FONTANA, Calif. – With his runner-up performance in February’s Daytona 500 in the rear-view mirror, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. has quickly settled into reality at Richard Petty Motorsports.
Finishes of 32nd, 21st and 28th at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix respectively could have easily given Wallace a perfect reason to get discouraged, but instead the NASCAR Next alumnus isn’t looking at his 27th place average in the last three races – as a sign of the future, but just an adjustment as he adapts to Sunday racing.
“Atlanta was bad luck,” explained Wallace. “I thought we were pretty decent in practice and we had some mechanical stuff go on right before the race that we didn’t find out. Vegas, we missed it. We were a very good short-run car and we just fell on our face.
“And then, Phoenix, I thought we were really good. I learned a lot overnight from practice to the race and was able to put that to work. We were making some ground until we hit pit road.”
Approaching his first Cup start at Auto Club Speedway for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 Wallace is remaining optimistic.
“We have had a lot of success here, a lot of good runs here in the Xfinity stuff,” he said. “Just trying to utilize some of that and take that into today and learn throughout this weekend. This place is so wide, so many grooves and the biggest thing is tire fall off.
“Once that happens, start moving up to the fence. Just got to manage it the best we can and take care of it all day. It’s good to have Farmer John on our Chevrolet. So, once we get that rolling we will see how we shake out.”
While remaining upbeat, Wallace realizes that his team isn’t living up to its potential and it could take a few more races before the No. 43 team finds a solid foundation.
“It’s a learning curve, that is what I’m going to label it as,” added Wallace. “We are trying to figure everything out. I’m laying my head down at night not leaving a stone unturned, so in that regard, I give myself an A+.”
“We are just not hitting on all cylinders right now as a team,” he said. “We are still figuring everything out from the switch, so it’s going to take us a couple of races. We are going to have some really good races, we are going to have some bad races, but we are going to keep our heads up and keep digging.”
While their on-track performance leaves more to be desired, Wallace is still enjoying the life at the sport’s pinnacle level.
“Oh, I’m enjoying it,” Wallace added. “I’m like a kid in a candy store. I’m racing against the guys I used to watch on Sunday and that is pretty badass. I remember that moment I had last year at Daytona when I was right next to Jimmie (Johnson). I was like damn, we are racing against seven-time right here, this is pretty cool. Now, I’ve kind of raced around him enough and raced around the other guys enough that I’m starting to learn from them for sure, but at the same time I’m like ‘man I can’t believe I’m still here.’
“So, it’s all like kind of surreal still, but not letting that overshadow what we need to focus on. But, it’s a hell of a ride right now despite the finishes that we’ve had, I’m still keeping a positive mindset looking forward to each and every race because it’s a reset for me. Each and every track there is no need for me to hang my head over the last finish because I don’t know what the hell is next until we get to Pocono, Kentucky, Michigan and Daytona.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
