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Bayne and Wallace saved at zero hour as Nationwide goes short track racing: The Ford EcoBoost 300 Preview

Mar 17, 2012, 2:24 PM UTC

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Two drivers have stories that we have been following since Daytona. Trevor Bayne and Kenny Wallace are both on the brink of missing races due to sponsorship woes. While they are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in age, both are fan favorite 'oh shucks' kinda guys. Wallace got the bigger name sponsor this week in Mac Tools, but things are still looking grim for the Nationwide Only RAB Racing.

Trevor Bayne's savior goes by the name of Lally Horse Stables. Lally Stables is not making it's NASCAR debut, as they sponsored Clay Greenfield's Truck entry at Daytona last month. James Lally owns the Ocala, FL Horse Stable that trains, boards, and breeds National Winning Race Horses. It may seem a bit odd that a company located in Florida would sponsor a car racing in Tennessee, but think of the press that Lally is getting this week by saving Bayne at least one more week.

Entry List and more after the jump!

Entry	Car#	Driver	Sponsor	Manu	Owner
1	01	Mike Wallace	G&K Services	12 Chevy	JD Motorsports
2	2	Elliott Sadler	ONE MAIN FINANCIAL	12 Chevy	Richard Childress Racing
3	3	Austin Dillon	ADVOCARE	12 Chevy	Richard Childress Racing
4	4	Danny Efland	Danny Efland Racing	12 Chevy	JD Motorsports
5	5	Dale Earnhardt Jr(i) [PC 3] *	TaxSlayer.com	12 Chevy	JR Motorsports
6	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Roush Fenway Racing	12 Ford	Roush Fenway
7	7	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy.com	12 Chevy	JR Motorsports
8	08	Tim Andrews (S) *	Randy Hill Racing	12 Ford	Hill Motorsports
9	09	Kenny Wallace	Mac Tools	12 Toyota	RAB Racing
10	10	Jeff Green (S) [PC4] *	TBD	12 Toyota	TriStar Motorsports
11	11	Brian Scott	Dollar General	12 Toyota	Joe Gibbs
12	12	Sam Hornish Jr	Alliance Truck Parts	12 Dodge	Penske Racing
13	14	Eric McClure	Hefty Black Out	12 Toyota	TriStar Motorsports
14	15	Jeffrey Earnhardt *	Sam's Club	12 Ford	Rick Ware
15	18	Joey Logano(i)	GameStop	12 Toyota	Joe Gibbs
16	19	Tayler Malsam	G-Oil	12 Toyota	TriStar Motorsports
17	20	Ryan Truex *	Grime Boss	12 Toyota	Joe Gibbs
18	22	Brad Keselowski(i) [PC 1]	Discount Tire	12 Dodge	Penske Racing
19	23	Jamie Dick	Viva Auto Group	12 Chevy	R3 Motorsports
20	24	Benny Gordon *	Kentucky Antler Company	12 Toyota	SC2 Motorsports
21	27	J J Yeley(i) *	GCMI	12 Ford	Steve Meehan
22	28	Kevin Lepage	TBA	12 Chevy	Jay Robinson
23	30	James Buescher(i)	TBA	12 Chevy	Turner Motorsports
24	31	Justin Allgaier	Brandt	12 Chevy	Turner Motorsports
25	33	Kevin Harvick(i)	ARMOUR	12 Chevy	Richard Childress Racing
26	38	Kasey Kahne(i)	Great Clips	12 Chevy	Turner Motorsports
27	39	Joey Gase	AJSToyz.com	12 Ford	Go Green Racing
28	40	Erik Darnell	Curtis Key Plumbing	12 Chevy	The Motorsports Group
29	41	Blake Koch	Rise Up and Register	12 Ford	Rick Ware
30	42	Josh Wise(i) (S) *	Curtis Key Plumbing	12 Chevy	The Motorsports Group
31	43	Michael Annett	Pilot/Flying J	12 Ford	Richard Petty Motorsports
32	44	Mike Bliss *	TBA	12 Toyota	TriStar Motorsports
33	46	Chase Miller (S) *	Curtis Key Plumbing	12 Chevy	The Motorsports Group
34	47	Scott Speed(i) (S) *	Curtis Key Plumbing	12 Chevy	The Motorsports Group
35	50	T J Bell	TBA	12 Chevy	MAKE Motorsports
36	51	Jeremy Clements	Clements Automotive	12 Chevy	Jeremy Clements
37	52	Tim Schendel	Metro Ministries	12 Chevy	Jimmy Means
38	60	Trevor Bayne	Lally Horse Stables	12 Ford	Roush Fenway
39	54	Kyle Busch(i) [PC 2] *	Monster Energy	12 Toyota	Kyle Busch
40	70	Johanna Long	Foretravel	12 Chevy	ML Motorsports
41	73	Derrike Cope (S) *	TBA	12 Chevy	Creation Cope Motorsports
42	74	Mike Harmon *	Koma Unwind	12 Chevy	Mike Harmon
43	81	Jason Bowles	American Majority	12 Dodge	MacDonald Motorsports
44	87	Joe Nemechek	AM/FM Energy	12 Toyota	NEMCO
45	88	Cole Whitt	Hendrickcars.com	12 Chevy	JR Motorsports
46	89	Morgan Shepherd *	TBA	12 Chevy	Faith Motorsports
			(S) Known Start and Park
			(i) Not Running For Title
			[PC] Past Champion
			* Must Qualify On Time

