Motorsports

Mike Wallace wins wild one

By GREG AUMAN
Published July 3, 2004

DAYTONA BEACH - If for only one night, Mike Wallace wasn't the other brother.

One by one, more established drivers led down the stretch in Friday night's Winn-Dixie 250, and one by one, they knocked each other off until the unheralded Wallace emerged with a clear path to his first NASCAR Busch Series win in nearly a decade.

Wallace, who has raced 15 seasons in the shadows of brothers Rusty and Kenny, benefited from Jason Leffler, who cleared out three potential winners, including himself, in the final half-lap. "This was an underdog story," Wallace, 45, said. "It's a group of guys who won a race, and if you'd laid odds against us, we wouldn't have had a chance in heck. But we did. ... There's a lot of people who doubt me. But I won Daytona tonight, and I won against the best teams in the circuit. We just outran them."

Four other drivers led in the final nine laps but couldn't hold on. Robby Gordon led coming out of the fifth and final caution but quickly faded, giving way to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the previous three Busch races at Daytona and set the tone for much of the night.

Leffler effectively took three cars out of the lead on the final lap, first bumping Michael Waltrip from behind on the superstretch, knocking him into the infield.

Leffler led going into the final turns. But as Earnhardt made a move on the high side, Leffler did the same, cutting him off and putting his own car in the wall as well. He crossed the finish line second but was penalized one second by NASCAR for "overaggressive driving," a penalty that dropped him to 13th. "I just didn't want to give up," Leffler said. "It was nothing against (Earnhardt). Whoever was behind me, I was just trying to hold them off. It was an exciting finish, and that's what you get with restrictor-plate racing."

Earnhardt, who finished 17th, wasn't as pleased, openly questioning Leffler's driving.

"He just run us in the wall. Ain't no other way to put it," Earnhardt said. "He took us out, crashed us, wrecked us, whatever you want to call it. Tore my car and tore his car up, and it's disappointing."

One car Leffler didn't touch was driven by Wallace, who had a clear path at the bottom of the track and made the final turn uncontested.

Wallace's brother, Kenny, who finished 30th, was among the first to congratulate him.

"He knows I love this place a lot, and having him pull up and congratulate me. ... He didn't say anything but "Hey, brother, I love you. Great job. You kicked their butt tonight."' Mike Wallace said.

"That's what I took that to mean, and that was big to me." Wallace's three previous Busch wins came in 1994.

Greg Biffle took second, with Earnhardt's teammate, Martin Truex Jr., in third.

[Last modified July 3, 2004, 01:00:34]