NASCAR Cup Series

Bubba time: Darrell Wallace Jr. wins again at Martinsville

Published Oct. 25, 2014 3:51 p.m. ET

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Jared Turner

Carrying a special paint scheme and the No. 34 in honor of 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott, Darrell Wallace Jr. wrestled the lead away from Johnny Sauter with 13 laps to go and held on to win Saturday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at sun-splashed Martinsville Speedway.

Wallace, who also wore a throwback fire suit as a tribute to Scott, scored his fourth career truck win at the same track where he notched his first career victory in this race one year ago.

With that victory last October, Wallace -- whose nickname is "Bubba" -- became the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR national touring series race since Scott won at Jacksonville Speedway on Dec. 1, 1963.

With Scott's whole family in attendance on Saturday, 21-year-old Wallace celebrated an emotional triumph at the .526-mile short track located about a half hour away from the late driver's hometown of Danville, Va.

"They kept telling me where everybody was (on the track)," said Wallace, who remained third in the standings but pulled within 22 points of leader Matt Crafton. "I said, 'I don't care. It's our weekend.' God, that was so fun, man. Martinsville's my favorite place to come to. With the whole Wendell Scott family here, this is a special moment, a perfect weekend for us, man. It's a true honor to have Wendell Scott on our Toyota Tundra, and to be able to put it in Victory Lane … I know he just said, 'Hell, yeah,' up there, so this is as cool as hell."

Hometown favorite Timothy Peters passed Sauter with three laps to go and held on to finish second, followed by reigning series champion Crafton, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.

Sauter, who faded to seventh in the final rundown, yelled angrily at Peters on pit road after the race about contact that occurred between the two drivers before Peters snatched the second spot away in the closing laps.

"You just race hard all day and you get clobbered at the end," Sauter said. "That's the way it is. If people like that, then I guess they should keep coming."

Peters, who won last week's race at Talladega, downplayed the contact and the post-race confrontation with Sauter.

"I cut him a break earlier on, and it's just Martinsville, you know what I mean?" Peters said.

Crafton is now the series leader by 18 points over Blaney, who battled back for a top-five finish after spinning and incurring right-side damage in a multi-vehicle wreck with 64 laps to go.

"For us to be able to fix it partially and us to get a top five, that really shows the resilience of this team, and we're still right in the middle of it with three races to go, only 18 points back," Blaney said.

Crafton, who like Blaney survived an up-and-down afternoon at Martinsville, remains in position to become the series' first back-to-back champion with only three races left on the schedule.

"If it's meant to be, it'll be," said Crafton, who won at Martinsville in the spring. "If not, then we'll go on and try again next year."

VIDEO: German Quiroga spins while battling for first at Martinsville

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