GAFFNEY, S.C. (May 8, 2012) – If there was ever a team needing to avoid a “Lady in Black” right now, it would be the No. 01 Restaurant.com Chevrolet team of Mike Wallace and JD Motorsports.
Trailer fire and top-five run cut short after being run over at Talladega in the closing laps all took place last week. Now, it’s a new week and the team – with help from multiple racing friends – is doing what they do best and heading to the next NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway.
If they could avoid the “Lady in Black” and bring her distant cousin “Lady of Luck” along for the ride this weekend – they’d suit her up in an instant.
The last two races at the egg-shaped oval of Darlington have yielded top-15 runs for Wallace and team. Now, with Restaurant.com coming on as a primary partner for the month, they like their odds of an upswing in their racing endeavors.
And, it’s another Friday night of racing under the lights; which always turns up the action just a notch.
Mike Wallace Info
This will be the 425th career NNS start for the four-time race winner In the previous eight races of 2012, Wallace has a best finish of 17th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway He is currently 13th in Driver’s Points, trailing 12th by 15 markers During that span, the St. Louis native has led two races and completed 1,476 of 1,542 laps contested (95.7 percent) This will be his 22nd start at Darlington Raceway. During that span, Wallace has a best start of 12th, in 1995, and finish of third, earned in 1994. He has one top-five and three top-10 finishes Completing 2,780 of 3,053 laps (91.2 percent) contested has helped in achieving the two consecutive top-15 finishes through the last two races
Tune in for the Win
Qualifying will be aired at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday afternoon on ESNP2 with race action on the same channel at 7 p.m. Practice sessions will not be aired from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Mike Wallace Quotes:
“I like racing at Darlington. Between the history and the layout of the track, its one race drivers either like it – or they don’t. I’m one of the drivers who look forward to racing the historic oval.
“If you can get your car to handle in Turns 1 and 2, then you have to work twice as hard to get it to work in Turns 3 & 4 because it’s so much tighter. You will see plenty of drivers get comfortable and scrape that Turn 2 wall a few times during the race.
“We had a great car last week, but that was last week. We overcame the trailer fire and made it to Talladega with the help of some friends in the racing community. Now, we have to keep working to get that taken care of get ourselves down to Darlington.
“I know I’ve said it before, but its especially worth saying again this week – this JD Motorsports team never quits. Restaurant.com is on board with us now and they see what we’re capable of in adversity. So, I’m ready to race under the lights of Darlington for this team, our owner and sponsors – they deserve a good run.”
