"The Fans" are going to sponsor Kenny Wallace's Nationwide Series entry in a couple months when NASCAR's No. 2 national tour goes to Canada for its third annual visit.

For a minimum of 20 bucks, you too can get your name on owner Jay Robinson's No. 28 Chevrolet -- the owner has guaranteed it, Wallace says.

More than 3,500 people have already pitched-in -- including one woman who "came into some money" and donated $10,000 because Wallace is upbeat and makes her happy.

Wallace swears it's a one-time deal, ignited by a fan in Alabama, Jim Ryan. Wallace didn't even want to do it, and after the suggestion first appeared on his Facebook page "I spent six weeks trying to make it go away," Wallace said last weekend in New Hampshire.

"I really didn't want to do it, I didn't want to look bad for doing it," Wallace swore. "But the people wouldn't let it go away. They really wanted me to do it. It was their idea."

And despite the generally bogus nature of the many previous attempts at fan-backed cars -- and Wallace's hesitance to go that route on account -- he was finally compelled to let the tide take its course.

And he can't believe with a little less than a month to go before the July 31 deadline Wallace set in order to get in a road course test and finalize the car's graphic design, that he's well over halfway to the sizeable goal he set when the project began.

But he's bluntly aware of why he's in this position, too.

Sometimes -- more often than not in racing -- moments of searing pain have a profound impact on future decisions.

And we're not just talking about the pain of broken bones here -- though that would surely get your attention. This is a violent business we're dealing with, but even at that, sometimes there's no anguish greater than mental.

Just ask Wallace about Montreal 2008, when a complicated deal between three car owners resulted in one of the most shocking things Wallace said he's ever seen behind the wheel of a race car.

It's the deal that's ultimately put him in the position he hesitantly got into. He hesitated, but more than anything Wallace is a racer, so raising enough sponsorship "to do the race the right way," which would be testing and having enough tires to practice and race all-out, stripped away his reluctance.

“

We've got a lot of passionate Canadian fans, so I put up a post -- a feeler -- to see if there was any corporate interest up in Canada for doing anything with the race in Montreal. Several people suggested doing a fan's car. We were trying to keep it on the down-low; I didn't want to get embarrassed.

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-- KENNY WALLACE

That wasn't the case a year ago. As Wallace rolled off pit road to begin the pace laps for the second annual Nationwide Series road race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, he looked at his No. 28 Chevrolet's pit stall and all he saw was his wife Kim, tears filling her eyes as she sat, alone, on the Jay Robinson Racing pit box.

There wasn't another soul there.

"I was stunned -- I thought, 'is this what my career's come to?'" Wallace recalled recently. "I had no pit crew, because my car owner had a deal with James Finch, who was running Landon Cassill for Rick Hendrick, and they had to pit Landon's car first, then come and pit mine on another lap.

"We had no tires to practice or really, to race. The car wasn't wired for a windshield wiper. When it started raining, I had to drive over next to the guard rail because I couldn't see. That's how I managed to find my way back to the pits and I had to pull out of the race because I couldn't see."

"I said, right then and there, that I would never let that happen again," Wallace said. "I told the team I'd get the sponsorship to do the race in Canada."

Wallace has continually sworn there's no one better than his car owner at formulating a budget for his race teams and then staying within it. Robinson's a rarity at his level, a racer who won't go into debt to race.

But when Wallace's car's sponsor, the U.S. Border Patrol, couldn't participate in the event that's obviously way north of the border; and without the sponsorship money, Robinson couldn't properly field the car, it left Wallace biting his lip and his wife in tears.

And so 2009 rolled in and finding sponsorship is obviously easier said than done. But while he's spent decades developing his racing career, Wallace has also taken pains to stay media savvy -- and for him that means cultivating a presence on Facebook and Twitter, which fans can reach from kennywallace.com.

"We've got a lot of passionate Canadian fans, so I put up a post -- a feeler -- to see if there was any corporate interest up in Canada for doing anything with the race in Montreal," Wallace said. "Several people suggested doing a fan's car, but one of them, Jim Ryan, stood out. We were trying to keep it on the down-low; I didn't want to get embarrassed.

"But the people have stepped-up. I'm going to be part of NASCAR's press conference at Daytona with Carl Edwards, promoting the race. The race track up in Montreal was so excited about it; they've set up a meet-and-greet at the track for everyone who's sponsored the car who's up there."

Wallace is one garage rat who generally operates at a fairly high RPM level, but the support he's seeing with his latest crusade has added a few hundred revs to his personal tachometer.

"I'll tell you, only a therapist could get some of the stuff out of me that I felt after that deal in Montreal last year -- it was devastating," Wallace said. "That's no knock on Jay, because he's an incredible car owner. He budgets everything, he's months ahead on that and the car has to support itself.

"A week after Montreal, we had a beautiful U.S. Border Patrol car at Watkins Glen, ran pretty well and nearly got a top-20 out of it. I can't get over the way that people are stepping up to make this happen for us. But even so, this is a one-time deal only -- I just couldn't do it again."

But at least for one priceless time, when the pain just overwhelmed him, Wallace decided he'd let the fans' support heal him.

When a bonus isn't

If you think Chase-contending drivers aren't thinking about, and racing pretty hard for the 10 bonus points NASCAR awards each Chase qualifier for a regular season victory, think again. It was a hoot to hear second place Jeff Gordon and third place Kurt Busch -- who are both solidly in the Chase -- rationalize first-time Cup winner Joey Logano "stealing" their bonus.

"We had a fast car [Sunday], that's the big picture for us -- we look strong heading into this [Chase kickoff] race in September [and] that's the best that we can take out of it," Busch said. "Yeah, 10 [bonus] points -- [Gordon] didn't get them, I didn't get them, so I call them a wash and we'll come back here and race in September."

"I agree with Kurt," Gordon said. "I'm disappointed we didn't get the 10 bonus points because we had a great shot at it with a great run, but it's a bit of a wash, because at least nobody else that we are racing right now in the championship or in the top 12 or 14 got them, either. So, yeah, it's like nobody got 10 bonus points, kind of."

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Loudon was pleasant if you were looking for Busch to get back on track, which he did in the Nationwide Series, and the bonus was his penitence after his starring role in the first race-altering pig-pile spawned by a double-file restart; and even though he's still a race behind last year's pace, he can still eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck).

He had race victories in the next two weekends, Daytona and Chicagoland, a year ago; so coming into the mid-summer uncertainty that's Daytona he's at 10 down and 12 to go. His 2008 win total this weekend was 11; so he's got four-non-commuter shots to hit pay dirt the next two weeks.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.