|| *Comments on the 2008 Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola:* View the most recent comment <#28> | Post a comment <#post> 1. DaleJrFan17 posted: 07.05.2008 - 9:23 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) An awesome qualifying lap by Sheppy! yay! Shame he couldnt finish as good as he did. 2. Dave posted: 07.05.2008 - 10:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Probably one of the few times we'll see thre drivers over the age of 60 all in the same race (The #89/#0/#01) 3. NazRacePhan posted: 07.05.2008 - 11:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hey... even still... 31st, 1st car 2 laps down... no DNF... still pretty damn good 4. Clayton posted: 07.05.2008 - 11:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steven Wallace wrecks his uncle Mike Wallace comming off of turn 4 on the final lap of this race. Mike was not happy about it! Mike was going to finish about 13th or 12th until Steveo dumped him! Mike Wallace ended up 22nd. 5. Dan posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Little Stevie, the wrecking ball on wheels, takes out another one...only this time, it's his uncle. Good thing his daddy owns the team or else he'd be in the unemployment line. 6. nascarman posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Carl Edwards got cheated at the end of the race. If you look at the video you can clearly see that he was in front of Bowyer when the last caution came out. NASCAR has to do something about this. It is the second time this year it has happened. 7. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wondered how long it would take for Steve to wreck a member of his own family. Seriously, enough is enough. This just continues to happen week after week. I started a Steve Wallace crash count meter at the beginning of the season, but it isn't funny anymore, it is just sad. Not sad for Steve, sad for the numerous hard working crew members who have to continue fix the mess he makes. Accidents happen, and eveyone makes mistakes, but for 2 solid years now (the last half of '06 to present) he has done nothing but tear up equipment, his own and many others. Something has to give. Last week the #27 team saw a week's worth of hard, underappreciated work get trashed in 2 laps, and this week the #7 team got their car totalled on the last lap by Steve. That #7 car didn't just materialize out of thin air. Many people worked long, grueling hours to build that car just for it to be wrecked. Somebody has to force him to make restitution at this point. Yes, everyone has occasionally messed up and trashed a car that people worked hard on, but at this point, it is obvious Steve doesn't give a $#!%. He just doesn't have a good grip on reality. He treats it like it is a video game, like you can just hit reset and all the cars are OK again. IT AIN'T TRUE!!! (Kyle Busch does the same thing). It is time for him to pay. I would say take the money it costs the other teams out of his pocket, but he comes from a rich family and it wouldn't matter. They need to force him to spend all of his free time helping these teams to fix the cars he destroys. He isn't getting any better, and it is obvious he needs to be taught a lesson. Maybe this will make him think about it next time his front end pushes. "Hmm, maybe I should lift." It is called DRIVING!!!! And here is the kicker: He isn't even that good. At least Kyle Busch gets lots of victories (unfortunately). It doesn't excuse the cars he trashes, but at least he can get results. What has Steve done?? 8. WallaceFan posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve got into Uncle Mike....but for all you out there that will jump all over this, Brad Keselowski did the same thing to Steve at the Feb Daytona Race..but that took out about 5 cars. So don't rush to judgement here. Good race for Steve up until that. 9. WallaceFan posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was a horribly boring race, green flag stops, the pack got strung out..it was terrible. 2 spins (no damage) Colin Braun spins and hits the wall...and then the Uncle Mike incident. I can live without the big one, but there wasnt a little one..there wasnt side by side racing. I cant understand why Toyota can have such a stronger engine. But then they wont let the Chevys upgrade? It doesnt make sence. That 20 car is way too strong. Nothing to do with the drivers. Anyways great job to Morgan Shpeherd..good qualifying run and he finsihed the race. James Hylton is 73. Dang Good runs for Hamlin, Stremme, and Bryan Clauson was strong till the end. 10. