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FIRST AND FOREMOST: Talent Puts Wallace In History Books & Looking For More
D4D rookie chasing Truex and K&N Pro Series East championshipThe formula for judging talent, according to Andy Santerre, is a simple one. No complex algebraic equations necessary, no computer simulations crunching numbers the way "Moneyball" czar Bill James would have you believe to be paramount.
"I look at how fast they go," said Santerre, the competition director for Revolution Racing and NASCAR's Max Siegel-headed Drive For Diversity program.
Santerre ought to know. He's a four-time champion of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East as a driver, and since stepping out of the seat he's worked at developing some of the sport's brightest young talent -- including Austin Dillon, Brett Moffitt and Sean Caisse. And now, Santerre oversees another rising star at Revolution Racing in Darrell Wallace Jr.
"If (a young driver) can get in and can go fast at any track, short track or speedway, that's a big thing," Santerre said. "Some drivers can run third-mile race tracks but really can't run (well) on a mile track.
"I look at speed -- and Darrell can run anywhere."
Wallace enters the final three races of the season -- including Saturday's American Fence Association 150 at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga. -- just 33 points behind defending series champion Ryan Truex. He's a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, and he's the D4D program's best shot yet at a NASCAR championship with five Top-5s and six Top-10s in seven races.
Wallace has two wins already this year, book-ending his 2010 efforts thus far with a win in the season-opener at Greenville Pickens Speedway and a trip to victory lane in the most recent race at Lee (N.H.) USA Speedway last month. He's won on the series' shortest track at Lee USA, finished on the podium at it's largest facilities in New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway and been in the running for a win at the Lime Rock Park road course.
For a graduate of Legend car racing and weekly Late Model racing, the Mobile, Ala., native is on an accelerated learning curve in NASCAR.
| POS | DRIVER | WINS | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Truex | 1 | 1156 |
| 2 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | 2 | 1123 |
| 3 | Brett Moffitt | 1 | 1056 |
| 4 | Cole Whitt | 0 | 1000 |
| 5 | Max Gresham | 2 | 961 |
| COMPLETE STANDINGS |
"That's what everybody says. I can't really say," Wallace said of his quick adaptation to the bulky stock cars and myriad tracks of the K&N Series. "I try and look back on (the year), and I've had to come back a lot and use my head. That is how you learn so much, though. With so many cars to watch around you, there's so many things that can happen on the track.
"Patience is key in racing. I've been learning that."
Interestingly enough, patience wasn't necessarily part of the 16-year-old Wallace's vocabulary even when he became the first African-American to win a K&N Pro Series race at Greenville back in March.
In fact, Santerre and Robert Huffman -- crew chief on the No. 6 Chevrolet that Wallace drives -- pulled Wallace aside after that victory and offered some pointed advice.
"The first race or two, he was really aggressive," Santerre said, chalking it up to Wallace's short-track, short-distance racing roots. "He won the first race, but knocked the sides off it, beat fenders off the car to do it. Robert Huffman's his crew chief, and he's been around this sport a long time, Robert and I preach same things to him.
"Robert's been really instrumental in calming him down -- teaching him how to keep the fenders on and race for the win."
Part of it goes back to how Santerre judges talent in young drivers.
"A lot of what we look at is just car control, how they hit their marks and how they handle the car," Santerre said. "If you're hanging it sideways in every corner and sliding around -- even if you're going fast doing that, I'm not really impressed."
It's not been an easy season for Wallace, not by any stretch of the imagination. In three of the seven races, engine or tire issues have negated Top-5 qualifying runs and forced Wallace to start at the rear of the field. In the race at Lee USA, Wallace started up front and ran there for most of the first half of the 125-lap event -- only to be caught up in a pileup when the leaders got together off Turn 2.
He pitted for repairs, restarted deep in the pack and rallied to pull off a jaw-dropping pass for the win on the final restart.
"I'm not surprised," Santerre said. "I knew he was very talented. In the (Drive For Diversity) combine last year, he was the top dog. Every test we gave the drivers, he was at the top of the charts. It's no surprise. He's got a lot of talent. He's really gifted. I think he's got a good career ahead of him."
People will get a closer look at that D4D process this year for the first time, when the BET cable network debuts "Changing Lanes" -- a reality show documenting the combine competition and academy-style training -- on Sept. 1. Wallace promised plenty of "drama," noting that a reality television series would be "nothing without plenty of drama."
Initially, Wallace actually declined the offer to participate in D4D this year after having lukewarm reactions to the process in 2009. But when he and his father saw that for the first time this year the program would be run under one banner for one team -- Revolution Racing -- Wallace had a change of heart.
"With Joe Gibbs -- they win like 90 percent of Nationwide races, and obviously I went into that knowing that I was going to be stout in their equipment," Wallace said. "But at the same time, there was only the chance to run six races with them because they couldn't find a sponsor and it's hard to find sponsorship out there this year.
"We definitely wanted to go with the 10-race deal (for Revolution Racing) -- it's more seat time, more publicity, more time to go out and try and get wins. I've still tested a lot with Gibbs, and they're stuff is good. They're beating us in terms of the equipment they have, but it's hard to beat a guy like Andy Santerre. He's just so good at doing this."
| RACE | START | FINISH |
|---|---|---|
| Greenville Pickens | 7 | 1 |
| South Boston | 3 | 20 |
| Iowa* | 5 | 3 |
| Martinsville* | 5 | 3 |
| New Hampshire* | 12 | 3 |
| Lime Rock | 17 | 6 |
| Lee USA | 4 | 1 |
| * started in back of field |
Wallace, like Revolution teammates Ryan Gifford, Sergio Pena and McKenna Bell, has benefited. And now Wallace has a legitimate shot at the series championship. Talent still means something in this garage.
"I'm going out there and giving it all I've got," Wallace said. "My team knows that. I'm so proud of all these guys and how hard they've worked."
That hard work has put Wallace in position to make more history -- though he's reticent to put that history into perspective. He noted he hadn't even known that he was the first African-American to win a series race until his father told him, and he was succinct in his appraisal of what becoming an African-American NASCAR champion would mean not only to him, but to the sport on the whole.
"I really don't know how to answer that," Wallace said. "I don't think I'm the one who can say, to be honest."
Instead, he'll let his actions to the talking for him -- one of only two repeat winners on the East series this season, and standing in Victory Lane at Lee he promptly pronounced that he fully intended to make a charge at Truex's perch at the top.
Santerre said that this weekend at Gresham marks the "biggest race of his career."
AMERICAN FENCE ASSOCIATION 150: NEWS & NOTES | STATISTICAL ADVANCE
"You could say so, but I really don't want to jinx it," Wallace countered. "I'm hoping to run good and everything, but we just have to see what happens. Honestly, I think Dover's (season finale in September) is going to be the ticket.
"I don't want to go into it saying I'm going to win or wreck or anything like that. Any of these next three races are going to be the biggest ones for me, depending on what happens. We'll just have to wait and see."
In the meantime, NASCAR and the world at large will be waiting to see what happens, too.
"People who don't know racing, hopefully they see how women and minorities bring a new face into NASCAR," Wallace said. "That's the main goal of this program, to bring more fans to this. Let's face it – it’s always been predominately a white sport.
"We've got to change that up."
Darrell Wallace Jr. (6) has driven into contention for the 2010 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship with three races remaining. Getty Images
