Mike Wallace and No. 01 I Hate Steven Singer Chevrolet suffer suspension problem in Dover
GAFFNEY, S.C. (October 1, 2011) – Mike Wallace and the No. 01 I Hate Steven Singer.com Chevrolet team of JD Motorsports were hoping for a better finish with their new sponsor debut at Dover International Speedway for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday.
When the one and only practice session was completed on Friday afternoon, Wallace and team were listed 22ndon the scoring chart. They backed that up for the qualifying session on Saturday when they wound up 21st on the starting grid.
The team doesn’t really hate Steven Singer (IHateStevenSinger.com), they actually like them quite a bit since the multiple-award winning jeweler out ofPhiladelphia signed on as primary sponsor for five of the final six races this season.
Once the 200-lap race started, Wallace jumped into the top-20 and that is where he remained for the first 30 laps. He then started to move up towards the top-15 and was having a solid run going in his red No. 01 Chevrolet.
When the third caution waved on lap 80, the team was in good enough position to remain out and lead a lap to gain an ever-valuable bonus point. He would hit pit road before the race restarted to remain on the lead lap.
Still having a good run at the halfway point, Wallace and the JD Motorsports team were maintaining their position and trying to remain on that lead lap. However, a lack of cautions caused the field to get strung out with less than 20 cars now on the lead lap.
Just as the race passed the lap 150 mark, Wallace started to have handling problems. After radioing to the crew what was going on, he held on for as long as he could before hitting pit road.
During the stop, it was discovered there was a broken bracket on the track bar. This prevented the No. 01 I Hate Steven Singer.com Chevrolet from continuing any further in the race. So, at the lap 164 mark, they were deemed officially out of the race with a very much undeserving 29th-place finish.
In regards to the driver’s standings, Wallace remains 13th in points, but is now down 27 markers to 12th place. The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to action this coming weekend atKansas Speedway.
Note: Mike’s daughter, Chrissy, and the family found out she won the ASA West Region Championship among track memberships last Thursday night. She had already won the ASA Late Model championship at Lebanon I-44 Speedway in September. This was historic on both fronts because she is the first female to ever earn the honors. Chrissy also finished third in the overall ASA National Championship.
Mike Wallace Quotes: “We started out pretty decent in practice and liked how we were handling off the truck here at Dover. For qualifying, we backed up what we did in practice to start at mid-pack on Saturday.”
“We were holding our own, maintaining a lead lap status and were even in position to lead a lap there and gain a bonus point. Then, we found out the bracket broke on our track bar and we couldn’t get it fixed in time to get back out.” “I hate when a mechanical thing like that ends our day early, I really do. We had a top-10 here in the spring and there was no reason we couldn’t have at least had a top-15 this weekend. But, we weren’t able to finish and show what we had here at Dover.”
“The folks at Steven Singer Jewelers are great and I can’t thank them enough for coming on board for the rest of the season, I just wish we had a better run for them today. We’ll load up and go get ‘em in Kansas.”
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