Mike Wallace and the No 01 Chevrolet team of JD Motorsports is hoping to have a successful repeat of the last time the NASCAR Nationwide Series visited a road course.
In June, when the NNS left Road America, team and driver had led some laps en route to a season’s best, to date, fifth-place finish. With the 11-turn road course of The Glen on slate for this weekend, the St. Louis native hopes both team and driver can repeat, and improve, on what they achieved last time at a road course.
The team heads into the weekend without a primary sponsor on board hoping to achieve a last-minute deal like last week at Iowa Speedway. In the meantime, it’ll be business as usual with Wallace taking on Watkins Glen in search of points to keep the three-way battle for 11thplace going.
Chrissy Wallace Championship Watch:Despite not winning here Late Model feature at I-44 Lebanon Speedway last weekend, Mike’s daughter still leads the ASA National, Midwest and Divisional points in all three categories. With six races left, she’s hoping to improve on her statistics with a sixth win this weekend.
Mike Wallace Notes
- In 22 previous races this season, Wallace has one top-five, two top-10s and 11 top-20 finishes to his credit. He’s completed 3,668 of 4143 laps (88.5 percent) contested to earn a commendable finishing average of 21.3
- His best finish of fifth took place at the previously mentioned event at Road America
- This will be his 405th career NNS start, in which he has won four times during that stretch.
- Currently sitting 13th in points, Wallace trails 12th by a mere eight markers.
- Through the previous eight starts at Watkins Glen, Wallace has earned one top-10 and three top-20 finishes with his best finish of 10th taking place in the 1993 event.
- In this event last year, he started 33rd in the No. 01 JD Motorsports Chevrolet and worked his way to an 18th-place finish.
Mike Wallace Quotes:
“We are looking to do exactly what we did earlier this year at Road America by running a smart race from the pit box; and a clean race on the track. Some will tell you that road courses are the worst part of their season and they just struggle.”
“I like them, and I especially like Watkins Glen. The way the track is laid out you are definitely going to be working that wheel to get through the Esses, up that hill, through the bus stop then carousel turn, down the short chute to the tight Turns of 10 and 11.”
“You have to keep on your toes the entire lap and be consistent and smooth. You see wrecks at The Glen because people try to make something happen where there isn’t room for their cars, so you have to drive smarter than the other guys to survive.”
“The track is located in a great area and the fans in New York State really get into what we’re doing there. I’m looking forward to The Glen and hoping we can improve on what we did at Road America. If we run the smart race, I’m pretty sure we can do just that, too.”
JD Motorsports PR
