Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR
As a result of his fifth place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darrell Wallace Jr. is set to chase after a bonus $100,000 due to qualifying for the Dash for Cash. If Wallace can finish in front of Regan Smith, Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez, he will win the bonus and be eligible for the bonus million later on this season.
“It is exciting,” Wallace said. “More money is always good. We enjoy that but we have to be smart about it. It is a race within a race and will be exciting to see. It is cool to be a part of the XFINITY Series and for them to bring back the Dash for Cash from last year is something cool and I am glad I get to experience it. We have to be smart and get a little more speed and Ty (Dillon) is right there on top of the board. I didn’t like that too much. We have to do some work but we found our flaw. We will be okay. We will have some fun tomorrow, but we have to remember we are points racing too.”
Wallace has made one previous start at Dover, finishing 12th. He also ran a pair of truck series races, winning a pole and scoring a best finish of 10th.
“I love this place,” he stated. “I told the guys it is a little more frustrating when we can’t get speed early in practice when it is your favorite place. We had a right front flat. That is hard to chase and you don’t really know until you pull into the pits. This is the number one place that I want to get a win. I got one here in the K&N Series four years ago and the time is due. We have to do our work and be smart for tomorrow.”
Wallace has been having a solid season thus far, currently sitting fourth in points with four top-10 finishes on the season. While he is near the top of the standings, he stated on Friday that he hates points racing.
“Every time I think about it we blow a right front, get in a wreck, blow a motor or something,” he added. “I just go out there and run every race like it is a local Saturday night race and try to have fun while we are doing it.”
Given his success in both truck and XFINITY, there are some questioning when he will start racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Wallace commented on Friday that is not in the cards right now as they’re solely focused on XFINITY and “trying to get our stuff turned around”, in growing the team to contend up front on a weekly basis. The past two weeks he has done just that, posting a sixth and a fifth place finish. He hopes that positive momentum results in a good finish at his favorite place this weekend.
