Mike Wallace, No. 7 GEICO Toyota Camry
Germain Racing Media Release
Mooresville, N.C. (2-8-2008) – Coming off of his best NASCAR Busch Series points finish, eleventh, in 2007, Mike Wallace is geared up to start his 2008 season off with a big win in the no. 7 GEICO Camry at a very prestigious track – a track where he’s visited victory lane two times in his NASCAR racing career and once in ARCA. Wallace, driving for Germain Racing, is focused on one thing – winning again at Daytona.
“I’m going to Daytona with the intention of winning my 4th race,” said Mike Wallace, a veteran of the NASCAR ranks who is considered a restrictor plate specialist and counts Daytona among his favorite tracks. “Daytona is an incredibly exciting race track. It’s the world center of speed in stock car racing. I’m looking forward to racing our new Toyota Camry with GEICO and Sport Clips aboard. I can’t think of a better way to help GEICO launch their new, interactive fan website on Saturday, geicogarage.com, than by getting them a win in the Camping World 300.”
When Wallace takes the green flag at Daytona, he will be one race closer to two important career milestones. Wallace has 295 races in NASCAR’s #2 series, and he starts the season with 593 NASCAR races to his credit. He will join elite company when he reaches 300 NNS starts at Bristol and 600 career starts, likely at Texas Motor Speedway, in April.
Looming milestones aside, Wallace has been known for years as a racer that has a special talent at ‘restrictor plate’ race tracks, of which Daytona is one. For Wallace, Daytona is the most special one.
“There’s no other race track that carries the name or mystique of Daytona International Speedway in stock car racing. The tracks equal in open wheel is Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Wallace reflected. “I like the aura of Daytona, I understand it.”
This year’s trip to Daytona is a special event for NASCAR’s top-series drivers as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 while celebrating the 60th year of NASCAR racing. The historical significance is important to Wallace because Daytona is important to him, personally.
“Even though it’s not the 50th annual race for our series, it’s the 50th annual Daytona 500,” said Wallace. “Daytona is a special place to me, personally. It’s where I won my first major race, the ARCA race at Daytona (in 1994). Winning there as I have, it means you know what it feels like and you know what it takes to get to victory lane. Your attitude the whole race is getting everything to happen right so that you are back in the most prestigious victory lane in NASCAR.”
Adding to the experience of Daytona will be Wallace’s excitement and energy about GEICO’s new and best interactive race fan website, geicogarage.com.
“Geicogarage.com launches on Saturday, February 16th. It will be an interactive website with me, Chrissy Wallace, Lauren Wallace and some really big names from the open-wheel racing ranks involved in the game. You can tune in to geicogarage.com now to see a preview – it’s going to be an interactive experience for race fans like they’ve never seen before,” said Mike Wallace.
Wallace will be in winning company while he makes his bid for a fourth Daytona victory. Germain Racing, which fields the GEICO Camry for Wallace, is a championship winning team that has amassed more wins with their #30 Tundra than any other Toyota Tundra team to date. Germain Racing led laps and earned two top-ten finishes in their debut in the Busch Series in 2007. In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Germain has won two or more races each year, since the team opened in 2004, for a total of 13 wins. Along with the victories, the team has earned 4 Bud Pole awards, 54 top-five and 81 top-ten finishes and led 1281 laps in 152 Truck Series races.
“Success is very important to Germain Racing. Mike Wallace fits into our program well. We are very proud to have him, GEICO and Sport Clips join our team and to grow our relationship with long-time partner Smith Transport,” said Mike Hillman Sr., General Manager of Germain Racing who, with the team’s 2006 Truck Series championship title now holds two NASCAR championship titles. “We had the opportunity to put Mike Wallace in a Toyota Tundra last season. He really worked well with the team, drove a very strong race and showed everyone that he will be a very competitive racer for us. I am confident that with Bruce Cook calling the shots, and everyone here at Germain Racing behind him and Mike, we will put the GEICO Camry in victory lane this season and Daytona is a good place to start.”
GEICO, who is entering their 8th year of involvement in America’s #2 racing series, has also experienced success in NASCAR. On July 2, 2004, Wallace passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jason Leffler coming out of Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway to hand GEICO and Sport Clips their first NASCAR victories.
On February 16th, visit GEICO’s new, interactive website to experience GEICO’s passion for racing: www.geicogarage.com.
To learn more about the GEICO Racing program, please visit www.geicoracing7.com.
To learn more about the Sport Clips Racing program, please visit www.SportClips.com.
Germain Racing information can be found at www.germainracing.com.