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It’s going to be a big weekend coming up for the Wallace’s as the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes a trip to St. Louis this weekend for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway, hometown to brothers Mike and Kenny Wallace. Considered to be the home track for the Wallace family, the track has been kind enough to name the grandstands in Turns 1 and 2 after the Wallace’s, and even honored them by placing their name on the race itself during older brother, Rusty’s retirement year.

Despite all of the hometown recognition, though, a member of the Wallace family has never put a tally in the win column since the Nationwide Series began racing here back in 1997, but they’ll have a prime opportunity to change that this weekend. Mike Wallace is having one of his finer seasons as he currently sits 8th in points and would like nothing more than to notch one up here in front of his hometown fans. He nearly did just that back in 2005 when he finished 2nd here in an Evernham Motorsports car. Mike will also be an honorary guest at the St. Louis Cardinals game on Thursday where he will throw out the first pitch of the game.

Kenny Wallace will also attend the race, as will Steven Wallace, who will be driving for Rusty Wallace Inc, the team owned by his father, Rusty Wallace. That team is still looking for their first win of the season. Steven is currently 12th in the points standings, and Kenny is 18th. All three Wallace’s will also compete in a dirt track race at Tri-City Speedway on Friday in Pontoon Beach, IL.

Mike’s daughter, Chrissy Wallace, will be competing this weekend as well. Chrissy will make the third Craftsman Truck Series start of her career on Saturday in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. To date, she’s finished 18th at Martinsville and 20th at the Milwuakee Mile.

For those NASCAR fans that thought after the retirement of Rusty Wallace two years ago that the sole responsibility of getting the Wallace family name into the headlines of the racing world would fall squarely on the shoulders of young Lauren (Warren?) Wallace, you could be sadly mistaken. No, I’m not talking about the trio that currently occupies the Nationwide Series – Mike, Kenny, and Steve – and, I’m not even referring to the team of Rusty Wallace Inc.  I’m actually making reference to the 20-year-old Chrissy Wallace.

For those of you not familiar with the name, Chrissy is the daughter of Mike Wallace, and the niece of future Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace. She’s been racing for a few years now, particularly in late model events in North and South Carolina. She has won four late model events and is also the first female to win a late model stock car event at Hickory Speedway in the track’s 57 year history. Additionally, she’s won forty-plus races in legends cars.

Now, according to Raygan Swan at nascar.com, Chrissy will officially embark on her professional career on March 29th of this year when she competes in the Craftsman Truck Series’ Kroger 250 at Martinsville. She has partnered herself with the Toyota team Germain Racing and will compete in at least five Craftsman Truck races as well as five ARCA races throughout the course of the season. If she runs well in those events, who knows, she could potentially be tapped to run more events if scheduling permits. Chrissy’s father, Michael, also races for Germain in the Nationwide Series, and this move will officially make them the first father-daughter combo to ever race for the same team in NASCAR.

In response to questions regarding the status of women in NASCAR – or, in the racing world in general – Chrissy stated, “I feel more accepted here, especially lately because I proved my point by winning. But, guys have it stuck in their heads that females don’t need to be out here. The phrase ‘never a successful female’ is stuck in owners’ minds and some have said we don’t run well and look like idiots, but if you don’t take a chance, you’ll never know.”

The National Stock Car Racing Commission earlier this overturned an earlier decision to penalize the no. 64 team of Rusty Wallace Inc. for an unsecured oil lid in the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in February.  The Commission reinstated crew chief Steve Darne, and also reinstated David Stremme’s 25 driver points and the team’s $15k fine.  Despite being reinstated, however, Darne has since left Rusty Wallace Inc. on his own terms for other reasons not yet made public.  Rusty Wallace himself is unsure how the Commission’s decision to overturn this team’s penalty will affect the other four Nationwide teams that were penalized at Daytona for similar incidents, and I’m sure that most of the racing world is now waiting to see if this has any bearing on NASCAR’s decision on whether or not they should punish Carl Edwards for his bizarre incident following post-race inspection at Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, just before NASCAR got things started this past weekend in Las Vegas, JR Motorsports decided to drop their appeal for the penalties their team incurred during the same week that Wallace’s team was penalized. Junior’s penalty was for an illegal deck lift his team installed after qualifying, and it resulted in the loss of 50 driver points, a $25k fine, and crew chief Chad Walter receiving a six-race suspension. Walter has already begun serving his suspension with Hendrick Motorsports employee and former crew chief Lance McGrew filling in for the no. 5 team in the interim.

2/17 – Ryan Newman kicked off the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season by winning his first race in 81 races by bringing home the checkers at the Daytona 500.  Read More.

2/17 – Former NBA star John Salley has stated that he is in the early stages of negotiations of purchasing or starting a team in the Sprint Cup Series.  Read More.

2/18 – The Martin Truex Jr Foundation has announced the official launch of their “Tag! You’re It” campaign to benefit the Dove House Children’s Advocacy Center.  Read More.

2/18 – NASCAR has reported an entry list of 51 drivers for California in this weekend’s Sprint Cup race, 43 entries in the Nationwide Series, and 35 entries in the Craftsman Truck Series race.

2/19 – The International Race of Champions (IROC) Series has officially announced the termination of the series and will liquidate all assets in a 2-day public auction on March 7th & 8th.  Read More.

2/19 – The IndySeries is expected to purchase the Champ Car Series in a deal that could happen as early as this afternoon, though details have not yet been confirmed.  Read More.

2/19 – This weekend at Fontana, CA, Mark Martin will become only the 13th driver in history to make his 700th career start in a Cup Series points race.  Read More.

2/19 – Rusty Wallace Inc. has announced that Dale Ferguson will serve as the interim Crew Chief for their no. 64 Nationwide Series team driven by David Stremme, Max Papis, & Chase Austin.  Read More.

2/19 – Roush-Fenway Racing has announced that Travis Kvapil will drive the no. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150 in the Craftsman Truck Series race this weekend at California. Read More.