A trip to the “Bluegrass State” was anything but “blue” Friday night for Kenny Wallace and RAB Racing with Brack Maggard as the team finished sixth at Kentucky Speedway en route to their seventh top-10 finish of 2011. Wallace, who piloted the No. 09 UNOH Toyota Camry for the Feed the Children 300, also earned his career-best NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) finish at the 1.5-mile track in nine starts.
On Thursday, Wallace and the RAB Racing team started the weekend off with one of two scheduled NNS practices where Wallace posted 20th fastest in the UNOH Toyota Camry in the rain-shortened session. Back on track Friday for final practice, Wallace improved to 12th on the speed charts before the afternoon qualifying session where he made laps quick enough for the 19th starting position.
Taking the green flag in front of an estimated crowd of 52,000, Wallace worked quickly, picking up four positions to 15th by lap 50 and moving in to the 10th position on the lap 70 restart for an accident in turn four. At the midway point, Wallace was maintaining his position in the top-20 in the 16th position. During the fifth and final caution of the night between laps 134-138, Crew Chief Scott Zipadelli brought the No. 09 UNOH Camry down pit road for adjustments, tires and fuel. Running two laps under caution in the 20th position, Zipadelli made the call to bring Wallace back down pit road to top-off fuel. The second trip down pit road dropped Wallace to 23rd, leaving him as the third to last, lead lap car.
Going green for the final 60 laps, Wallace improved to 15th by lap 190. During the closing laps, fuel strategy came in to play, working right into Zipadelli’s plans. As the laps began winding down to single digits, cars began to pit under green for fuel. As cars began moving to pit road, Wallace kept moving toward the front knowing they had enough fuel to make it to the end. As cars began running out of fuel coming to the checkered, Wallace drove the No. 09 UNOH Toyota Camry all the way to end, scoring a sixth-place finish for the RAB Racing team.
With 16 events remaining on the Nationwide Series schedule this season, Wallace continues to hold the seventh spot in the NNS driver point standings. The No. 09 currently occupies the 13th position in the NNS owner point standings.
RAB Racing PR
