Darrell Wallace Jr. discovered Saturday night that celebrating his first NASCAR victory differed greatly from how he envisioned it.
Don’t even bother asking him to digest the historical aspect of his victory in the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150, where Wallace became the NASCAR K&N East Series’ first African-American winner and its youngest victor at 16 years, five months and 19 days. Wallace’s win topped Brett Moffitt (16 years, 9 months, 27 days), who won at South Boston (Va.) Speedway last season.

“It hasn’t hit me, but soon it will,” said Wallace, a member of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. “It was a pretty crazy night. It was mainly saving tires, that’s what they were telling me in my ear all night. That’s what I did and I was able to come up with the win.”

Wallace started seventh at Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway in his series debut and led three times for 22 laps, gaining his final lead after passing Cole Whitt just after the last restart. Next were fellow rookie Andrew Smith, Jody Lavender, Whitt and Ryan Gifford, one of Wallace’s three D4D teammates at Revolution Racing. Read the rest on USAToday

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