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WALLACE FINISHES WELL BACK IN LAS VEGAS FIELD
Saturday proved to be a long one for veteran driver Kenny
Wallace and his Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet. The duo was
never able to muster any kind of a challenge in the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Busch
Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing a distant 25th,
two laps behind race winner Kevin Harvick.
Wallace qualified his #23 machine 27th and never
did have the equipment capable of moving out of the back half of the field. The
best advance Kenny was able to make was a push to the 20th position
halfway through the 200-lap test. However, once the race went through long,
green flag runs, Kenny’s racecar just could not keep up and was forced to
settle in the middle of the pack.
Wallace lost the first of his two laps by lap 73 and was one
of eight drivers to only complete 198 circuits. Eighteen cars finished the race
on the lead lap.
Harvick, in winning his first race of the 2004 Busch Series
season, nipped a fast closing Kasey Kahne at the stripe for the victory. David
Stremme finished third followed by Michael Waltrip and Bobby Hamilton, Jr.
Of the top ten finishers Saturday, seven were Nextel Cup
drivers.
With the finish, Wallace individually dropped three spots in
the NASCAR Busch Series driver standings to 13th and trails point
leader Harvick, one of those Nextel Cup regulars, by 190 points after three of
this season’s 34 scheduled races. Johnny Sauter, Waltrip, Hamilton, Jr. and
David Green round out the top five in the standings and trail Harvick by 70,
84, 94 and 96 points, respectively.
Kenny and his Bill Davis Racing team will have two weeks to
sort things out and get their act back on track as the Busch Series does not
return to the track until Saturday, March 20, at Darlington, SC. The Diamond
Hill Plywood 200 will take the green flag at Darlington Raceway at 1 p.m. with
the FX Cable Network televising the event live.
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