Not often -- if ever -- in NASCAR's history has a speedway had a similar connection to a racing family as Gateway International Raceway has had with the Wallaces.

But the Wallace family's 13-year bond with Gateway, forged through three generations stretched across more than five decades, is about to disappear.

And Nationwide Series journeyman Kenny Wallace, with the help of his older brother, Nationwide team owner and former Cup champion Rusty Wallace, hopes they can go out near the top.

Dover Motorsports Inc., after working since 1997 to create a viable niche for NASCAR's second- and third-tier series, earlier this summer finally decided to pull the plug on the 1.25-mile oval.

Thus, Saturday's 5-Hour Energy 250 will be the final of 15 races that began as a mid-summer Busch Series inferno in July 1997 and ends in its latest slot ever -- four races from the end of the Nationwide schedule.

“

It seems like all the stars lined up for it not to work and it's a sad deal, because the potential was there.

”

-- KENNY WALLACE

This is the first time Gateway has had a second race on the No. 2 tour. But it came about because Memphis Motorsports Park, another Dover Motorsports facility in western Tennessee, was forced to drop its 2010 Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races from lack of fan interest.

Gateway is in the same position, but track vice president and general manager Terry Harmeson, who replaced hard-core promoter Lenny Batycki in November 2009, said that despite an uncertain future, the track is optimistic.

"We are totally focused on [this] weekend and we need to be," Harmeson said. "It's the last big, major race that we have. We do have some drag races after that, taking us through the end of the month.

"Beyond that, I haven't been directly involved but we have had some contacts for the potential sale of the track, so the future is a little bit unclear."

The Wallace family provided Gateway's NASCAR high-water mark in 2005 when the mid-summer event, tagged the "Wallace Family Tribute 250," drew a track-record crowd estimated at about 60,000.

"We went there that day [in 2005] as a family and there was 65,000 people," said family patriarch Russ Wallace. "Since then, there hasn't been 20,000 people."

But whatever happens this weekend for the Nationwide race, Harmeson admitted, it wasn't enough to clarify the track's future.

"Nothing's changed," Harmeson said of the announcement made mid-summer, when Dover Motorsports president and CEO Denis McGlynn said Gateway would not apply for 2011 race sanctions and that "every option for the facility would be explored," including its sale.

And so it causes great reflection this week for the Wallaces: Russ the father, who showed his sons how to race at a fiery level; Rusty, Mike and Kenny, who evolved his lessons to NASCAR's highest level; and Rusty's son Steve, who continues the family legacy alongside his uncles this weekend.

Not surprisingly, the "generation gap" accounts for some differences of opinion. But there's no question who's the most passionate. It's Kenny, for sure. But on a national racing scale, it was Rusty who got the ball rolling for the Wallaces.

Gateway International Raceway photo

The Wallace Family Tribute 250 included the dedication of a segment of grandstands to the track's favorite sons.

Rusty's Story

Rusty raced only once at Gateway, in the Wallace Family Tribute event, but that doesn't lessen his connection.

"We all grew up in St. Louis, but we've all moved out," Rusty said. "I lived there, but I was all over the country short-track racing, and I actually moved out of there fairly early, when I started racing in NASCAR in 1984.

"Kenny, on the other hand, left there and he's kept going back and re-rooting himself stronger than ever in St. Louis. He loves the Cardinals and he's real passionate about the area."

Rusty's passion for his family led him to provide a complete car to Kenny for the weekend. It's a Toyota that's very similar to the cars driven by Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan for Rusty Wallace Inc., with a top-line engine, full allotment of new tires, a veteran crew chief in Wes Ward and a "development" pit crew.

"Stephen ran real good the last time he was [at Gateway in July] and finished fifth, so we're going to send the same set-up and some guys to help to make sure the car's right. [Kenny] is going to run the whole race and we're going to try to give him a shot.

"Kenny's been in OK equipment, but I know he can run these cars in the top 10 every single weekend, easy. So I want to give him a shot to run up front in this last race in St. Louis. I'm personally so sick of seeing Kenny run around in equipment that doesn't match his talent. And with this sponsorship he has, he needs to get a top-five or top-10 finish, and I feel like he has the talent to do that."

Rusty will travel from Gateway, where he'll be a team owner while also fulfilling his television responsibilities, to Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race in Martinsville, Va.

"I've only raced on [Gateway] one time -- in 2005 -- so it's not like Bristol or Martinsville, tracks that I have a real passion for," Rusty said. "But I grew up there, and I care about the area I grew up in. They've named a section of the grandstand for us and that's real nice to see whenever you drive by there -- but there's a real emotional tie because this is our home."

For Wallace the team owner, there's also the tie provided by Michael Gaughan, his second driver's father who owns a riverfront casino and hotel complex where, Wallace said, all the teams stay.

