ENGINE PROBLEMS SIDELINE WALLACE EARLY IN ST. LOUIS

Kenny Wallace’s homecoming turned out to be a disappointing one on Saturday night as engine problems forced Wallace’s Stacker 2/Northeastern Supply Company sponsored Chevrolet out early in the Charter 250, NASCAR Busch Series race at Gateway International Raceway just across the river from St. Louis. The result was a frustrating 33^rd place finish that ended Wallace’s string of top 10 finishes at two.

“We were doing just fine until one of the restarts we had after one of those early-race cautions,” Wallace explained. “We shift at this race track because of the long straight-aways, and on that restart something broke inside the motor. I continued to lose power and finally had to park it,” Wallace added.

Wallace was one of a half dozen different drivers to lose out to engine problems during the grueling run on the fast, 1 ¼-mile, egg-shaped Gateway oval. He had qualified a decent 13^th and was running as high as 11^th until the engine finally gave out. Wallace was hoping for a much better result as he grew up just 17 miles from the track’s location in neighboring Fenton, Missouri and was seeking to move closer to the top 10 in driver points in front of many boyhood friends.

Unfortunately, the 33^rd place finish dropped Wallace down two spots to 13^th in the driver point standings after 10 races, 377 behind new points leader Martin Truex, Jr. who posted his third victory of the 2004 season in Saturday’s event. Finishing behind Truex were Ron Hornaday, Jr., Jason Keller, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and rookie Kyle Busch.

Truex now holds a 16-point advantage on Michael Waltrip in the points standing with Busch (-29), David Green (-86) and Robby Gordon (-93) rounding out the top five. Wallace now sits 93 points out of the 10^th position currently held by Johnny Sauter.

Kenny will try and get back on track this Friday night at Richmond International Raceway when the Busch Series moves to Richmond, VA for the running of the Funai 250. That race gets the green flag at 7:30 p.m. with the FX Cable Network broadcasting the event live.