Notes: Metal fence post wins scuffle with Wallace

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Rusty Wallace thought 2008 would bring a whole new era to his Nationwide Series race team, with new cars, new engineers, a new engine program and a newly renamed sponsor.

He didn't count on his lead driver, son Steve Wallace, misjudging his brakes while driving onto Daytona International Speedway to make a mock qualifying run; but the result -- an accident -- was something that eliminated the younger Wallace from no less than seven races last season, while affecting numerous other outcomes.

Steve Wallace was able to bend the fence post, but not break it.

"It was the oddest mistake by me," Steve Wallace said. "I had been out there drafting all day long and we went to do a qualifying run, and like everybody knows, you pull the brakes back for qualifying [pulling the brake pads away from the rotors to keep from losing momentum via friction].

"It usually takes four or five pumps on the [brake] pedal to build the pedal back up so the car can stop, and I just honestly forgot the damned brakes were pulled back, I went around the corner a little fast and went to hit the brakes -- the pedal went to the floor and there was nothing I could do about it.

"I hate it and I'm sorry about the gate, but it's just an honest mistake by me. Like I told my dad, it's the same as if you run up to your driveway going about 30 miles an hour, you go to put your brakes on and there's nothing there. You run your mailbox over -- it's the same type of deal.

"There comes a time when you do the most embarrassing stuff you thought you could do in your life, and [Monday] was it. I went to hit the brake pedal and it went to the floor -- that's all I can say."

The bad thing about the accident, which occurred when Wallace attempted to negotiate the corner through a fenced gate from the area behind pit road that leads across a 20-foot space behind the pit wall and onto pit road, was that it destroyed the nose of the No. 66R Chevrolet, when it struck a 4-inch diameter metal fence post anchored in concrete.

The good thing was, Wallace said his new crew chief, former Busch Series champion Harold Holly, would have "probably taken the car home and cut the nose off it, anyway, and put some more kick-out in it, trying to make it better."

The bottom line was, before he crashed it, Wallace's car was fifth-overall among the 40 drivers who've made single-car runs in Nationwide Series Preseason Thunder; and it was fourth-quickest on the Monday afternoon drafting sheet.

The car was loaded onto a flatbed, covered with a tarpaulin and removed from the speedway. Wallace said he would continue to concentrate on single-car runs Tuesday with his No. 66W, which made no laps Monday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the elder Wallace had been planning to make some laps in David Stremme's No. 64 Chevy, a twin to Steve Wallace's car that had been slower the first two days of the test. The former Cup Series champion, who'll continue his parallel career as an ESPN TV analyst, made those laps at the end of the day.

Fast Nationwide men

Cale Gale in the No. 77B Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet was the fastest in the morning session of single-car runs at Daytona with a lap in 49.812 seconds, an average speed of 180.679 mph and the fastest by a Nationwide car this winter. Erik Darnell -- who's tested both the Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 and 17 Fords -- was the fastest in the afternoon drafting session with a lap in 48.716 seconds, 184.744 mph, in the No. 17A Fusion. (speeds)

Nationwide testing ends Tuesday. (Continued)