MIKE WALLACE, No. 7 GEICO CHEVROLET: “First off I appreciate WIX involvement in the program. It’s always something extra to shoot for, a little extra money, a little extra prestige and pride. We have a great sponsor with GEICO Insurance Company. They’ve been in this sport for a long time and we’re trying to show them something more than what they’ve had in the past and we’ve been able to do that. We’re seventh in the points right now. We’ve got three WIX Lap Leader Awards and some other awards to our credit. This is basically a brand new team. Phoenix Racing has been around for a long time but side of it is a brand new deal, and so to be able to have some accolades and bonus wins and bonus points and things like that means a lot to the team. Especially when you look in the paper and you look down through there and you see that you’re listed as the top guy in that category, it makes you feel good.”

HOW MUCH PRIDE WOULD YOU TAKE IN WINNING THE OVERALL WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD? “Any award is a pride to me, whether it’s the WIX Award. We’re going to try to keep ourself in a position to win it. If you’re the champion of that particular category, that’s what we’re aiming for. You don’t always judge your season by just one thing like ‘Oh, I won a race.’ When you come down and say I was a top-five car in the points, I won the WIX Lap Leader Award, we completed x-number of laps, it means a lot. We’re very appreciative of the program that WIX has out there. We’re a stand-alone Busch team. For us to be leading that program right now against the other Busch teams is a great honor. Hopefully we can win it. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”

DID YOU HELP PUT THIS TEAM TOGETHER? “I can’t really say that I put it together. The unique relationship to this program is GEICO Insurance is a sponsor of mine. They signed with Mike Wallace Racing and in return I took a deal to Phoenix Racing. They gave me the opportunity to go to whatever team I wanted to drive for, if I wanted to start my own team or whatever. I drove for Phoenix over the years and worked with Marc Reno and James Finch. When the sponsorship came down last year we were sitting seventh in car owner points when I drove the 1 car as I filled in for them and it just seemed like the perfect fit for us. But the 1 car stayed in existence. That was the car I was driving last year so basically the 7 car is a totally new start-up program. It has some of the guys that were on my team last year come over and worked on this but the team had to ramp up with everything in addition. We didn’t eliminate anything; kept the Cup program in place, the 09 car that run fourth in the 500 and we’re going to run some more Cup races with. Smith Transport came on board to help us with transportation needs. It’s all Phoenix putting the whole deal together. We put the sponsorship package together along with GEICO and Sport Clips. It was a lot of work on the off-season but it’s real rewarding, especially with GEICO. We’ve got national television commercials out there now playing. It’s nice to see a sponsor not just put their name on your car but to buy into the program and promote it. Hopefully here shortly we’re going to have a really cool new interactive Internet site that’s going to come into play with me as kind of the feature part of it.”

AS A STAND-ALONE BUSCH TEAM, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO COMPETE AGAINST THE CUP DRIVERS AND TEAMS HERE AT TALLADEGA? “The teams are competitive but all I can say is Phoenix Racing and myself went to Daytona and we finished fourth in the Daytona 500. We unloaded and we were the slowest car in practice. We were 61 out of 61 because of a fuel pick-up problem. It wasn’t that the car was really that slow. We transferred in on the last lap coming off of Turn 4 in the 150 and then made our way up to finish fourth in the race. It can be done at the plate race probably a little bit more advantageous in regards to a single-car operation. Here in the Busch program I think we’re as close as anybody. I think our motors could use a little bit of help, a little more horsepower. I don’t think we have the Hendrick or Roush stuff but we’re trying awful hard. The Cup deal, we’ve got Childress stuff in that car over there. It’s tough but we’re up for the challenge.”

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE 2007 SEASON? “When I spoke with GEICO last year and sold them the sponsorship package I told them that I felt we could put ourself in position to contend for a championship. That’s still got a possibility. I know as we’re sitting here Carl Edwards got the field clobbered but you know he could have some bad luck or maybe rain on a race when he’s supposed to be somewhere else and have to leave. I think if we finish the year in the top-10 in points, I’d really love to be a top-five car, a top-five driver. We need some top-10 finishes. We need a couple wins throughout this year. Talladega is as good a shot for us as any. I’ve got a bunch of people actually coming this weekend to the race from GEICO so let’s just celebrate in victory lane when we get here [smiles]. They said ‘You’ve set the table pretty high’ and I said ‘Well, I might as well step up to it.’ Platte racing is unique because you can be leading the race and then if the right group doesn’t go with you or doesn’t stay with you, you can be 10th when you come back to the checkered flag. Or vice versa, you can be running seventh or eighth and be winning the race at the end. I’ve always ran well in these plate races. I’ve got wins at Daytona and Talladega in everything but a Cup car. I’m very confident about what we’re doing.”