WALLACE FALLS JUST SHORT OF ANOTHER TOP 10 IN RAIN-DELAYED MBNA AMERICAN 200 AT DOVER, DE

In his very first race in front of the customers and employees of his newest sponsor, the Northeastern Supply Company, Kenny Wallace fell just one spot short of notching yet another top 10 finish in the rain-delayed MBNA American 200 NASCAR Busch Series race at Dover International Speedway.

The event, originally scheduled on Saturday afternoon, was cut short after just 28 laps by rain that forced the race to be completed on Monday starting at 11 a.m.

With the race track baked mostly in sun all day, Wallace and his Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company team used put some late-race pit strategy to their advantage to come away with an 11^th place finish in the accident-filled test. Wallace had scored top 10 finishes in five of his last six races heading into the Dover race so came up a spot short of continuing the streak.

Wallace’s Chevrolet was involved in an accident on Saturday just before the rains began and nearly five hours before the race was officially called and moved to Monday. Driver Shane Hmiel failed to slow down his race car in time during a multi-car incident on lap 18 and crashed hard into the right rear of Wallace’s machine, knocking the spoiler up in the air and badly damaging the rear bumper and lower rear quarter panel of the Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company sponsored race car.

The team elected to stay out on the racetrack after expecting the damage and ruling that it did not hurt the car badly enough. Wallace did elect to pit his machine after the race was re-started to have some of the damage repaired, relegating the #23 car well back in the field. From the 28^th spot, however, Wallace moved through traffic methodically, avoiding several wrecks that knocked out a quarter of the field and continuing to have changes made to his car during later stops.

On the next to last caution period of the day and Wallace’s final pit stop, crew chief Chris Rice elected to change only two tires to improve Wallace’s track position. Wallace came out of the pits in the seventh position, and although he failed to hold that spot during the remaining laps trying to hold off cars that had four fresh tires, he nonetheless posted a finish just outside of the top 10. It enabled him to retain the consistency he and his team have exhibited the last two months of the 2004 season.

Greg Biffle earned his third win of the season thanks to a late charge, passing leader David Green with 20 laps to go and then cruising to a healthy margin of victory over runner-up Martin Truex, Jr. Green was third followed by Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and rookie contender Kyle Busch, who also maintained his point lead by just 13 points over Truex.

Wallace remained in the tenth position in points, 483 behind Busch, but Kenny has closed to within 76 points of ninth place Jason Leffler and has extended his advantage over 11^th place Robby Gordon to 77 markers.

The Busch Series moves to Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee this Saturday night for the running of the Federated Auto Parts 300. The green flag is scheduled to fall at 8 p.m., EDT and will be televised live nationally over the FX Cable Network.