Darrell Wallace Jr. wins at Martinsville in Wendell Scott tribute truck
Oct. 25, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
MARTINSVILLE,
Va.— Driving a No. 34 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota painted and
numbered as a tribute to NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Wendell Scott—and
with Scott’s family in
attendance at Martinsville Speedway—polesitter Darrell Wallace Jr. held
off Timothy Peters to win Saturday’s Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World
Truck Series race.
Last
year at Martinsville, driving the No. 54 KBM Tundra, Wallace became the
first African-American driver to win a race in one of NASCAR’s top three
touring series since Scott
accomplished the feat in what is now the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on
Dec. 1, 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla.
Though
his number was changed to 34 on Saturday, in honor of Scott’s
traditional car number, the result was the same for Wallace, who grabbed
the lead from Johnny Sauter in
heavy traffic on Lap 188 of 200, moments before the record 11th caution
slowed the race.
Wallace
pulled away after a restart with six laps left and beat Peters to the
finish line by .495 seconds. Peters had bumped Sauter out of the way in
the closing laps, also
opening the door for reigning series champion Matt Crafton, who came
home third and extended his series lead to 18 points over fifth-place
finisher Ryan Blaney.
“I
wasn't worried about anybody, honestly,” Wallace said. “They kept
telling me where everybody was, and I said I didn't care. It's our
weekend and we're going to come out
and take this (grandfather) clock (trophy) home with us and we just did
that.
“That
was so fun. Martinsville is my favorite place to come to. Without the
support of NASCAR and Toyota… the whole Wendell Scott family is here and
this is a special moment,
just a perfect weekend for us. It's a true honor to have Wendell Scott
on our Toyota Tundra and to be able to put it in Victory Lane. I know
he (Scott) just said up there, 'Hell yeah.' This is cool.”
Wallace said Saturday’s win surpassed his first victory in the series at Martinsville a year ago.
“It
means a lot--I know I had a guardian angel looking over me this
weekend,” said Wallace, who took over third place in the series
standings, 22 points behind Crafton. “To
be able to put it in Victory Lane, you couldn't ask for a better
weekend. You thought last year was special, but this definitely beats
it.”
Upset
with what he deemed roughhouse tactics from Peters, Sauter attempt to
confront the runner-up on pit road after the race, but NASCAR officials
and crew members kept the
drivers apart.
“It’s
Martinsville,” Peters said. “If you’re going to dish it out, you’re
going to need to be able to take it. Did I mean to run into him? Yeah.
I’m not going to deny that—maybe
not as hard.
“But it is what it is. I don’t want to waste too much of my breath on that. We’ll just focus on how well we ran today…”
Wallace
led 97 of the 200 laps. Second was the pace car, which was out front
for a record 71 laps during a race that featured more rookies than
veterans and six drivers competing
in the series for the first time.
Erik
Jones ran fourth, followed by Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Sauter, Matt Tifft
(a UNC-Charlotte freshman making his first start) Alex Guenette and
German Quiroga, whose ill-fated
attempt to take the lead in heavy traffic on Lap 188 caused his No. 77
Toyota to spin and brought out the 11th caution, solidifying Wallace in
the lead.
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