46 teams are entered this week, so three will hit the showers early. Just a few notes:

#5- Dale Earnhardt Jr will make another start as the third JR Motorsports entry. Earnhardt will make some enemies tonight. Short track racing always brings out the best and worst in people. JR will need to qualify on time unless both Keselowski and Busch make it on time.
#11- Last week a great run by Brian Scott was undone by a hard wreck. Scott is looking to climb back in the hunt or he may be looking for a new ride next year.
#15- Jeffrey Earnhardt is back. Earnhardt will be making a start for Rick Ware Racing, a team he left last year in the Truck Series. No one has any clue why Rick Ware keeps taking him back. Jeffrey will have to qualify on time.
#20- Ryan Truex will have to qualify on time, but it’s great to see him back in good equipment this week. Truex is another of Nascar’s young stars that are looking for work. Is it too hard for Nascar to make some program where teams get extra monetary support for running a rookie instead of a Cup driver. Looking at you Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski. It can’t be that hard. Take one of your “Official Nascar Sponsors” that you take from teams and get them to sponsor a Rookie Movement program that rewards teams for running guys like Ryan Truex, Trevor Bayne and Josh Wise without start and parking. Can you hear me Nascar?
#28- Speaking of teams that seem to hate Rookies, Jay Robinson dug up Kevin Lepage’s dead career for another start in a team that will probably be closed before next years Bristol race.
#30- James Buescher. Racing again. I can only assume that next year when the trucks actually start racing again that he will return to his own series. I have nothing against our Daytona Winner, just seems odd that he and Kasey Kahne are still kicking around this team instead of Turner running someone full time to help Justin Allgaier.
#42- I really hate “The Motorsports Group”. They are the worst team I have ever seen. All that talent and it is wasted by parking three team every week. They are the opposite of TriStar, which has three teams run the race and one park. I hate it, but I’d rather see it then three teams parking. You doing the math? Three teams go home. So what’s the chance that it is the three TMG cars and not three teams trying to run up front for an entire race?
#54- Things have been rough for Rowdy Busch. They have been even rougher on my blood pressure every time I hear him called “Wild Thing” by DW. Are you kidding me? The guy has Rowdy written on his car. Why are you coming up with an even more generic nickname for someone who already has a perfectly good one? You want to know why sponsors don’t want to join Nascar? It’s DW. But not just him. We have the most technologically advanced race cars out there, and all I hear on broadcasts is how pretty Danica Patrick is or how Dale Jr has a more fire then a corn snake trying to catch a jack rabbit. It’s time to move past our “Redneck roots” and let’s stop being the joke of the Sports world.

Saturday. March 17th. ESPN. Mark it down, DVR it, get your friends together for some good old fashioned short track racing. Bristol Motor Speedway. One of the most exciting races of the year is coming this weekend. I hope you can make time to watch it. If you can, make sure you have a TV and a computer in close distance. Because we here at Nascar Ranting and Raving do a little thing called an Open Race Thread. That’s where fans across the country get together to complain about how often ESPN shows Danica Patrick. Get your voice out there folks. Enjoy!

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