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.05.2008 - 1:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dan, you are absolutely right. Wrecking Ball on Wheels is a great way to describe Steve. And you are right about his Dad. He needs to do something drastic instead of allowing him to continue tearing other people's cars up EVERY SINGLE WEEK!! I am losing a lot of respect for Rusty over this. Obviously his status as a driver is undeniable, but as an overall person, this is affecting that. It is bad enough he has proved to be one of NASCAR's worst commentators (that is saying something considering the line of crappy analysts that have called NASCAR races since 2001), but this is too much. He needs to sit him out for a while, force him to help these crews he has terrorized, and show him that people have to face consequences. And if he gets released from RWI, NOBODY will pick him up. 11. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.05.2008 - 2:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah, Brad wrecked Steve at Daytona, but then what? Has he caused any other wrecks? That is the thing about Steve, it is EVERY SINGLE WEEK FOR TWO SOLID YEARS!!! It isn't getting any better, and he doesn't even get results. Can you say pathetic? And who else has wrecked in the garage area during pre season testing? That just shows his head isn't screwed on. 12. Patrick posted: 07.05.2008 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) pretty good nationwide race Shane Huffman made his first nationwide start since getting released by Jr Motorsports last year and even though he didn't finish the race led 2 laps. and James Hylton's first nationwide start in about 2 years. 13. WallaceFan posted: 07.05.2008 - 7:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve has not caused a wreck every week, he is showing alot of improvement and maturity and is having a good year. SamFan where you at? I know you're not a huge Steve fan but you understand development. 14. New88Fan posted: 07.05.2008 - 11:51 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) "Steve Wallace is a wrecking ball on wheels;Steve Wallace wrecked in the Garage;Steve Wallace crashed this....WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Give me a flippin' break. This Steve Wallace bash-a-thon is getting way out of hand. EVERY LITTLE mistake he makes gets blown up into a world class calamity. It's like because he's Rusty's son, he's supposed to walk on water. COME ON people,get real. Wins and championships don't just appear out of thin air, nor do race cars and deals to drive for a great team. And DaleSrFan's line about how long it would take for Steve to wreck a member of his own family, you'd think he actually WANTED to take out Mike. WHAT BULL****, his car WASHED UP THE TRACK, it's happened before and it'll happen again. Both veterans and rookies have had it happen to them and no one's made a big whop out it till now. And as far as Kyle Busch is concerned, that's not even a valid comparison so stop making it. 15. Hank posted: 07.06.2008 - 3:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kerry Earnhardt drove a DEI car for the first time in this race. Bryan Clauson got his first career NNS pole. 16. WallaceFan posted: 07.06.2008 - 3:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Thank you New88fan, thank you. 17. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.06.2008 - 5:58 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) New88Fan, I don't know what you are watching, but you can't deny that he makes WAY more mistakes than anyone else out there, including people actually younger than him and people in lesser equipment. And it has nothing to do with being Rusty's boy. Seriously, how many sons of NASCAR greats have become great themselves? Richard Petty, Davey Allison, and that is about it! It is rare, so I didn't expect it. And these aren't little mistakes. And as far as maturing and improving, I haven't seen it. He should be doing better by this point. Improvement is a relative term. Considering the Nationwide cars are easier to drive this year with less horsepower, the fact he has better equipment this year (as Stremme has proved, who is not exactly the next Jeff Gordon himself), an alltime great Busch Series crew chief in Harold Holly, and less stout competition this year (many less Roush cars, one less RCR car, no DEI/Ginn car, Jeff Burton cutting way back, less Cup guys running full time), he is nowhere near where he needs to be. He is way behind where his learning curve needs to be at. Anyone else would have been fired WELL over a year ago. Look at what Rusty did to Billy Parker when they were a start up organization. If it wasn't his son, I doubt he would have put him full time in '07 after his disasterous part time deal in '06. 18. 