"It hasn't really sunk in and it's really sad to me," Rusty said of the track's downfall. "I can't believe this economy's got things so screwed up and the popularity of the race there at Gateway is dwindling, because it's such a major, metropolitan city.

"They couldn't get the attendance to where it needed to be to make any money or even to break even, so that was the demise of it."

Autostock

Kenny Wallace is the brother who has stayed the most rooted to the St. Louis area, maintaining a home and building a shop there. He said he'll be sad to see the racing stop at Gateway.

Kenny's Story

In the waning stages of his career, Kenny -- a nine-time winner in what was then the Busch Series who has more than 600 career starts between NASCAR's top two series -- has taken a much more active role in sponsor procurement, with some success.

His backer this weekend, the Illinois Corn Farmers, seems perfectly tied to NASCAR's announcement of the transition to ethanol, but it's much deeper than that, Wallace said.

"You know, when Gateway first opened, it meant the world to me because it was so exciting to know that NASCAR was coming to our hometown, because that was a dream of ours, as kids, was to go NASCAR [racing]," Kenny said. "We used to spend the winters as a family going to Daytona [Beach, Fla.] for the Daytona 500.

"So to actually have a NASCAR race track in your own hometown, to the Wallace family and to me, personally, was one of the biggest things that could have happened."

Kenny raced a then-Busch Series car at Gateway in 1999, while his next-older brother Mike raced in the inaugural Truck Series race in 1998. Thus began the 13-year string between the two of them.

Kenny has had four top-10 finishes and was 20th in his most recent race, in July.

"It's starting to sink in, that there won't be any more NASCAR at Gateway and it really bothers me," Kenny said. "It bothers me, but I understand why it is. Years ago, we had a chance to have that Kansas City track in St. Louis -- and our Gateway track is built in the wrong area.

"The fans have complained for years that they can't get in and out of there, and the parking's not good. It seems like all the stars lined up for it not to work and it's a sad deal, because the potential was there."

Kenny said his wife, Kim, and her family were one of his highlights at Gateway.

"My wife has put a great effort into Gateway and she has always made a big deal out of going to Gateway," Kenny said. "If there's a race at Gateway and I'm in the race, you are going to find my wife, and her entire family, behind the main grandstands, selling Kenny Wallace souvenirs.

"It becomes a family gathering, almost like Thanksgiving or Christmas. They come out in full force to support me, whether I'm running good or bad."

And this weekend there's a special twist.

"I'd have to say of the whole Wallace family, I'm the one that loves my hometown the most," Kenny said. "I have a home back there still, and I keep up with my high school buddies. I love it there.

"Some of my greatest St. Louis stories come from Gateway. I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan -- I live, sleep and breathe it. Thanks to Gateway and doing some media work for them, I met Stan Musial. That was big, so I've been able to do things in my own hometown that I never would have been able to do if that race track wasn't there."

Autostock

Mike Wallace and his younger brother, Kenny, spent the early parts of their careers racing around the Midwest, and they still hold a fondness for it.

Mike's Story

Mike Wallace won approximately 300 short-track races in the greater Midwest around St. Louis, including a NASCAR Weekly Series regional championship in 1990. He's long been a North Carolina resident like the rest of his racing kin, but he hasn't forgotten his roots.

"That's where we grew up, and you have to remember I won a lot of races at Tri-City Speedway, about 10 miles up the road in Granite City, Illinois," Mike said. "So that area has meant a lot to me and my racing career -- and being able to go back to St. Louis and race in our hometown is cool.

“

I sincerely hope someone will see the value of that speedway, step up and buy it and re-convince NASCAR it needs a date and really get St. Louis to get behind it with what it has to offer -- fill the grandstands up and make it a spectacular race place.

”

-- MIKE WALLACE

"When we grew up racing, honestly, we were considered kind of the weird kids because we were messing with race cars and that was a big stick-and-ball town. Racing was big, but on a local level. I don't think we realized how many fans were there, until there was a race track built."

And in the middle of its existence, the track hit a home run when it honored the region's "first racing family."

"It was a pretty big honor, when they honored our family by naming the race the Wallace Family Tribute 250, and named a section of the grandstand for our family," Mike said. "I don't think that's ever been done before, with a national series race, so it meant a lot to our family and a lot to me, personally.

"And I was fortunate enough that day to run second, driving for Ray Evernham, so it was memorable. And we still go back there wishing we could win that race, because it's our hometown, but we haven't been able to do that."

And now it's likely down to one last shot.

"I've been thinking about this being the last race lately," Mike said. "I'm surprised there's not another buyer, because St. Louis is a big town with a lot of industry and sports and entertainment and marketing companies.

