Darrell Wallace Jr., Richard Petty Motorsports look to build off Daytona 500 runner-up finish

A media blitz that included television appearances on CNN and Fox News, numerous guest spots on national radio and assorted other interviews with outlets around the country may have given the impression there were two winners in the Daytona 500 last weekend.

There wasn’t of course, NASCAR races don’t have ties. The actual honor went to Austin Dillon on Sunday, even though Darrell Wallace Jr. was in fact the biggest winner as he was the story of the race in the immediate aftermath and in the days that followed.

The 24-year-old rookie for Richard Petty Motorsports stepped into the spotlight with a runner-up finish to Dillon that preceded an emotional post-race press conference where he and his mother had a tearful embrace. Then, he broke down again while explaining how badly he wanted to make his family proud and the journey of being the first African-American driver to compete full-time in NASCAR’s Cup Series since 1971. In a sport where drivers often are reluctant to show their feelings, this was a welcome departure.

“Nobody remembers who finished second, except for the guy who finished second,” Wallace said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s QuikTrip 500. “But, a lot of people are going to remember this moment, remember that day, and just be able to take it in.

“All the pressure (the media) put on me to perform well, hell, I went out there and did it for you. I gave you all a story. … The first African American since Wendell Scott, highest African American finish, highest rookie finish -- there’s a lot of history that went with it. But it’s just crazy. It’s awesome.”

If there is such a thing as a star being born, this was it. Charismatic, glib and young, Wallace has all the characteristics NASCAR desperately craves as it attempts to replace the star power it lost with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, and Tony Stewart all recently retiring.

But to be one of the faces of NASCAR there is another key element a driver must possess: The ability to win, or least be competitive enough where the hype eventually takes on some form of tangible substance. There is no better example than Patrick of what becomes of a driver when the ballyhoo of their arrival fades amid a succession of mediocre results.

Like Wallace, Patrick used success in the Daytona 500 to catapult herself into being a marquee attraction, first by winning the pole for the 2013 edition, then by finishing eighth in the race itself. Considering this was Patrick’s first start as a full-time Cup Series driver, many reasoned she would only improve with experience and eventually break through to become the first female driver to win a NASCAR national touring division race.

Patrick made her 191st start on Sunday. As she did in the previous 190, she failed to win and in her career she never placed better than sixth nor ranked better than 24th in the yearend championship points standings. Eventually Patrick’s aura dimmed. No longer were sponsors enamored solely with her brand and when Stewart-Haas Racing could not find sufficient funding she left the team after last season, announcing the 2018 Daytona 500 would be her final NASCAR race.

“(Wallace is) one of those guys that has the potential to take the whole sport to another level and expose it to people and places that we haven’t been in a long time and may have never been before,” Harvick said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.

“When I talk about that mystique of the Danica Patricks of the world, she did qualify on the pole. If she would have gone out and done everything that (Wallace) has done in basically a week and a half in (Dayton 500) Speedweeks from the performance side, her whole thing would have blown up bigger than it was.”

Wallace will be afforded ample time to prove himself at the Cup level. However, his situation is made difficult not because there are doubts about his ability -- there aren’t, he’s more than deserving of the opportunity provided -- more so because unlike Patrick, he did not join an upper-tier organization where the quality of equipment is among the best in the garage.

Although Richard Petty Motorsports is not a backmarker by any means, it is decades removed from when Richard Petty’s iconic No. 43 overwhelmingly dominated NASCAR.

Nowadays, the wins are few and far between and the team is squarely stuck in the middle between competitive and irrelevant. Aric Almirola, who Wallace replaced this season, averaged five top-10s a season during his six-year stint with the team and only made the playoffs once -- by virtue of winning a rain-shortened race on a restrictor-plate track, his lone Cup victory to date.

A lack of funding and resources has habitually hindered RPM, preventing the team from escaping its rut. Losing primary sponsor Smithfield Foods, which shifted with Almirola to Stewart-Haas Racing, this offseason was the latest blow as RPM has yet to find a replacement to completely fill the void. The hope within the team is Wallace’s personality and promise will help make RPM an enticing option for an interested sponsor.

To improve itself competitively, RPM switched from Ford to Chevrolet over the offseason and forged an alliance with Richard Childress Racing that entails RPM receiving chassis, engines and technical support from RCR. RPM also relocated from its shop in Mooresville, N.C., to RCR’s headquarters in Welcome, N.C.

“When you see all of the changes that the No. 43 team has gone through and is going through and the transition … they’ve moved their shop and changed manufacturers, they have a long road ahead of them,” Harvick said. “But the one thing that can help them move down that road is sponsorship.”

The series of moves made for a busy offseason presenting a host of challenges, making Wallace’s second-place finish at Daytona all the more remarkable. After all, a first-year driver pairing with a rebuilding team, a new manufacturer alliance and a relocation isn’t necessarily a recipe for instant success.

“I think you have to be patient with it as you go forward,” Harvick said. “There will be some bumps in the road with some things they have to transition through and work out. There’s an experience level that (Wallace) is going to have to go through with the Cup cars and the race tracks and all the different things that come with being a first-year driver.”

Inevitably there will be dips, not every race will produce an outcome like Daytona. But Wallace should have his chances to again shine. And if anything, RPM’s plight will help keep expectations in check for him during his freshman campaign.

“I’m excited about this year,” Wallace said. “I keep saying it: Our attitude and our appetite for being competitive and just having that hungry appetite is going to carry us a long way.”