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Lebanon I-44 Speedway Driver making history for
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Rusty Wallace has made clear one of his NASCAR
“retirement projects”.Little known fact
is another branch of the Wallace family tree. Mike
Wallace, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series driver,
has a seventeen year old daughter that is tearing
up the tracks around North Carolina.
Seventeen-year-old Chrissy Wallace pulls into
the garage area and yells to her crew, “I
think something broke on the trailing
arm.”
She climbs from a Thunder Roadster car and
examines a broken bolt. She tells a crew member,
“I felt the bolt break on the trailing arm
with two laps to go. I could finish last or keep
racing.”
Wallace kept on racing on this summer night,
showing the determination to finish that comes
naturally to members of her family.
The daughter of Nextel Cup driver Mike Wallace,
and niece of two other Cup drivers – Kenny
Wallace and former Cup champion Rusty Wallace
– Chrissy Wallace is in her third year of
racing and doesn’t hide her desire to someday
drive in NASCAR’s top series.
Tuesday nights in the summer bring the youngest
Wallace driver – with her piercing blue eyes,
long blonde hair, and broad, brace-filled smile
– to Lowe’s Motor Speedway outside
Charlotte to race in two series.
The RACEceiver Legends series features miniature
1930s-style stock cars with Yamaha 1250cc
motorcycle engines. They reach speeds of up to 75
mph on the speedway complex’s quarter-mile
oval.
Thunder Roadsters are open wheel-style cars with
the same engine, but with a longer wheel base and
softer tires. They can reach speeds of up to 90
mph.
When Chrissy Wallace first started racing
Legends cars, she said, she wasn’t welcomed by
the men and boys she competed against.
“Not too many guys are happy (women) are
around here – especially winning” she
said as she stood by her car, covered in stickers
earned for winning feature races. “But
we’re finding more acceptance.”
In addition to driving, Chrissy Wallace plays
basketball and softball, a sport in which she
fielded college scholarship offers. But, she said,
“I realized last year that racing was my true
dream.”
Her dad has never pushed her toward racing.
“I don’t care what she decides to do
– doctor, lawyer, driver, whatever,” Mike
Wallace said. “Just as long as she’s
happy.”
Later this year, she plans to move into a late
model stock car, racing at tracks in Hickory and
Concord. When she turns 18 in May, she intends to
seek sponsorship for a ride in NASCAR’s
Craftsman Truck Series.
“I’d like to race with her,” Mike
Wallace said. “A father-daughter race would be
pretty cool.”
If she’s successful there, that could lead
to the Busch Series and perhaps eventually to the
top-level Nextel Cup.
Wallace said she loves softball, but “my
heart is set on NASCAR and to be the first
successful female driver (in the series).”
Source: cranialcavity.net/fullthrottle/wp/index.php/the-wallace-family-tree
Lebanon I-44 Speedway Driver
making history for women
Danica Patrick announced on Thursday that she was
leaving the IndyCar racing circuit in 2012 to
devote her driving skills to NASCAR, where
she’ll race in the Nationwide series full-time
and up to 10 events in the highest-level Sprint Cup
series. And while Danica may be the best known
female racer in the country, there’s a young
woman with ties to the Ozarks whose also making
some history for her gender.
Lebanon I-44 Speedway is the home of the first
female in history to lead the national championship
standings for late models in the American Speed
Association. And her last name may be a little
familiar. 23 year-old Chrissy Wallace is a member
of the legendary St. Louis Wallace racing family
including her father Mike and her uncles, Rusty and
Kenny.
Chrissy currently lives in Concord, North
Carolina in the area where most of NASCAR’s
team operations are located. She could have chosen
any ASA track in the nation to compete for a
national title, but every week she makes the trek
halfway across the country to Lebanon because of
I-44's connections to her family and other racing
legends.
“My dad won the championship here in
1990,” Chrissy explained, “So I wanted to
come back here and compete at a track that means a
lot to our family.”
“This track has a reputation and history of
producing great drivers,” adds Craig
Armstrong, the I-44 track promoter. “Larry
Phillips (a five time champion), Carl Edwards,
Jamie McMurray. And having Chrissy Wallace do what
she has done here this summer is truly
phenomenal.”
Chrissy has won 6 races at Lebanon, but as you
can tell from the numerous rubbin’ marks on
the paint scheme on the sides of her car, it
hasn’t all been easy. Recently Wallace got
into a bumping exchange with another car whose
driver was competing for the championship at
Lebanon, and after a series of contacts, Chrissy
spun the driver-out from behind, leading to a
heated exchange in the pit area after the race.
“I had to brake-check-up real hard and got
into the back of him and spun him out,”
Chrissy recalled. “And afterwards we got into
a pretty big argument and there were a lot of
people coming down to my hauler. But I can stand up
for myself. I’m not gonna let people run all
over me just because this is a male-dominated
sport.”
