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BUSCH: Dover II: Kenny Wallace race notes

Race Recap: Kenny Wallace and the No. 23 team came into the Monster Mile knowing that they were going to be a contender. Not only did their car finish 11th in the spring race after being involved in an accident, but their sponsor, Stacker 2, was ...

Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM

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Race Recap: Kenny Wallace and the No. 23 team came into the Monster Mile knowing that they were going to be a contender. Not only did their car finish 11th in the spring race after being involved in an accident, but their sponsor, Stacker 2, was headlining the show.

The car was fast right off the truck and the team was building momentum. Wallace told his Stacker 2® crew that the car was a little free in turn one, but felt really good in turns three and four. The team worked on fine tuning the setup to suit Wallace, and at the end of practice, the Stacker 2®/YJ Stinger team was at the top of the speed charts.

For the third week in a row, the No. 23 team had an early qualifying draw. The team went out in the 11th position to qualify for the Stacker 2 Hundred Presented by YJ Stinger. Wallace completed his lap in 23.02 seconds and held off a couple of late charges to put his Chevrolet in the fifth position on the starting grid for Saturday's race.

The Busch Series teams received only 23 minutes of Happy Hour due to lack of sunlight. The Stacker 2®/YJ Stinger team knew the practice was not going to help it get ready for the race because the weather conditions were so drastically different. The team worked on a couple of different spring/shock combinations, but at the end of practice decided it would go back to the morning's practice setup for the race.

When the green flag waved over Dover International Speedway for the running of the Stacker 2 Hundred Presented by YJ Stinger, Wallace was holding his own in the top 10. By lap 40 Wallace had moved into the sixth spot and was knocking on the door of the top five. On lap 43 Wallace told his Stacker 2® crew that the car was a little free in the corners but really good off the corners. The team decided to help Wallace by making a slight air pressure adjustment to the next set of Goodyear tires.

When the first caution came out on lap 74 for debris, Wallace and his crew decided to bring the Stacker 2® Chevy to the pit stall for service. Wallace brought the yellow and orange No. 23 to the attention of his crew on lap 76. The team changed four tires and put fuel in the car. It also made an air pressure adjustment to help correct the free condition Wallace was feeling going into the corners.

The team picked up one spot on pit road, putting Wallace in the top five for the first time during Saturday's race. When the race was restarted on lap 79, Wallace was determined to get to the front.

On lap 104 the fourth caution flag of the race waved over the field. The leaders came to pit road, but Wallace and the crew decided to stay out and gamble on fuel mileage to see if they could win the race. Crew chief Chris Rice had confidence there would be a couple of more caution laps which would help the Stacker 2®/YJ Stinger Chevrolet get to the end.

When the race was restarted on lap 109, Wallace was in the first position. He and Mike Bliss battled side-by-side for a couple of laps until Bliss had to come to pit road to fix a flat tire. Wallace then had a lead and was pulling away from the field. The team was feverishly trying to make sure that it could make it on fuel. The team figured that the car could go to lap 199.8 before the car would run out of gas so Rice told Wallace to conserve fuel.

It looked like Wallace was going to have his first win of the year at the race Stacker 2® sponsored. Wallace led more than 80 laps, but on lap 190 Wallace told his team the car was out of fuel. He brought the car to pit road, and the team only refueled the car. This untimely pit stop put Wallace two laps down to race winner Martin Truex Jr. Wallace finished in the 20th position, but that was not indicative of his day. The solid run did put Wallace back in the NASCAR Busch Series top 10 with the help of 10 bonus points for leading the most laps.

NEXT EVENT: The team has the week off to prepare for the race at Kansas Speedway in two weeks.

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