Wallace Makes Argument He Deserves Another Ride

By ESPN

Darrell Wallace Jr. made his argument that he deserves another ride -- a NASCAR Cup ride? -- with the win Saturday in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Wallace, driving for MDM Motorsports in his first race since his 11th-place finish in a NASCAR Cup car July 8 at Kentucky Speedway, earned his sixth career truck win.

He had won in his previous truck outing -- at Homestead in November 2014 -- so getting back to Victory Lane, he hopes, produces some sponsorship for him to have a ride next year.

"Everybody goes through trials and tribulations for a reason and you have a lot more downs than ups in this sport and the ones that can carry themselves and come out on top each and every time from those downs are the ones that are going to capitalize," Wallace said.

"So I've tried to carry a positive outlook on everything I've done. I slip up every now and again. Nobody's perfect."

Where will Wallace land? It sounds as if there are teams in the garage interested, but Wallace, like any other driver, needs sponsorship. His limited Cup time showed he has potential, but anyone pairing with Wallace probably needs to look at it as at least a two-year program to see if he can run top-15 consistently in Cup.

Wallace won't limit himself to the Cup level, although he knows that if there is a time for him to run in Cup, it's now after the solid performance substituting for Aric Almirola.

"There's a lot of opportunities out there that we are still looking at," Wallace said. "You look at the quality of the equipment. ... When you look at all these factors, no matter if that's truck, Xfinity or Cup, you've got to put all those things together to go out there and capitalize on every opportunity [that's] out there on the race track."

What he will drive next year, he clearly doesn't know. He just hopes he has something.

"I've got a lot of people pulling for me to show up at the race track and to be there and be in the spotlight even when I'm not racing. That's so hard for me," said Wallace, whose Xfinity Series ride at Roush Fenway ended in June because of a lack of funding. "All I've done for the last 14, 15 years is drove and we stopped when we wanted to stop. This whole being pulled out from underneath is new.

"I had to wrap my head around that. I need to be active. I need to be in front of people's faces. We have a lot of good things going for 2018."
Cup Series: Another 'almost' for Jones

Erik Jones, a Michigan native, would have loved nothing better than to have earned his first career victory at his home track Sunday.

After restarting second on the green-white-checkered restart, Jones had to settle for third behind teammate Martin Truex Jr. and winner Kyle Larson.

A red flag of 5 minutes, 39 seconds allowed drivers plenty of time to think about the final restart.

"We got that red flag, and it gives you a lot of time to at least play through different scenarios on the restart and how you want it to work out," Jones said. "It's very rare it actually works out the way you picture in your head, but you definitely ponder what that would be like."

It was the second third-place finish for Jones in two weeks.

"Martin and I would kind of match lap times for a few laps, and Martin would start to inch away after a couple laps [on restarts]," Jones said. "I knew we had a shot right on the restart. We were just as quick I felt like right off the bat, and it would have been nice to be able to seal the deal for sure."
Xfinity Series: Hemric and Tifft post career-bests

Daniel Hemric and Matt Tifft enjoyed career-best finishes at Mid-Ohio, with Hemric finishing second and Tifft in third.

"I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to make it happen in the end," Hemric said. "I left everything that I had on the race track though, and this entire team should be proud."

Both are comfortably in playoff contention and trying to earn a little more of the spotlight during their rookie seasons.

Hemric has finished 12th or better in the last six races. He has nine top-10s in 21 starts. At fifth in the standings, he has had the best season among the three full-time Richard Childress Racing drivers.

As a rookie, Hemric was satisfied with his day as it was only his fourth career road-course race in a stock car. While William Byron has been the class of the Xfinity rookie field, Hemric has quietly had a respectable season.

"There's been probably 10 weekends that have been full-blown reality checks," Hemric said. "We've just tried to keep ourselves grounded. We've had solid runs. ... Our bad days have been really bad.

"That's the stuff that we, as a company, and myself and our race team have tried to improve upon."

It was just the first top-5 of the season for Tifft, who is in his first full Xfinity season. The 21-year-old, who had brain surgery last year, knows there are high expectations when driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"We knew we needed runs like this and we have to carry that the rest of the season from this point," Tifft said. "If we can keep doing that ... the pressure comes easier. We just have to go out and do my job rather than go for something."

The race was won by Penske's Sam Hornish Jr., who is an Ohio native and obviously stoked earning a win at his home track.

"It's really special for me to win at my home track," Hornish said. "This is a place I've raced at all my life -- finished second a bunch of times -- and never had a chance to win.

"So to come here, have a car this good and win the race was the perfect day."