WALLACE CONTINUES TO IMPROVE WITH 9^TH PLACE CALIFORNIA FINISH

After several weeks of frustration, Kenny Wallace is starting to smile more broadly these days after posting a solid, ninth place finish in Saturday’s Stater Brothers 300 NASCAR Busch Series race at California Speedway in Fontana, CA. It marked the second straight top ten finish for Wallace in his Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company-sponsored Chevrolet and enabled him to close to within a whisker of the top ten in the drivers’ championship points battle.

“We are starting to make the moves we needed to make to improve and to become a team that others need to worry about,” Wallace said after the race, one that ended up producing a victory for Nextel Cup Series driver Greg Biffle thanks to fuel mileage.

“We are getting better in the pits each week, and the morale of everyone is starting to come alive. Running the way we have the last two weeks is just what the doctor ordered, and now we just have to maintain the consistency so we can eventually become a threat to win a race and be in contention for a championship”, added Wallace, who finished a strong 6^th last week in Talladega, AL for what was his first top ten finish out of the season’s first eight races.

The cars of Nextel Cup regulars Michael Waltrip, Kevin Harvick, Biffle and Matt Kenseth were the day’s top cars, along with young Martin Truex, Jr. driving for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. In the end, though, Biffle became the beneficiary of a quick pit stop of his own for fuel with 10 laps to go and late stops for the same reason by then leaders Kenseth (with 4 laps to go) and Truex (with 2 laps left) to drive to his second victory of the 2004 Busch Series season.

Biffle outdistanced another Nextel Cup regular, Tony Stewart, for the victory with Stacy Compton, Kenseth and Kasey Kahne rounding out the top five. Compton was able to run the race’s final 60 laps without stopping for gas to nail down his best finish of the season.

With his 9^th place finish, Wallace moved up another spot in the point standings to 11^th and trails 10^th place Biffle by just 46 points as Busch Series action moves to Gateway International Speedway outside of St. Louis next weekend. That’s when action moves under the lights for the running of the Charter Communications 250 on Saturday that will take the green flag at 7 p.m. The FX Cable Network will televise the 200-lap event live.

Waltrip, who finished sixth in California, remained the points leader. Rookie Kyle Busch is second, 52 points behind the leader, followed by Truex, Jr. (-53), David Green (-84) and Robby Gordon (-90). Jason Keller, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., Ron Hornaday, Jr., Johnny Sauter and Biffle complete the top ten.