Federated Auto Parts 300 - Mike Wallace Notes

MIKE WALLACE / BIAGI BROS. RACING PRE-RACE NOTES - NASHVILLE

EVENT INFORMATION - Event: NASCAR Busch Series Federated Auto Parts 300 (NASCAR Busch Series race No. 15 of 34); Time and Date: 8 p.m. ET, Saturday, June 12; Site: Nashville Superspeedway; Live Coverage: FX (television) at 7:30 p.m. and MRN (radio) at 7:45 p.m. ET; Qualifying: Broadcast live on the SPEED Channel at 6 p.m. ET, Friday, June 11th.

LAST RACE (MBNA America 200): Mike Wallace and the Biagi Bros. Racing team were eager to return to the “Monster Mile” where Wallace scored his first career NASCAR Busch Series win, but an early race accident caused heavy damage to the Biagi Bros. Ford, resulting in a disappointing finish at Dover Downs. After struggling in qualifying, Wallace hit the concrete oval for Saturday’s MBNA America 200 from the 32nd starting spot. But no sooner than the race went green, rain began to fall over the 1-mile oval forcing NASCAR to postpone the event until Monday. Nearly 49 hours later, the race resumed and Wallace brought his Ford down pit road, returning to the track 26th. Wallace continued to work his way through traffic before the event’s fourth caution fell on lap 41 for contact between Johnny Sauter and Kevin Harvick. Wallace dodged the accident before being slammed into by Andy Ponstein for the second week in a row. “Our car was decent enough to easily run in the top ten but we got taken out by the No. 39 car,” explained Wallace. “There was a wreck, we slowed up to miss the wreck, and I was totally clear of it but the No. 39 just didn’t acknowledge the caution and drove through about ten cars to get to us. It’s just very discouraging. Dover would have been a good race for us. We had a car that was driving well. We just had a gentleman who has been involved in a wreck every week help wreck us again.” Wallace tackled the track and avoided the final four cautions to bring his Ford home in 28th place.

WALLACE ON NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY: “Nashville is a concrete race track which makes it kind of unique. In the race back in April, our car was tight but we were making progress until we had a tire go down and had to come down pit road out of sequence. We made up a lot of ground on fresh tires before being taken out by the 43 car.”

WALLACE ON CARRYING THE FEDERATED AUTO PARTS COLORS: “I’ve been involved with Federated Auto Parts for three years. This is a nice compliment to my working relationship with Federated Auto Parts. I look forward to carrying the Federated Auto Parts colors in Nashville and am anxious to continue our relationship in the future.”

ABOUT FEDERATED AUTO PARTS: Federated Auto Parts has over 3,800 Federated Auto Parts stores and 2,700 Federated Car Care Centers in the United States and Canada. Federated is committed to providing both the professional installer and the do-it-yourselfer with top quality, name brand products and expert service. For more information on Federated Auto Parts and to find the locations nearest you, please visit www.federatedautoparts.com.

BIAGI BROS. RACING 2004 SEASON SUMMARY: 14 starts; one top-10, winnings, $306,915.

MIKE WALLACE’S NASCAR BUSCH SERIES CAREER SUMMARY: 205 starts; 3 wins; 16 top-5 finishes; 44 top-10 finishes.