Chrissy Wallace's second career start had no lack or drama or action.  Some have pre-emptively given her the title of the second coming of Danica Patrick.  Well, ironically, she was caught up in an accident in turn 1 in the same spot and similar fashion as Danica Patrick's run-in with Dan Wheldon one year ago.  Oh yeah, and they were both at Milwaukee.

The accident with Chad McCumbee WAS NOT HER FAULT.  Trust me folks, she didn't drive into turn one with the intention of wrecking Chad McCumbee.

From my viewpoint watching on SPEED HD, it appeared she had her line on the frontstretch taken from her by Skinner.  What happened there is still in the air.  It is times like this when I wish we had Kyle Petty in the booth.  But, it looked to me like she went low to avoid Skinner and was stuck taking a bad line into turn one.  She tried to get through the turn on the inside, but McCumbee was there and they collided.  Chad McCumbee was upset with Chrissy and fireworks took place on the track.

That, folks, was a product good hard racing action, not an accident caused by one driver's lack of experience, knowledge, emotions or lack of talent.  It was neither of those, as Chrissy Wallace has proven she has the knowledge, talent and proper emotions to race in NASCAR racing.  Her win at Hickory should remove all doubt.

The other two incidents involved veteran driver Matt Crafton.  While race leader Rick Crawford passed her high in turn one, Crafton was upset with her being in the inside line as he took a low-line.  Rule of thumb in NASCAR is that the leaders usually pass the lapped cars by going high.  Crafton did not do that, and resorted to a desperate bump-and-run with no success.  After about 2 laps, he finally managed to clear Wallace but lost the battle (and quite possibly the race) in doing so.

With about five to go, the two would meet again with Crafton taking a blatant cheap shot at Chrissy Wallace going into turn one.  Wallace yelided to race leader Johnny Benson and I'm sure she would've yeilded to Crafton as well.  Instead, Crafton went in hard and bumped her out of the way.  Again, can't really blame Chrissy for that.

Early on, the 19 year-old driver from Concord would experience her first problem of the race.  On lap 30, SPEED reported she had a soft brake.  Chrissy radioed in and said she floored the brake and got no response.  Whether the brake pads, rotor, caliber or master cylinder were shot, we don't know.  It could've simply been that they just needed to bleed the excess air out under yellow.  Since my information is only limited to SPEED TV, I cannot testify to either situation, it is merely early observations.

Despite the problems, Chrissy Wallace brought her truck home in the 20th position.

UPDATED Wed. June 25, 2008: RacingForTheWin.com has recieved follow-up from Germain Racing.  The brake problems never subsided and there was a handling problem.  Thanks Germain Racing for the following details:

FOLLOW-UP: Wallace 20^th at Milwaukee (Germain Racing PR)

West Allis, WI (06-21-2008) – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer Chrissy Wallace made her first visit to The Milwaukee Mile for Friday night’s Camping World RV Sales 200. The 20 year-old Missourian had only seen Milwaukee on a video game.  She qualified 29th and finished 20th in the no. 03 Germain Toyota Tundra.

“The Milwaukee Mile was a different experience. It was the first time we’ve seen the track. The Germain Toyota Tundra was a tight getting into the corners which made us loose off, but we were able to race the truck and get a decent finish,” said Wallace.

With a legendary name to live up to, Wallace shrugged off the pressure and simply focused on working with crew chief Mike Abner and the crew to get good results in her second Truck Series race.

“Chrissy gained experience this weekend at Milwaukee . She had never seen the track, which requires a specific technique to get good speed. It takes laps there to find that and she did great considering she’d never seen the track before,” said Abner.

Wallace worked through a braking issue and a spin to collect her second top-20 finish in two Truck Series races.

“We got spun out going back to green after the red flag, but we were able to keep racing. We are happy with the finish. We brought the Germain Toyota Tundra back in one piece with a decent finish,” said Wallace.

Abner said the issue with the brakes is a mystery that will have to be solved at the shop.

“Chrissy had to pump the brake pedal. We pulled some tape from the brake ducts, which made it a little better but we’ll have to tear it down at the shop to figure out what the problem was,” said Abner.

Germain Racing earned the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship in 2006. The team has collected 14 Truck Series wins and 5 pole awards since it first joined Truck Series competition in September of 2004. For information on how your company can join the winning efforts of Germain Racing, visit www.germainracing.com.

For RacingForTheWin.com, I'm Andy Marquis reporting.

Content from Germain Racing and SPEED TV contributed to this report.

The opinions expressed in this article are not the opinions of NASCAR, SPEED TV, News-Corp or Turner Sports.  The author can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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