WALLACE RUNS OUT OF GAS LEADING WITH 12 LAPS TO GO TO FOIL SERIOUS EFFORT TO WIN FIRST RACE OF 2004 SEASON

“It’s out of gas” are the few but very direct words Kenny Wallace used to inform his stunned race team over the radio on Saturday afternoon that his dominant Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company sponsored Chevrolet had run dry while leading the NASCAR Busch Series race that his primary sponsor had entitled. The result? A highly disappointing, 20^th place finish in the Stacker 200 presented by YJ Stinger.

“My crew chief, Chris Rice, had told me that we could go to lap 202 without a problem. I didn’t dream of running out of gas, but we did,” Wallace said as the sudden change of events knocked him out of the lead with only 12 laps remaining in the race at Dover Int. Speedway in Delaware. It enabled points leader Martin Truex, Jr. to earn his fifth victory of the 2004 Busch Series season while Wallace had to coast around to pit road to take on enough fuel to finish the race and did so two laps down in the 20^th position.

After qualifying a solid fifth and having the fastest car in Friday’s pre-qualifying practice session, Wallace entered the 2004 season’s 27^th race with high hopes to win for the first time this year and for the first time in the Busch Series since November of 2001, a span of 62 races. Wallace was running fourth on lap 74 when the race’s third caution flag flew after Tony Raines lost a motor in his race machine and hit the second turn wall.

All but four of the top 10 runners at that time decided not to pit, the first of that group on the track being Wallace. He inherited the lead on lap 75 and held it for 112 consecutive laps until his gas tank gave out. “Either we didn’t get all of the fuel in when we last pitted or we didn’t pick up all the fuel. Our calculations had us being able to run to lap 202 if the race had to go that far, so obviously something went wrong. It would have been great to win this race for the Stacker and Northeastern folks,” Wallace added.

Kenny had held leads by as much as six seconds and could run anywhere he wanted to with the most dominant race car that he has driven this season. Early race pacesetters Kasey Kahne, the polesitter, Kevin Harvick and Truex, Jr. had all pitted during that lap 75 caution and only Truex appeared to have any kind of speed to catch Wallace. Truex had closed to a car length of Wallace when the latter’s car engine suddenly shut off.

One bright thing about Wallace’s performance is that he was able to move back into the top 10 in the drivers’ championship points standing by one point over Ashton Lewis, Jr. who finished one position behind Kenny but never did gain any bonus points for leading a lap. Wallace led the most laps during the 200-lap test witnessed by a sun-drenched crowd estimated at 55,000. Kenny is now 19 points behind ninth place Kahne as he battles to finish the year in the top ten.

Mike McLaughlin, polesitter Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler and Johnny Sauter rounded out the top five finishers in Saturday’s race.

The Busch Series teams take another week off before resuming activity on Saturday, October 9 with the running of the Mr. Goodcents 300 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. That race will be televised live by TNT starting at 2 p.m. EDT.