Mike Wallace and the No. 01 G&K Services Chevrolet of JD Motorsports endured a mini-season of situations in one NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
After registering the 26th-fastest time in qualifying on Friday, he and the team were encouraged by the sunny skies over the 1.5-mile oval for Saturday’s race. Wallace, who was paying tribute to his father’s passing the previous Sunday by having “Russ Wallace – My Dad” above his door windows, had enough personal motivation for a great run.
Wallace quickly took to the task and moved up, looking to break into the top-20 positions. An early caution on lap 25 to take on fuel was done to go longer without a stop near the end. This put him and the No. 01 Chevrolet team back higher in the running order, for the meantime. The driver radioed to his crew the car was running well.
By lap 75, Wallace and the others who had taken advantage of the earlier stop were now also lower on the scoring pylon. By the halfway point of the 200-lap race, Wallace said the nose of their Chevrolet was starting to slide going into the turns. This would scrub off more speed and slow him down exiting the corners. Then, around lap 140, with Wallace up to 27thplace and starting to move forward, he said the handling of the car was going away at a rapid rate.
A few laps later, he was forced to pit under green to change tires and make some adjustments. After completing the stop, the crew found the right front tire was corded. Which means; the rubber had worn off the tires to the point the steel cords that reinforce the inner core were showing to the naked eye. This put him down farther in the running order two laps down. Then, the electrical power to the motor started to fade and the alternator gauge backed up the fact. Again, the team had to come to pit road to see what the problem was on their G&K Services Chevrolet.
They found the battery was going bad and needed to be replaced right there on pit road. Once this was done, Wallace was stuck in 32nd place for the rest of the race right up until the checkered flag flew on lap 200. He remains 13th in Driver’s Standings as the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the second-to-last race in the 2011 season at Phoenix International Speedway this weekend.
Mike Wallace Quotes: “This definitely was not the weekend we wanted to have in Texas as we try to close out the season on a good note. We just seemed to have everything possible –except motor problems – not go our way in Texas.”
“Corded tires, not enough cautions to help our strategy, alternator and battery problems just did us in near the end. We were pretty good there in the beginning, then the nose started to slide going into the turns.”
“From there, it just seemed to not go our way for the rest of the race. But, you know, in light of what took place earlier in the week with the passing of my dad, this is manageable – trust me.”
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