Kenny Wallace wins, Harvick clinches

By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
November 5, 2001
2:39 PM EST (1939 GMT)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Kenny Wallace is on a roll as of late and Kevin Harvick has his first NASCAR crown.

The win is Wallace's first in the Busch Series since 1996.

Wallace led the most important lap -- the last one -- to win the NASCAR Busch Series Sam’s Club 200 at North Carolina Speedway on Saturday.

Wallace’s win seemed unlikely with five laps to go. Jeff Green dominated the race by leading 121 of the 197 laps.

Harvick clinches title  Sam's Club 200 Results  Video: Wallace wins  Video: Harvick clinches  Video: J. Green led at halfway  Johnny Sauter strong at the Rock  Kenseth's crew wins challenge  Driver Standings  Harvick's 2001 stats  Video: Harvick celebrates

With five laps to go, Johnny Sauter and Jimmie Johnson made contact in Turn 2 and collected Todd Bodine to bring out the caution.

NASCAR officials, not wanting to end the race under yellow, threw out the red flag at lap 193. When the yellow flag was displayed, all drivers on the lead lap opted to pit for tires and fuel -- all except Green.

The green flag dropped for the restart with Green leading Wallace with one lap to go, but Green ran out of fuel on the restart. Wallace easily completed the final lap and took the victory, and Harvick clinched the championship with his fifth-place finish as Green limped across the line ninth.

“I told my crew chief that we needed to take four tires on that last stop because the worst we could finish was ninth,” Wallace said. “As I was coming down pit lane I told the crew to ‘make me thank you in Victory Lane for the great pit stop you are about to give me.’

“I would really like to thank George deBidart, the owner of this team. He has struggled for two years, missed a race last year and finished way down in the points.

“This crew has been practicing pit stops every week and it finally paid off. I got lucky on that last stop when Green didn’t pit.”

Another driver who benefited from Green’s fuel miscalculation was Matt Kenseth. He brought the No. 17 Chevrolet across second and was followed by Mike McLaughlin, Jason Keller and Harvick to round out the top five. finishers.

Rounding out the top 10 was David Green, Ryan Newman, Hank Parker Jr., Jeff Green and Elton Sawyer.

Jeff Green

Jeff Green felt that NASCAR cost him a win with the lengthy restart after the last caution. The field was shown one to go with three laps left for the restart, but the field circled the track one more time because there was a tow truck on the track.

“We beat 42 of these guys out here today,” Green said. “We just couldn’t beat NASCAR. They lost it for us.

“They said one lap to go there on the red flag, but why red flag it anyway-you’ve only got three laps to go. They said one to go and everybody pitted but me.”

“I don’t know what was going on that last restart,” Kenseth said. “The pace car was going really slow and it was kind of confusing. But, we got second and after some of the bad luck we’ve had this year, we’ll take it.”

This was Wallace’s ninth career Busch Series victory and first since 1996 at Richmond. He is unofficially 10th in the standings with one race to go.

Wallace, known for his wit, didn’t disappoint the frontstretch crowd that cheered him for his victory. After taking the checkered flag, Wallace parked his car on the start/finish line, jumped out of the car and saluted the crowd.

“All these other guys go out and do burnouts, blow their engines and flatten their tires when they win,” Wallace said. “What I did was my way of saluting Dale Earnhardt. He didn’t like that burnout (stuff) either.

“He gave me my first Busch ride in the late 1988 and I never forgot that. So, I just got out of the car and thanked the fans for coming to the show.”