88drake posted: 07.06.2008 - 8:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) New88fan, Wallacefan... It happens litterly every week! 19. JBL posted: 07.06.2008 - 8:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The wallace stuff could only be blown out of proportion IF IT WASN"T TRUE!! 20. samfan08 posted: 07.07.2008 - 12:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was a huge Rusty fan when he was driving, and because of that I pull for Steve. Yes, he has caused more than his share of accidents in the last couple of years. There's no denying that. Yes he probably needs talked to and maybe sat out a race or two. But, even with the last couple of weeks, he's showing increased maturity over last year. I remember a race not long ago where Kyle Busch came up behind him, bumped him, and Steve thought about dumping him and thought better of it. Last year, he would have just done it. It's a slow process but he's no where close to as bad as last year. I've even heard him take blame in some of his mistakes this year. He's actually reminding me a lot of David Ragan, only maybe with a little less talent. Remember Ragan when he first came up? He was, to use the quote about Steve, "a wrecking ball on wheels." That was around age 20 or so, about the same age Steve was late last year. Then last year in his rookie year in Cup he still caused quite a few wrecks, and many thought he'd never amount to much. Now he's a chase competitor and is finishing the races. Am I saying that Steve Wallace will be a title contender anywhere? No. He could, but he's got a long way to go. He may not even figure it out. But he's still young, and I really can't think of any(or at least very few) young drivers who didn't tear up a lot of equipment at his age. The difference is, he's been handed a Nationwide ride probably a little too soon. I think what he needs for a wake up call is to be demoted to ARCA for a year or two. Let him learn to race and don't bring him back up until he takes care of the equipment. 21. Rusty posted: 07.07.2008 - 11:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve showed a lot of improvement in the beginning of the year, not really any incidents of his own doing. He even got 3 straight top 10s, including one at a road course and a top 5 at the challenging Darlington. But now he seems to be racing like the Steve Wallace of 2007 again. I mentioned in a earlier race comment that his tourettes could very well have something to do with his constant mistakes. My brother has it and can be very bothersome when doing things, imagine it when going 180 mph. 22. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.07.2008 - 1:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Exactly 88drake and JBL. Look, I am not picking on Steve just for the heck of it. Believe it or not, I wanted him to succeed. Being a huge fan of Dale Earnhardt, I remember his classic battles with Rusty from the late 80s, when I began watching NASCAR at a very young age, through the 90s, especially the early 90s. I was hoping Steve could make it Cup and have a few battles with Dale Jr and bring back some of that awesome nostalgia. Obviously it wouldn't be completely the same, Dale Jr isn't an all time great like Big E and I didn't expect Steve to be either, but it would still give me that warm, fluttery feeling. But then, of course, Steve has gone out for the last 2 years and hit everything except the pace car, and he would probably hit that if he ever led any races. He wrecked in the garage area, he wrecked on the pit exit lane at Montreal, he wrecked on restarts, he wrecked trying to pit, he wrecked 5 laps down, etc, etc. I am just calling it like I see it. This is getting ridiculous in my opinion, when you consider the sheer amount of equipment he has torn up in just two years in 200, 250, and 300 mile races. This is nothing personal or preconceived, I just think he needs to have a drastic change of course because it clearly isn't getting any better. He is still making rookie mistakes ALMOST every week. He pushed his nose in this race and wrecked Mike. This is his 4th race at Daytona in the Nationwide Series and I believe he made an ARCA start there once (correct me if I'm wrong). He should know about how a car behaves in Turn 4 by now. I just don't see the improvement. And I understand the tourette's argument, I actually have a mild case of that myself, causing arm and leg twitches. But at some point you have to accept your limitations and move on. SamFan08, I appreciate your well written out and well thought out post, but I think you are being too optimistic. Yeah, Ragan caused fireworks last year, but it was his first year in both Busch and Cup. Running as a raw rookie in both series last year made it feel like he was wrecking more often than he was. Steve just races in one series and tears it up every week. Plus, at a year and a half in for Ragan, he has shown a lot of improvement. At roughly the same point, Steve hasn't shown anywhere near the same progress with just one series to focus on. I do agree with your point about Steve being brought up too soon. Maybe if he had more time to run more late models, more ARCA, more Hooters Cup, more ANYTHING, I think he would be doing better. I actually place a lot of blame for this on Rusty. He needs to realize this isn't working, this never was working, and this never came close to working. Your suggestion of demoting, I think, is a great one. But who wants to do that to their son? Rusty needs to make some hard decisions soon because it is