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 He speaks with the confidence of a competitor who has regained the winning formula he had when he took the series title in 1989, and dominated in 1993-94. Wallace broke a 32-race losing streak with a victory in Bristol in March, and has been among the cars to beat travelodge sandusky cedar point in virtually each race since. the 44-year-old driver from st. louis is trying for victory no. 54, which would tie him with lee petty for seventh place on the nascar career list. in that quest, wallace will rely on the basics. "we just have to massage that chassis, conserve the tires and stay out of trouble," he said. "i''m really looking forward to it." credited his mall.com 400 victory in march to the crew led by tommy baldwin. "all i had to do was make it 400 miles," ward said as far as the nascar busch series grand national division is concerned, darlington raceway could be renamed mark martin raceway. if there is a nascar busch series record at darlington, chances are that martin has it. the veteran pilot, statistically the finest competitor in series history, holds the record for most victories, seven, and bud poles, six. this weekend, martin will make his final series start in the dura lube 200 (saturday, 3:30 p.m. et on espn tv and prn radio) at darlington, a track he has learned to tame in the no. 60 winn-dixie ford. martin''s most recent addition to the darlington record book came in march when he won from the bud pole for the second time in his career. after spending much of the race battling jeff burton and matt kenseth for the lead, martin took the lead for good with 24 laps to go. kenseth went high to challenge for the lead with two laps remaining, but could not pass martin. burton and martin were side-by-side on the final lap of the race, but martin pulled ahead just enough to claim the third of his four series wins this season. "i really love racing at places that are wide where you can pass easily and darlington just isn''t one of those places. it is so tight that passing is tough to do. in fact, the place is so narrow, you''ll be successful if you just don''t hit the wall all day long." heading into the weekend, green''s lead point of grace over second-place jason keller is an astounding 589 points. the race for second-place has become heated between four drivers -- keller, todd bodine and rookies kevin harvick and ron hornaday. keller is enjoying the most consistent season of his career in the no. 57 excedrin chevrolet. harvick and hornaday have each won twice in nascar 2000 -- they have combined to win four of the past seven events -- and will likely be tough yet again this weekend. harvick dominated last friday night''s food city 250 at bristol motor speedway, leading more laps than anyone in series history -- 241 of 250 -- en route to victory lane. he trails keller by just seven points with eight races remaining. harvick''s key to victory lane this weekend? bud pole qualifying. "darlington''s narrow just like Mercedes Hammock Point bristol and it takes a long time to get by somebody without flat running into them," Odds and stats for betting on sports.
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