WALLACE’S LATE-RACE FUEL STOP GAMBLE FAILS TO PAY OFF IN MICHIGAN’S CABELA’S 250

Gambling that the final 40-plus laps in Saturday afternoon’s Cabela’s 250, NASCAR Busch Series race would be run under green flag conditions, Kenny Wallace’s Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company team came up short and posted a disappointing 19^th place finish.

Starting 16^th in the 43-car field based on car owner points when Friday’s qualifying activities were rained out, Wallace never did have the car to challenge the machines of the race’s pacesetters in Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Casey Mears, Martin Truex, Jr. and Kasey Kahne. The only way for Wallace and his team to punch out a solid finish was to gamble.

Wallace and six other teams decided to do just that by pitting to top off their gas tanks earlier than the other teams during a caution on lap 73, knowing that the only way to get to Victory Lane was for the race to remain under green flag racing conditions.

On lap 88, however, another caution flag flew blowing the strategy of the seven teams that pitted early and thus allowing the top cars to now pit under a yellow flag to get their final amount of fuel to finish the race plus some fresh tires. Wallace, electing not to pit again, held the lead at the time and after the re-start, getting the five bonus points that come with pacing a NASCAR race, but it then took the red hot Busch just three laps under green to get past and assume a lead he would hold to the end to claim his fifth victory in this his rookie season. Martin, the Nextel Cup Series veteran who was making his first Busch Series start in four years, finished a distant second followed by points leader Truex, Jr., Mears and Kahne.

An amazing 31 cars finished on the lead lap with Wallace in 19^th and unable to gain ground and move beyond the eleventh position in driver points that he held coming into this 23^rd of 34 races in 2004. Kenny now trails current 10^th place points man Ashton Lewis, Jr. (a 13^th place finisher on Saturday) by 39 points and is 55 ahead of new 12^th place driver Tim Fedewa.

Truex, Jr. maintained his lead over second place Busch by 97 points, and with just 11 races remaining, it appears to be 2-driver race for the 2004 Busch Series driving title.

The Busch Series heads to popular Bristol Motor Speedway for Friday night’s Food City 250 that will get the green flag at 8 p.m. TNT will televise the race live.