WALLACE CARVES OUT 9^TH PLACE FINISH IN CHARLOTTE AND JUMPS 3 PLACES TO 9^TH IN DRIVER POINTS BATTLE

Though plagued by an aero push in his racecar that hindered his progress, especially on restarts, Kenny Wallace drove his Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet to a ninth place finish Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

Wallace qualified 14^th for the SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie 300, NASCAR Busch Series’ event on the 34-race, 2004 season schedule. He showed several times during the race that he had the speed of the leaders but was unable to solve the handling problems of his machine that prevented him from ever seriously challenging the front-runners.

“I just didn’t have the power to get off during re-starts”, Wallace explained. “We’d get great pit work that enabled us to pick up spots every time we pitted, but when it came time to go when the race was restarted, they (drivers in cars running in back of him) just drove underneath me. It was frustrating”, he added.

Though he had no answer for the strength of cars driven by the likes of Matt Kenseth, Mike Bliss, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr., Wallace remained with the lead pack of cars throughout the night. The highest he climbed in the standings at one time was fourth only to lose that quickly after one of those restarts, and he was no worse than 15^th at any time during the race. He was able to hold off the late charges of Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Mike McLaughlin to earn his eighth top 10 finish of the season.

Bliss made a sensational pass on lap 182 of the 200-lap affair, going underneath the cars of Johnson and Kenseth as the two battled for the lead spot. Bliss was able to hold the lead to the checkered flag to post his first victory of 2004 in his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy.

Kenseth, Johnson, Greg Biffle and Busch rounded out the top five finishers with points leader Truex close behind in sixth. Truex only lost five points from his point lead over Busch and will carry a 144-point advantage into next Saturday’s Sam’s Town “He Dared To Rock” 250 at Memphis (TN) Motorsports Park. TNT will televise the race live beginning at 3:30 EDT.

Friday night’s race was not a total loss for Wallace, however, as he was able to jump three spots in the point standing to 9^th after dropping down to 12^th after last week’s race in Kansas City. Kenny is now 34 points ahead of Ashton Lewis, Jr. in tenth place and 53 better than 12^th place Kasey Kahne. Problem-filled runs by Lewis (who finished 35^th), Kahne (36^th) and David Stremme (34^th), coupled with Wallace’s 9^th place finish, fueled Kenny’s big jump up in the standings.