Darrell Wallace Jr. looked perfectly comfortable sitting in his chair, awaiting reporters during NASCAR’s annual Charlotte Media Tour at the NASCAR Hall of Fame last month.
Much has been expected of the talented young driver, who has learned that early navigation through NASCAR’s big leagues is a science of its own. But after a rookie season that fell a little short by Wallace’s big standards, the 22-year old looked prime and readied for 2016, his best shot yet at winning a NASCAR national series championship.
“You have rookie stripes for a reason, but they’re gone so we need to show why they’re gone,” Wallace offered with a slight smile.
As an 18-year old in 2012, the Alabama native had three top-10 finishes in four then-Nationwide Series starts and won a pole position, gaining great notice in the NASCAR garage. He answered that with a win in the 2013 Camping World Truck Series season and four more in 2014, earning him his high-profile, high-expectation XFINITY Series ride with Roush Fenway Racing last season.
A fan favorite already, much has been made of Wallace’s potential success story and now he is eager — perhaps even a tad anxious — to start proving why so many consider him a bright star in the sport.
Last year’s XFINITY Series rookie campaign was tougher than even Wallace might have anticipated, however. He did have three top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in 33 races, but Wallace expected — and was accustomed to — more still. Too often the performances fell short of what Wallace knew he could do. He expected to win.
“I definitely learned a lot last season working with (crew chief) Seth (Barbour) and learning to make the right calls in practice,” Wallace said. “That, for example, was a confidence booster. But we have to be more in-depth with that. I need to be in the meetings more and find out why x-y-z works with a-b-c.”
Wallace is particularly hopeful the final 13 races he ran with Barbour calling the shots will turn into a head start for 2016. He earned half of his total top-10s and two of his three top-five finishes when Barbour came on board last August. And they are highly optimistic about this season.
In particular, Wallace wants — and needs — to up his game on the superspeedway tracks at Daytona Beach and Talladega. Two of Wallace’s three worst finishes (34th in the summer and 20th) came at Daytona and Talladega, respectively.
A good start on Daytona’s high banks in the Feb. 20 XFINITY season-opener is crucial for a number of reasons, including the potential for securing additional, much-welcomed sponsorship.
The team will boast a one-race Daytona sponsor deal with Selfeo, an app that invites users to “immerse” themselves and promises to “transform a single screen on a single device into a customized, multi-screen viewing environment” with one-click. And Wallace is hopeful a great outing — a win — would be all the allure this sponsor needs.
“Daytona is the Super Bowl for our sport and I’m going to try to go down early just to get the groove on,” Wallace said. “There’s so much pressure on our program to be competitive and win to get sponsorship. So to go to Daytona with sponsorship is super big.”
That sponsorship, Wallace added, “Could end up being a big potential race for us. Add confetti to it and they could potentially sign on for more.”
“It’s one race, but this one race could set up our whole season. The offseason has been pretty hefty with front office trying to land sponsorship so to see progress gets you optimistic heading into the season.”
Wallace is also buoyed by what he and many see as a renewed commitment by the Roush team. The XFINITY cars are now housed with the Cup entries and across the board, the team’s drivers are optimistic that the entire team’s performance, in general, will be upped.
“For all of us across the board, there’s a lot going on, the whole organization,” Wallace said. “We’ve moved XFINITY into the Cup shop and the communication level will just get higher and higher. Some other behind-the-scenes people are coming in and that will revamp our program. We need to get on a consistent program to make our Ford Mustangs better. … not force the issue, but have fun, be competitive, be smart, manage races better and myself.
“We all want to be successful with whatever we do in life, to seize the opportunity we’re given.”
