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Darrell Wallace wins NASCAR trucks race at Martinsville

 
Darrell Wallace
Darrell Wallace
Published Oct. 26, 2014

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Darrell Wallace made Saturday a tribute to the late Wendell Scott with a truck painted and numbered for the Hall of Fame inductee.

Then he drove it to Victory Lane.

Wallace's win Saturday at Martinsville Speedway came a year after he became the first African-American driver to win a national NASCAR race since Scott in 1963. Kyle Busch Motorsports changed the number of Wallace's Toyota truck on Saturday from No. 54 to No. 34 to honor Scott, the NASCAR pioneer who will be posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January.

"It means a lot, I know I had a guardian angel looking over me this weekend," Wallace said. "To be able to put (the truck) in Victory Lane, you couldn't ask for a better weekend. You thought last year was special, but this definitely beats it."

Wallace led a race-high 97 laps in the Kroger 200 for his third victory of the season. Wallace cut his points deficit to 22 behind leader Matt Crafton with four races remaining.

Timothy Peters finished second, followed by Crafton, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.

Wallace grabbed the lead from Johnny Sauter in heavy traffic with 12 of the 200 laps remaining, but before the record 11th caution slowed the race. He then pulled away after a restart with six laps left.