace is currently fourth in the XFINITY Series points standings. With $100,000 on the line, next week’s race at Dover promises to deliver not only big rewards but a possible shakeup in the points, as three of the four drivers battling for the prize are among the top five in the standings.
