TALLADEGA, Ala.– When asked about the current Dash 4 Cash format in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Darrell Wallace Jr. said he was “on the fence about it.”
During his media availability early this morning at Talladega Superspeedway, the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was asked his thoughts on the Dash 4 Cash format that grants drivers an extra way to make their way into the XFINITY Chase.
“I think one of the factors is we haven’t had the speed enough to put ourselves in position, but I was at Bristol and I was still standing outside my car when they said it was time to roll and start the engines for the feature,” Wallace said. “There is no schedule after that. You run your heats and get back to it. We are just kind of bouncing back and forth not knowing what we are doing. Richmond was a little more organized but still I think it comes down to the speed factor. We have to get a little better to focus on putting ourselves in position to with the $100,000.”
In the two Dash 4 Cash races this season, he’s finished 25th and 16th.
His bad runs, however, didn’t stop him from saying that the program “is a cool concept and it will be interesting to see what the fans say about it. I know there are some of us that are for it and some against it. It is different for us.”
He was also asked if he could apply what he did to earn his sixth-place finish at Daytona to start the season at Talladega and said he wanted “to say yes, but these places are so much about luck. You have to be in the right spot at the right time. We have pretty much the same game plan and hopefully we can get a decent starting spot and get up toward the front and just ride. We have to really plan out the pit stops and not make any mistakes on pit road to get us out there and keep that game plan in order.”
He was then asked about whether his team’s struggles this season was a result of Roush downsizing its XFINITY program from four to two cars and said he didn’t think it was “because of backing off on teams. I think it is just that we are trying new things and trying different things and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Now it is getting to that point in the season where we have to see what worked and kind of put that together. We are still missing on a lot of other factors as well. Like I said earlier, we are dedicated and 100-percent focused on getting where we need to be. We have some really great tracks coming up for us. Dover, Charlotte has been really good to us. That will be a test to see how we are. Hopefully, we can get some turn through the center. That is the first thing I say on the radio. Hopefully, I won’t be saying that this weekend. We have an off weekend coming up and we can really get in depth more to see what we need to do. I don’t really know what the exact thing is that we are missing. I think it would be really easy and everyone could do it if it was like that.”
