Charter Pipeline 250 - Kenny Wallace Notes

Kenny Wallace Event Preview
No. 99 St. Louis Cardinals Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Gateway International Raceway - May 10, 2003

"Honey, I'm Home!" Kenny Wallace, who regularly drives the No. 23 Stacker 2 Dodge on the Winston Cup Series for Bill Davis Racing, will make a special trip to St. Louis, his hometown, to compete in the NASCAR Busch Series event held at Gateway International Raceway.

"Being able to race this event at Gateway is so near and dear to my heart," said Wallace. "This has nothing to do about points or money; it is all about paying homage to my hometown of St. Louis and running a St. Louis Cardinals car for all the great St. Louis fans. I have such pride being able to race in front of a hometown crowd and now that I'm racing full-time on the Winston Cup Series, I don't get to race at Gateway anymore and I'm so grateful to Bill Davis who has helped me fulfill this dream. I can't think of anything more exciting than having a St. Louis Cardinals car in St. Louis' Victory Lane with a St. Louis driver behind the wheel!"

On The Track: Wallace comments on what it takes to be successful at Gateway.

"Gateway is one of the most unique tracks on the NASCAR circuit," said Wallace. "Turns one and two are very tight, so tight that some drivers even downshift. The backstretch is really long, and turns three and four are somewhat similar to Milwaukee or Phoenix. You need a lot of horsepower there because your RPMs get so low through one and two that you need a strong motor to pull you up onto the backstretch. You also need a good handling car to get you through the turns as well."

Behind the Scenes Changes: Originally, Bill Davis Racing was going to provide a car and Michael Waltrip Racing was going to provide a crew for Kenny Wallace to run the St. Louis event. However, due to the back luck the Busch team of Bill Davis Racing suffered, they did not have a car to provide for the event. Michael Waltrip was in same circumstance of not having a car to provide, so Joe Nemechek stepped in to help the situation. NEMCO Motorsports is now providing the car and the No. 87 crew for Wallace, including crew chief, Brian Pattie. The car number will remain the No. 99.

Equipment: Wallace will run a car from the NEMCO Motorsports stable. The car last competed at Nashville Superspeedway in April, piloted by David Reutimann, where it finished fifth.

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win