WALLACE POSTS 15^TH PLACE FINISH IN KANSAS CITY, DROPS TWO SPOTS IN DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT

Kenny Wallace fought back from nearly going a lap down midway through the Mr. Goodcents 300, NASCAR Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, KS on Saturday afternoon and posted a respectable fifteenth place finish. However, the finish was not good enough for the affable Wallace to maintain his position in the top ten in driver championship points with just six races remaining on the 2004 schedule.

“We just could not get the car dialed in the way you need to here (Kansas Speedway), and it prevented us from making any kind of serious run to the front”, Wallace said after the race. “Some pit strategy did help us keep from going a lap down, so it really wasn’t what you call a totally bad day for us”, he ended.

Wallace started the race in the twelfth position and began falling back through the field from the drop of the green flag. After just 40 laps of racing, Kenny found his Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet in the 30^th spot and in danger of going a lap down to the race’s early pacesetters - Nextel Cup Series regulars Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle and Robby Gordon.

Thanks to a series of yellow flag pit stops and some strategy employed by crew chief Chris Rice, Wallace was able to rally back and moved into the upper third of the field over the race’s final 50 laps. Only late-race charges by Gordon and Kahne prevented Kenny from posting an even better finish.

With Ashton Lewis, Jr. enjoying a strong performance that saw the Virginia driver lead a bunch of laps and finish a solid fourth, David Stremme finishing an even stronger third and Kahne in 13^th place and gaining 5 bonus points for leading the race, Wallace was unable to hold the tenth spot in the driver’s points standing. Kenny actually dropped two spots to 12^th and now trails ninth place Lewis by 46 points, 10^th place Kahne by 30 and 11^th place Stremme by just three as Busch and Nextel Cup Series action now moves to Charlotte.

The Busch Series cars will take the green flag on next Friday night’s (Oct. 15) prime time Spongebob Squarepants The Movie 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway at 8 p.m. The TNT cable network will televise the race live.

Three Nextel Cup Series drivers battled for the win in Kansas City with Joe Nemechek passing Biffle on the final turn of the final lap to win by a car length for the 1992 Busch Series champion.

Nemechek had taken the lead with two laps remaining when he turned then leader Tony Stewart’s Chevy into the backstretch wall in a heated battle for the number one position. The crash ended Stewart’s day six laps short of the finish and in the 25^th position as the incident with Nemechek forced NASCAR to run four additional laps beyond the scheduled 200 due to its new green/white/checkered flag format in an effort to no longer end races under caution.