Martinsville - Pre-Race
Martinsville Speedway
March 20, 1997
MARTINSVILLE, VA-We're less than an hour away from the running of today's NASCAR Winston Cup Goody's Headache Powder 500 Kenny Wallace won his first career pole position on Friday and will lead the field of 42 cars to the green flag which is scheduled to drop shortly after 1:00 pm. While the pole was major accomplishment for the youngest of the three racing Wallace brothers, Kenny has his sights set on his first career victory. Oldest brother Rusty has visited victory lane here at this quaint .0526-mile race track a total of six times so the Wallace name is already etched into the history books here. Kenny would dearly love to add his moniker to the list. "Here's the deal," Wallace explained. "It's important for us to try to win this season, and the reason is because I'm a Wallace and I come from a background. I'm not going to sit on this pole and lead for two laps and let somebody get by me. The last thing I want to do is drop the green flag and have everyone say, 'The kid got a lucky lap. It was a fluke.' I want to prove my ability to be able to set the car up properly and to run good here. So it's important to me to be competitive." There is an additional $52,800 in bonus money up for grabs today. The Unocal Challenge bonus is worth $22,800 to Wallace if he can win today's race. The NASCAR Winston Cup Leader bonus has rolled to $30,000 and is available to any driver who can win the event and move into first place in overall series points. Jeff Gordon has already won $20,000 in leader bonus money this season after victories at Daytona and Rockingham. Today's event is the eighth of the 32-race 1997 season. The competitors will race for 500 laps (263 miles).
