END OF THE NASCAR ROAD FOR DALLENBACH?

The January NASCAR Winston Cup Preview saw
something unusual in 2001 – an area of pessimism. That area was found at the
booth of Wally Dallenbach Jr., a driver in Winston Cup since 1991 and who had
driven the ex-Butch Mock #75 presently owned by businessman Darwin Oordt.
Dallenbach indicated that as of mid-January sponsorship of his #75 was needed,
but he sounded less than optimistic about chances of acquiring sponsorship. He
also indicated he was tired of being miserable in NASCAR and that he would look
back to open wheel racing, from where he came in 1991. "(NASCAR) is too
long a season to be miserable. If I can get into a situation where I can be
competitive, this is where I want to stay. Right now the best (non-NASCAR)
opportunity I have is in the IRL……John Barnes and I are good friends, and
there is a possibility there."

Whatever Dallenbach winds up doing, his
NASCAR career has been one of banging his head against a wall and trying to get
something going. The son of 1970s USAC open wheel star Wally Dallenbach Sr.,
Wally Jr. forged a career in road racing in the 1980s. Wally Jr. tried to enter
Indy cars but no rides were available, so he joined Junie Donlavey’s #90 Ford in
Winston Cup early in 1991.

When Jack Roush formed a second team for
1992, Dallenbach was hired as the driver, and the Coors brewery out of
Dallenbach’s home state of Colorado provided sponsorship. The tenure with Roush,
however, was an early sign of trouble. Dallenbach had difficulty adapting to
stock cars, and in his two seasons with the team he managed only five top tens.
Even his brightest moment – second at Watkins Glen – was robbed of any glory;
during the Watkins Glen GP Jack Roush confiscated tires slated for Dallenbach’s
team to give to Mark Martin’s primary #6 team, which led to a confrontation
between the two afterward.

Dallenbach signed with Petty Enterprises
for 1994, and almost immediately things went wrong. He failed to qualify at
Richmond and Atlanta, then at Martinsville, and then Michigan, Daytona, and New
Hampshire. His only bright spots were stellar efforts at Talladega, a tenth at
Dover, and a fourth at Sears Point. The end came when he squabbled with crew
chief Robbie Loomis after the Brickyard 400 over radio problems and Loomis lost
all control at Dallenbach. Wally’s driving looked doubly bad when rookie John
Andretti jumped in the car and qualified handily at every race and led 30 laps
at Charlotte.

Wally basically sat out 1995, but at
Watkins Glen he was tabbed for Bill Davis’ #22 Pontiac – and he appeared
destined to win, but a late caution erased his lead and wound up giving the race
to Mark Martin. This, though, got him the notice of Bud Moore, and Dallenbach
signed to drive Moore’s #15 Fords for 1996. The team acquired Hayes Modems
sponsorship and at the Daytona 500 Dallenbach stormed into the battle for the
lead, pushed Dale Jarrett past Earnhardt with 24 to go, and ultimately finished
sixth.

But the pattern continued. Dallenbach
failed to qualify at Martinsville, ran well at Talladega, and finished third at
Sears Point – where Terry Labonte commented that the two road courses were the
only tracks Dallenbach was competitive on.

The rest of 1996 was more of the same –
Wally stormed to second at Talladega but crashed, and was not a factor anywhere
else. His season ended at Atlanta with a crash with Loy Allen.

He did, though, sign with a new team –
SABCO. But despite another stellar Talladega effort he was gone from the team by
May 1998. He wound up landing into the Hendrick Motorsports #25 for 1999, and he
began to garner some top tens. In the Winston 500 of 1999 Dallenbach was the
fastest in final practice and he stuck the #25 into the lead early on. But the
engine shut off, and that was it as far as being competitive for 1999.

Dallenbach then signed with Darwin Oordt,
who’d purchased Butch Mock’s #75 in 1999. "….he came in here and had no
idea what this business is like," Dallenbach said in PitNow. "Darwin
got a pretty big education (in 2000)." Among the struggles was failure to
qualify at Wally’s best oval, Talladega.

Aside from racing, Dallenbach has also
been known in NASCAR circles for his hunting expeditions with, among others,
Richard Childress.

It always hurts the sport a little bit
when a driver has to drop out. For all his struggles, Dallenbach did show some
moxie over the years, and 2000 did see some good runs. NASCAR racing wouldn’t
exactly suffer with Dallenbach’s continued presence, but given his open wheel
heritage, a return to Indianapolis in an open wheeler would be a nice change.