And while another female driver, Danica Patrick,
has already made in-roads on the NASCAR circuit,
Chrissy, who’s driven in two Nationwide races
and seven NASCAR truck series events, hopes to be
joining Patrick soon.
“It’s helping me in that she’s
showing that females can do it,” Chrissy says
with a smile. “And hopefully I can then get
out there and prove that I can out-run her.”
(Editor's note to
Chrissy - you really believe you can out-run her?
If that was true, you would have gone further in
your career by now.)
Source: femaleracingnews.com/circle_track/lebanon-i-44-speedway-driver-making-history-for-women
Chrissy Wallace, the
other female driver making her Nationwide debut,
spins out
The other female driver in the Nationwide Series
season opener at Daytona has wrecked on her first
lap of the race.
Chrissy Wallace spun coming out of turn four,
slid across the track and hit the inside wall at
Daytona International Speedway.
She blamed Paul Menard for the accident, saying
it was a "dumb mistake on his part."
She was one of four Wallaces in NASCAR's
second-tier event. Her father, Mike Wallace, uncle
Kenny Wallace and cousin Steve Wallace also started
the Nationwide race.
Nonetheless, her series debut was largely
overshadowed by Danica Patrick. The IndyCar star
made her NASCAR debut in Saturday's race.
Source: www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5goyUSqQqdlekGBD3VaCcBAgTGygA
Wallaces Mike, Chrissy to
race against one another
Will make history at 'Dega as first father-daughter
duo
For the first time in NASCAR's history, a
father-daughter duo will race in a national series
event.
Chrissy and Mike WallaceMike Wallace and his
21-year-old daughter, Chrissy Wallace, are slated
to compete in the Camping World Truck Series race
at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 31.
Mike Wallace will pilot the No. 48 Chevrolet for
Andy Hillenburg. He has 113 series starts with four
wins and finished fifth last season in the race at
Talladega.
Chrissy will be behind the wheel of an entry for
Rick Ware Racing. She is without a guaranteed
starting position in the field and must earn a spot
in qualifying. The younger Wallace made her series
debut at Martinsville in 2008. She finished ninth
in the ARCA Re/Max Series race at Talladega last
year.
Though this will mark the first time for a
father-daughter duo, father-son combinations have
appeared across NASCAR's national racing series all
throughout its 61-year history. Lee and Richard
Petty; Richard and Kyle Petty; Bobby and Davey
Allison; Buck and Buddy Baker; Dale Earnhardt and
Dale Earnhardt Jr. are just a few.
In the Truck Series, Mike and Dustin Skinner,
the late Bobby Hamilton and Bobby Hamilton Jr., and
Ron Hornaday and Ronnie Hornaday have raced each
other.
Source: www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/truck/10/12/mwallace.cwallace.father.daughter.talladega/index.html
Wallace & McReynolds Among Hardee's
Summer Shootout Winners
Jess Mattox used his front bumper to move leader
Chrissy Wallace out of the way coming out of the
final turn, but it was not quite enough as the two
crossed the stripe in a dead heat Tuesday during
the Cabarrus Family Medicine Legends Car Semi-Pro
division feature on opening night of the 12th
annual Hardee's Summer Shootout at Lowe's Motor
Speedway.
Track officials reviewed digital video of the
finish several times before declaring Mattox of
Waycross, Ga., and Wallace, daughter of NASCAR
veteran Mike Wallace and a Concord, N.C., resident,
co-winners of the race that was shortened to 14
laps due to time constraints.
Source: www.womensracingjournal.com/articles/2005/06-16_shootout.php
www.mikewallace.com
Racin' for a Livin'
Chrissy Wallace has been selected as one of fifty
race car driver's (including 10 other women) for an
upcoming racing reality TV show - Racin' for a
Livin'. The competition starts with fans voting
online to select the top 12 drivers. Only these 12
drivers, selected solely by fan voting, progress to
the TV show. Then they compete in race cars, on
different courses, judged by top drivers, crew
chiefs and broadcasters. The winner receives a
fully-funded and sponsored ride for a limited
number of races in the NASCAR Busch Series. Please
go to www.racinforalivin.com
and show your support! Vote and Vote Often - you
can vote as often as you like!
Chrissy
Snippets
Chrissy Wallace was gridded 35th in Saturday's
Nationwide Race at Dayton but spun out before
completeing the first lap and ended up 43rd.
Chrissty Wallace, the other
female driver making her Nation\wide debut at
Daytona, spins out.
She still takes home $45,585.
* * *
Nationwide vet Mike Wallace will watch from the
spotter's stand when daughter Chrissy Wallace makes
her CTS debut in Martinsville. Like Dad,
19-year-old Chrissy drives for Germain Racing. Yet
Mike insists she earned the seat on
merit: "She didn't bring any money to the deal
and I didn't have any influence." Chrissy, the
first female to win at Hickory Speedway (2007), has
raced for eight years in legends and late models.
ESPN Magazine
* * *
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