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NASCAR Veteran Driver Mike Wallace to Appear at
Motorsports Expo 2009 Saturday, March 14th, NASCAR Veteran Mike Wallace will be on stage at the Americraft Center of Progress Building, New York State Fairgrounds for a Meet and Greet session at 2pm till 3:30pm. He will also be on hand at the Adirondack International Speedway Booth from 6pm till 7pm. The gates on Saturday open to the public at 11:00am and close at 9:00pm. Sunday the 23rd annual Motorsports Expo will open at 11am and continues until 4pm. Adult admission is $10.00 with children 6-12 $5.00. A family pass, two adults and two children, is available for $25.00. Parking and children under 6 are Free. Half- price adult tickets are available from your local Suzuki dealer while supplies last. Mike is being brought to the Motorsports Expo courtesy once again of Adirondack International Speedway. Mike is the middle brother of the Wallace racing family, which includes Rusty and Kenny. The family originated in St. Louis, Missouri, and he currently resides in the Charlotte, NC area. A restrictor plate specialist, Wallace is known for having great success at superspeedways such as Daytona and Talladega. At Daytona in February 2003, Wallace recorded three Top 10's in three days in three different Series and with three different manufacturers: 6th place in the Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, 4th place in the GEICO Pontiac in the NASCAR Busch Series race and 9th place in the Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts Dodge in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race. Wallace also recorded a win at the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway and went on to record two more wins at the historic 2.5-mile tri-oval, including an ARCA win. More notably, on July 2, 2004, Wallace went from fifth to first on the final lap in the Winn-Dixie 250 and passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jason Leffler coming out of Turn 4 to hand GEICO their first NASCAR Busch Series victory since they became involved in the sport in 2001. It was also Wallace's first NASCAR Busch Series victory at the legendary superspeedway. Wallace has over 300 short track wins, while also recording wins in the ARCA Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In Cup, he has 8 career Top 10's and a career high finish of 2nd at Phoenix. In 2007, Wallace had his best career finish in Busch Series points, netting 11th place in the standings after a season behind the wheel of the #7 GEICO Chevrolet. In 2008, Wallace made his 600th NASCAR career start behind the wheel of the #7 GEICO Camry fielded by NASCAR champs Germain Racing. Wallace was reunited with Mike Hillman Sr. and many other faces from his days in NASCAR's top three racing series. Wallace first raced in NASCAR's #2 series in 1990 and has been a fixture in that circuit every year since. He has 295 starts in NASCAR's #2 series. When he fired up the #7 Camry to take the green flag in April 2008 at Texas Motor Speedway, Wallace joined a short list of NASCAR racers with more than 600 races to their credit. Before he added that milestone to his resume, Wallace first hit 300 starts in NASCAR's #2 series in March at Bristol Motor Speedway. In 2005 Mike returned to the Truck Series briefly for Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, finishing in the top-nine twice. He drove for a variety of different teams in the Busch Series, including Akins Motorsports, Rusty Wallace, Inc. and Evernham Motorsports. In 2006 Mike continued running the Phoenix's Cup car. Miccosukee Resorts Dodge also signed Wallace to be their full-time driver for the remainder of 2006, to replace Jason Keller, and has had three top- five finishes In 2007, Mike began piloting the #7 GEICO Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing. His teammate was J. J. Yeley, who raced the #1 Miccosukee Indian Gaming Chevrolet. Wallace qualified for the 2007 Daytona 500 by a few inches during the Gatorade Duels race. He finished 4th place in the Daytona 500, racing unscathed through a last lap incident that took out several cars in front of him. The 2009 season opener saw Mike in Daytona Beach, Florida at the Daytona 500 racing the #71 TRG Motorsport Chevrolet (affiliated with Richard Childress Racing), where he raced to a respectable 13th in 2nd Gatorade Dual Race. A handful of Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series drivers are also scheduled to be in attendance for the 23rd Annual Motorsports Expo '08 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, with the current list headed by Big-Block Modified standouts Gary Tomkins, Jimmy Phelps, Dale Planck and Ryan Phelps. Each of these drivers will be on site Saturday, March 14 at 3pm for a special autograph session that also offers plenty of photo opportunities. They will be available to answer questions and reveal their race plans for the upcoming season, with Tomkins and Jimmy Phelps also discussing their recent trips around the world to Australia and Planck detailing his own journey south to Volusia Speedway Park in Florida for the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals By UNOH. |
Last Updated on 03/09/09
By George Campbell or Greg Fish
Email: neracing@neracing.com