Kenny Wallace is among a handful of drivers who compete in NASCAR’s top two series. He typically drives the No. 78 Chevrolet in Nextel Cup for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, and the No. 22 Ford full time in the Busch Series for North Carolina-based Gregory Pollex.
Wallace, 42, said both circuits should offer mandatory anger management classes, but for different reasons.
“The difference is that in the Busch Series, everybody is just trying to be a hero,” Wallace said in Tuesday’s national teleconference. “In the Cup series you’ve got guys that are really hard-headed and they want their space and they want respect. In the Cup Series, everybody wants respect because they are big-time. And the Busch Series, everybody just wants to be noticed because their careers are starting out.”
Wallace watched Sunday’s big wreck and ensuing drama unfold in the Cup race between defending champion Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer from the infield at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. Because of priorities with his Busch team, Wallace – who finished 13th in Saturday’s Busch race in Virginia – was replaced in Furniture Row’s Cup car Sunday by Jimmy Spencer.
Wallace said Stewart, who was penalized for aggressive driving after running into Bowyer, who then crashed into Edwards, remains NASCAR’s loosest cannon.
“Tony is a good friend of mine off of the racetrack, but there’s no doubt that there’s two Tony Stewarts,” Wallace said. “The Tony I don’t know is (when) he gets so damn mad. That’s the Tony I don’t know. … I just don’t know why he reacts so harsh.”
Which brings us to Edwards, who delivered a memorable postrace verbal tirade at Pocono after absorbing his own aggressive-driving penalty for spinning Stewart out on pit road. Here are Edwards’ comments about Stewart: “Man, I’ve got to choose my words carefully. Let me just say this, if it weren’t for respect of the sport and the people watching and his team and everything, he’d be out there bleeding right now. How can a person make it this far in life being that much of a jerk?
“He ran into Clint. I saw it on the big screen. He turned into Clint and took both him and I out and probably made it just about impossible for us to make the Chase, and then when I pull up beside him and wave my hand like, ‘What was that about?’ he gives me the finger. I mean, what a jerk. I don’t even know what to say. It’s amazing to me that someone can be that special.
“I want to like Tony. He’s a hard racer and all that, but how can you like somebody like that? It’s just amazing. If you hold that guy up, like if he thinks you held him up, he gets so upset and then he can wreck two guys and give you the finger. That’s spectacularly self-centered. I can’t imagine being like that.”
The situation will be on simmer this weekend. Nextel Cup has the weekend off before returning for the big Aug. 6 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Indy ties that bind
Three years ago this weekend, 2004 champion Kurt Busch met fiancée Eva Bryan on a blind date. A year ago during the same break in the Cup schedule, the couple became engaged.
This weekend, they will be married.
“Everything has happened on this off-weekend for us the past three years,” Busch said on NASCAR’s website. “So I can’t wait to come back to Indianapolis as a married man and see how I race with that wedding ring on.”
Footnote
MB2 Motorsports, which fields Cup cars for Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin, will announce a new team owner today.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
