Bold move on late restart gives rookie second East win
Read the lap-by-lap on NASCAR Home Tracks.
Darrell Wallace Jr. made a three-wide pass for the lead with two laps to go and held on for the victory Friday in the K&N Pro Series 125 at Lee USA Speedway. It was the second NASCAR K&N Pro Series East win of the season for the 16-year-old Revolution Racing driver from Mobile, Ala.
“It definitely hit us right away this time,” said Wallace. “I’m excited, the whole team is excited. I was talking to the crew under the red flag and I told them [the leaders] are going to wash it up and I’m going to go under them and take the win and that’s exactly what happened.”
Wallace started behind Ryan Truex and Eddie MacDonald on the race’s final restart. Truex and MacDonald had swapped the lead four times over the previous 35 laps, and appeared setting up for a final dash to the checkers for the win. But it was Wallace who had drove up through the field after getting tangled up in an early race incident and wound up stealing the spotlight. He dove inside the side-by-side leaders going into Turn 3, and emerged with the lead coming out of Turn 4 for his second win of the season.
Wallace became the youngest driver and first African American race winner in NASCAR K&N Pro Series East history when he won the season opener at Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway in March.
Wallace, second in points, closed the gap on defending series champion Truex to 33 points with three races remaining.
Marc Davis returned to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East this weekend for the first time since 2008. He finished eighth at Lee USA Speedway in the No. 8 Revolution Racing Chevrolet.
“I was really appreciative of Max Siegel and everybody at Revolution for putting me in the car this week,” said Davis, who is eyeing a return to the Nationwide Series at Dover in September. “These guys needed a good run. They’ve struggled the past couple weeks. Just had a bunch of bad luck. So they put me in the car for this one race, and we came away with a solid top ten.”
Sergio Pena carried a special paint-scheme this weekend, promoting the upcoming docu-reality series “Changing Lanes,” which premieres on BET Network September 1. Pena drove the No. 4 Changing Lanes Chevrolet to a 15th-place finish at Lee USA Speedway Friday night, despite damage from a mid-race incident. Pena is currently 12th in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings.
Ryan Gifford saw his night come to an early end at Lee USA Speedway after getting caught up in multiple on-track incidents. The final blow to the No. 2 Revolution Racing Chevrolet came at lap 116 when front end damage sent the No. 2 machine to the garage. Gifford was credited with a 19th-place finish. He slips to eighth in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series standings, but is just 26 points out of fifth-place.
The K&N Pro Series 125 will air on SPEED on Thursday, Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will return to the track on Saturday, Aug. 28 at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga.
Back to News