"I sincerely hope someone will see the value of that speedway, step up and buy it and re-convince NASCAR it needs a date and really get St. Louis to get behind it with what it has to offer -- fill the grandstands up and make it a spectacular race place.

"I think it could be, and I hope it can be revived, but it could also come down that it's just a race track of the past."

Even driving an unsponsored car doesn't lessen the impact for the middle brother.

"When we go back to town there's so many people that tell me I know them or they know me -- and for the life of me, I can't remember them," Mike said. "They'll tell me, 'we did this and this,' and finally I just agree with them, even though I'm not remembering a bit of what they're telling me.

"Sometimes I think I've had too many right fronts go down and I've hit too many walls. But really, we've raced a long time and run a lot of laps of racing, me and my two brothers. Maybe the neatest thing is it's given these people some memories that are special and that's a pretty cool thing.

"I had an experience like that with some of the TireBuyer.com folks who sponsored our car at Charlotte. I took them down to the garage and the drivers' meeting for the Cup race, and one of the guys just couldn't stop thanking me. So it's a case where the things we take for granted are really special to a lot of people; and that's the way I hope some people look at this weekend at Gateway."

Autostock

Steve Wallace, center, isn't from St. Louis. But he knows it's part of the history of his family, including his uncles, and that makes it special to him.

Steve's Story

Steve Wallace, 23, has five career starts at Gateway -- and the first four were miserable before his top-five in July. As his grandfather says, "Steve's a North Carolinian, he's not a St. Louisian." But there remains a tie.

"Gateway's always been a cool track in my heart because my whole family's from St. Louis -- they all grew up racing there, though they all gradually moved away after my dad made it," Steve said. "But that track's always [special]. It's cool to go back and go to Valley Park, Missouri, and see my dad's old race shop, and Uncle Mike and Kenny's shops, and my grandfather's old OK Vacuum store.

"It means a lot to go back and see the history of the Wallace family because my dad made it [in racing] and kind of brought the rest of the family down [to North Carolina] -- but that's where it all started."

Steve showed the optimism of youth when he said he "wasn't sure of the track's future."

"Whenever we go there, there's zero fans in the stands -- maybe 15,000, max," Steve said. "And that's what sucks about it, because it's such a cool race track. It's kind of the same problem that Nashville and some other race tracks have, and it's a sad deal, really."

Russ's Story

Russ Wallace dominated the area short tracks before he retired from racing at 48 -- 28 years ago. He doesn't mince words about the closing of a facility he says he's only been to "maybe three times."

"You know how that goes -- they don't have the attendance so they've gotta close 'er up," Russ said. "It's OK for Nationwide and the Truck Series, but let's face it -- they wouldn't close it if it was a top-notch track.

"I've set in those stands, and they're not erected right -- they're laid back too far and you can't get a good view of the track. If the people in St. Louis really wanted that race track, they'd be there. So I don't have much sympathy for it."

The elder Wallace said he'd consider going back to St. Louis "though my wife won't," he said, with a laugh. "I've been [in North Carolina] 15 years and I've lost a lot of my friends.

"When I come back here, I know where I'm at. I've lived in Charlotte for 15 years, and other than where I live, I don't know nothing about that town."

Autostock

Rusty Wallace owns the team for which his son Steve drives. He's also supplying a car for his older brother, Kenny, for this weekend's race so Kenny can try to go out on top.

In the end

Harmeson said the Wallace family legacy was perhaps one of the biggest losses.

"This is my first year here, so I don't have a lot of [personal] history with the Wallaces -- but I've heard a tremendous amount," Harmeson said. "And I do know they've supported us at Gateway for years. Basically, they've been there every time we've needed them, and even though I wasn't involved personally, I certainly get the sense of that.

"They've been involved with our track walks and obviously just a lot of promoting and trying to help the track. I just don't think you could ask for a better relationship, and we're going to miss that part of it."

The most obvious physical connection to the family is the Wallace Family Grandstand. And while Harmeson was quick to downplay his personal interaction with the family, he has direct knowledge of what they mean to his staff, and the area.

"We had a windstorm a few months ago, before the July race, and it actually blew down our Wallace Grandstand banner that we'd put up in 2005," Harmeson said. "There wasn't any doubt in my mind, or any of my employees', that we had to replace that before the July tandem [Nationwide and Truck] race."

And wherever he lands after Gateway, Harmeson said he'd carry away some memories.

"I've heard a lot of great stories," Harmeson said. "Last year, Kenny came to our ticket office and helped make calls to customers about going to the race and maybe season ticket holders that were a little on the fence. He wasn't here for a few minutes -- he was here for a couple hours and he spent time with each fan, talking about racing or whatever they wanted to talk about.

"I wish I could have seen that."