the right thing to do. 23. New88Fan posted: 07.07.2008 - 5:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) He's actually reminding me a lot of David Ragan, only maybe with a little less talent. Remember Ragan when he first came up? He was, to use the quote about Steve, "a wrecking ball on wheels." That was around age 20 or so, about the same age Steve was late last year. Then last year in his rookie year in Cup he still caused quite a few wrecks, and many thought he'd never amount to much. Now he's a chase competitor and is finishing the races. Am I saying that Steve Wallace will be a title contender anywhere? No. He could, but he's got a long way to go. He may not even figure it out. But he's still young, and I really can't think of any(or at least very few) young drivers who didn't tear up a lot of equipment at his age. The difference is, he's been handed a Nationwide ride probably a little too soon. I think what he needs for a wake up call is to be demoted to ARCA for a year or two. Let him learn to race and don't bring him back up until he takes care of the equipment. samfan08 | 07.07.08 - 12:00 am -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's part of what I was getting at in my post samfan. DaleSrFan, I watch the exact same races as you and though this may shock you, to a certain degree you're actually right. However, I fail to see what Steve's "crashes" in the garage area and on pit road have to do with any of this. As for Billy Parker being let go back when RWI was a start up team, he just wasn't ready. Like samfan stated, both he and Steve were probably rushed from the lower racing leagues to the Nationwide series too early. Look at Mark McFarland for example. Jr. started JR Motorsports with him back in '05, then axed him half way through the '06 season. Now he's a regular contender in the Camping World series. The point is, Rusty and Harold Holly needs to take Steve aside and maybe do like Harry Hyde did with Tim Richmond once. Not saying that's the answer, but it's worth a shot. A part time deal and both '06 and last year before going full time this year might have worked out better too. Trying ANYTHING is better than just sitting back and doing nonthing. 24. DaleSrFanForever posted: 07.07.2008 - 11:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That is true New88Fan. You make a lot of good points. I probably should have made it clearer that I place a portion of blame on Rusty and RWI for this. I bring up the garage crashes and such because I just don't think he has his head in the game. He drives like the boss's son, like he knows he won't be canned. Rusty should make it clear to him that this is unacceptable. Like you said, something needs to happen because it just isn't getting better. You and SamFan08 are right about him being rushed up too quick. Part of the problem, I think, is that Rusty made such a big deal publicly about Steve being a racer in the years leading up to his Busch starts, to pull him back now would embarrass him and be an admission of failure. I think he was so intent on getting his son out there in the spotlight he lost track of the big picture. And when he did bad, he just left him in there. I guess this is understandable, you see nepotism in all corporations. But it is bad for all parties involved. Steve just adds to his reputation seemingly every week, RWI has to be losing money or at least not making near as much as they should be, Rusty has to constantly cover his son's butt on national TV, and others are being wrecked. Maybe Harold could do the Harry Hyde thing, but I wonder if Rusty would let him. I remember at Homestead last year when Steve wrecked after a restart on low tire pressures, TV played his in car audio and you could hear the crew chief say "Don't yell at me" and then admonish him for driving too hard on low pressures. That crew chief got fired. So I wonder if Rusty will let him. 25. JGRFriend posted: 07.12.2008 - 9:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It was a great showing for JGR, regardless of the horsepower issue. Denny's win also was the 100th victory for JGR in NASCAR racing. Just one more milestone in an incredible season! 26. hyltonfan58 posted: 07.13.2008 - 5:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Way to go James! A 36th place finish for the 73 year young legend. Probably the first time in a long time Morgan Shepherd wasn't the oldest guy in a race. 27. hyltonfan60 posted: 02.12.2009 - 6:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) James Hylton's sponsor was Suburban Accents. 28. CBASS posted: 01.26.2013 - 7:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor updates #60 Save-A-Lot Food Stores #70 Foretravel Motorcoach #40 Fastenal/ Ingorsall-Rand #4 JVC Everio #25 John Morrell Off The Bone #27 Kleenix/ Winn-Dixie #01 SAFX.com #24 Hefty #59 Kingsford Matchlight http://www.motorsport.com/nascar-ns/photos/main-gallery/?s=5&y=2008&r=2877 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: