Darrell Wallace’s Jr.'s Cup debut Sunday at Pocono Raceway was “truly a special day” for the 23-year-old driver.
At first African-American driver in the series in a decade who is also driving the famous No. 43, the moment brought a lot of attention to Wallace.
Wallace discussed the experience and what he learned from it with NASCAR America’s Dave Burns.
“Having the right people help you through that made it very easy,” Wallace said. “I felt I wasn’t overwhelmed by anything. I was still able to stay focused on what the big picture and that was making sure we did everything right inside the racecar and not losing track of my marks from going back and forth doing double duty.”
As focused as he was, Wallace was caught speeding on pit road three times on his way to finishing 26th in the race. Wallace attributed it to his unfamiliarity with the digital dashboards that are in Cup cars
“That was the biggest thing I learned,” Wallace said. “I’m going to work on some light stuff here in a little bit. Go and talk to (Crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) and the engineers about how we can manage that a little bit better, maybe get us a little bit more of a gap for error.”
Wallace also talked about his feinting spell after the race on pit road, which he said was “blown out of proportion.”
Watch the video for the full interview.