Late-season move to Davis helped K. Wallace

Veteran, crew chief ready to shed 'journeyman' label

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kenny Wallace's laugh explodes unannounced, a sound that ranges from a peal to a screech. It's a familiar addition to the Winston Cup noise catalog, and it may ring out more often this season.

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Not only is Wallace driving Bill Davis Racing's No. 23 Dodge, but he's scheduled for the full 36-race calendar, knows sponsor money is in the bank, and is surrounded by a fully-staffed team that includes defending Daytona 500 champion Ward Burton.

For once, Wallace needs no midseason contingency plans.

"If you don't have a sponsor, you don't race on Sunday," he said. "And now Bill Davis has given me everything that I've dreamed of, and now I'm going to put that to good use."

His first attempt came during Monday's rain-delayed qualifying. Wallace ranked 27th, one spot below older brother Mike. He'll start 14th in the first of Thursday's two 125-mile qualifying races, and hopes to improve his position for Sunday's Daytona 500.

He's already done that for the season. The 39-year-old veteran knows what it's like to chase the next paycheck, and with 10 fulltime seasons behind him, the BDR opportunity may be his last quality shot with a top-line team.

	Wallace has 264 Winston Cup starts, with two second-place finishes. SI.com:

So, he's taken to heart some long-ago advice from oldest brother Rusty.

"Put the numbers on the board," said Kenny Wallace. "That's all that matters, is put the numbers on the board."

The younger Wallace has had other full-time chances -- his rookie year with Felix Sabates (1993), three seasons with Filbert Martocci (1995-1997), and two with Andy Petree (1999-2000). But none of those efforts propelled driver or team to prominence.

"I think he has the best opportunity he's ever had right now," said Rusty Wallace. "I think he's got a real great team. They're going to have good cars, good engines, and a controlled atmosphere around him, and that's just what he needs."

Winless in Cup, Kenny Wallace's career-best points finish of 22nd came in 1999. His 264 races include six top-fives, 26 top-10s and three poles. Not having a breakout-caliber resume limited opportunities whenever he returned to the job pool, and until hooking up with Davis, he'd spent nearly two years as a Cup nomad, competing fulltime only in the Busch series.

After parting with Petree, Wallace finished the final three months of 2001 at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. after Steve Park suffered a head injury in a Busch series wreck at Darlington. Wallace stayed in the No. 1 car until Park returned last April, then Richard Childress had him sub for the suspended Kevin Harvick in the spring race at Martinsville.

Wallace drove a Cup car for fellow driver Michael Waltrip in the spring at Talladega. He also drove four Cup races for his Busch series owner, George Debidart, and the fall Talladega race for Petree.

He replaced Hut Stricklin in the No. 23 at the Southern 500 at Darlington, a mutually beneficial pairing. Davis wanted to make a change, and needed a sponsor to replace the outgoing Hills Brothers' Coffee. Wallace supplied his Busch series sponsor, Stacker 2, along with its goofy, high-energy commercials.

	Wallace joined Bill Davis Racing in September 2002. Credit: Autostock

"If I don't talk and I don't entertain, then we don't get on TV or we won't sell products," said Wallace of his wide-open personality. "That is another side of me. Roger Penske taught me that years and years ago."

Wallace and his crew chief, Phillipe Lopez, appear to be a good match, too. Both would love to shed journeyman labels, and both are hungry for their first wins.

Lopez, 40, began his Cup career in 1994, working 15 races with Ward Burton. Since then, he's worked with a number of teams, including Steve Park's fledgling 1998 team at DEI, Darrell Waltrip and owner Travis Carter's second team in 1999, and A.J. Foyt's re-entry into Cup ownership in 2000 and 2001.

"So many times when I first came to this team, I had people say, 'Is Phillipe still there?'" said Wallace. "And finally, I just asked somebody why. And they said, 'Well, his track record wasn't that good,' and I said, 'Yeah, but look at the teams he's been with.'"

"This is the first time I haven't had to go start up a team in a long time," said Lopez, who spent all of 2002 with the No. 23. "When I was at DEI, A.J.'s, Travis Carter's, I was always starting a team, and that takes so much away to just getting ready."

Both men got lucky at the end of 2002; they had a 10-race internship together.

"I can't imagine starting the year out without what we did there," said Wallace. "We learned so much. It made me feel like I've been with this team for a year."

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They started slow, qualifying mostly in the mid-30s; their best finish was 14th at Richmond, their second race. But an early November test at Kentucky put them in tune.

"Basically, it was a time for me and him to sit down, no pressure, we're not trying to cut a lap," said Lopez. "We're just seeing what he responds to and what I consider big changes. He was learning that."

Those lessons were immediate: Wallace qualified sixth at Phoenix and finished 11th. The next week, he started eighth in the season finale at Homestead and finished 23rd.

"It's helped us so much because I know what we had to go through those first five races, and I'm not going to have to deal with that for this year," said Lopez. "We're not going to lose one point because of it."

The high-octane Wallace calls Lopez, "very bright and very organized." Lopez admits Wallace is, "a riot to work for."

"I knew TV Kenny," said Lopez. "I never knew Kenny the person. Kenny the person's pretty cool."

They also speak the same chassis language. Lopez said Wallace is good at relaying a car's feel and what he thinks he needs. But Lopez won't hesitate to overrule.

"I'm very practical," said Lopez. "He says, 'Oh, I love that change,' and if that stopwatch isn't agreeing with him, that change is coming back out. We're not doing that. I don't care how comfortable that is. And he's got enough trust in me right now that that's working."

Wallace said he still agonizes over set-ups; hopes Lopez answers his cell phone at some ungodly hour.

"Or I'll run into the garage area, and he always has a piece of paper that he's written on his laptop and printed out -- 'There are the changes we're going to do,'" said Wallace. "So he puts me at peace. He never looks like a deer in headlights. Phillipe always has an idea and that makes me happy."