Wallace much more than just another face on TV

Call him TV Guy one more time, and Kenny Wallace might come across the table.

When he participated in this past Saturday's Nationwide race at Richmond International Raceway, Wallace made his 800th career start in NASCAR's three national series. To put that in perspective, Mark Martin recently reached the 1,000 combined career starts plateau. And in the history of the sport, there have been a total of 3,821 drivers in all three national NASCAR series. Wallace now ranks 17th in combined national series starts.

So he considers himself first and foremost a racer. Forget that TV stuff, even though he does not doubt it has raised his public profile dramatically since he started doing a pre-race Cup show for SPEED several years ago. Wallace talked about all this and more at RIR this past weekend.

Sound Off

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Q: So you just made your 800th start in NASCAR's top three touring series, but something is bugging you. What is it?

Wallace: I hate it when people come up to me and say, 'Hey, you're that TV guy.' They say I'm on TV all the time. Well, there are seven days in the week and almost all of that time I'm working on something to do with my race team. I'm only on television two hours a week. Two hours out of all the hours that make up the seven days in the week! I don't like being known as a TV guy.

Q: But it has opened doors for you, hasn't it?

Wallace: I mean, I know everything about NASCAR because I was born and raised in it. I know everything about the sport. My brother Rusty tried to help me out. He said, 'Herm, I know you don't like being known as a TV guy -- but man, when you're on the race track everyone has a helmet on and no one sees your face. When you're on TV, there you are.' So he helped me feel better about it.

But it's been an Achilles' heel of mine. Did anyone watch the Prelude to the Dream? That's what I'm about. I'm a hard-core racer. TV has just been really, really good for me. It's a sponsor's dream. ... People want to sell product -- and you've either gotta win races, or if you can't win races, you've gotta figure out how to sell their product. So TV has helped me do that. It has helped me extend my career [as a driver].

• Note: Wallace finished third in the Prelude to the Dream after leading the first 12 laps. (read more)

Q: And yet there is a part of it that really eats away at you?

Wallace: Yeah, I hate it. I hate it when people come up and tell me I'm a TV guy. I want to punch 'em out. But I won't. (Continued)