Kenny Wallace: NASCAR Driver, Dirt Track Champion and Broadcaster

Kenny Wallace spent about 25 years in NASCAR, collecting nine wins, all of them in the Busch Series. He then went back to dirt tracks, won several regional titles and moved into broadcasting and podcasting. This article traces that path, from his early work as a mechanic to his most recent seasons.

Who is Kenny Wallace?

Kenny Wallace is an American driver born on August 23, 1963, who raced in NASCAR from 1988 to 2015. He won nine times in the Busch Series and later turned to dirt track racing in the UMP DIRTcar modified class, where he won several regional titles.

Wallace grew up in a family of racers. His father, Russ, won often on Midwestern short tracks during the 1960s and 1970s. Kenny is the youngest of three brothers, and both Rusty and Mike went on to compete at the national level. As a boy he picked up the nickname 'Herman' after a Lake Hill Speedway promoter, Bob Mueller, noticed his boisterous behaviour while he defended his father. The promoter likened him to the cartoon character Herman the German.

From a mechanic's bench to a 547-start Xfinity record and dirt-track titles, his career kept finding new tracks.

How did Kenny Wallace get started in racing?

Wallace began as a mechanic working on his father's cars and his brother's team. His first race, the 1982 Illinois Street Stock State Championship, ended in victory. He later became a crew chief before moving into the driver's seat full-time in the late 1980s.

Money was tight during the move from the workshop to the cockpit. Wallace later said the change from mechanic to driver was difficult, and he relied on help from a tyre-shop owner, John Childs, and from motor man Don Kirn, because racing was too costly to fund alone. In 1984 he worked for Benfield Racing and Joe Ruttman, and he was elevated to crew chief once Jake Elder had gone.

He took Rookie of the Year honours in the American Speed Association in 1986, ending 11th overall with seven top-tens. He placed tenth in 1987, again with seven top-tens, and seventh in 1988 with ten top-tens. Those seasons gave him the experience that led to his first NASCAR start.

When did Kenny Wallace make his NASCAR debut?

Wallace made his first NASCAR start in September 1988, when Dale Earnhardt gave him a seat for a Busch Series race at Martinsville Speedway. He finished eleventh in the No. 8 Chevrolet. The next year he competed in the entire Busch Series calendar, driving a machine belonging to his brother Rusty.

The 1989 season earned him Busch Series Rookie of the Year honours and a sixth-place finish in the points standings. Across the year he recorded sixteen top-tens and three poles in a car sponsored by Cox Treated Lumber.

What were Wallace's Busch Series years like in the early 1990s?

In 1990 Wallace finished seventh in the Busch Series with fourteen top-tens and one pole. That year he also debuted in the Winston Cup at North Wilkesboro, driving the No. 36 Pontiac for Randy Cox. He finished 26th after a late-race crash, which set up a controversial finish that Brett Bodine won.

The season after that was the strongest of this stretch. Two career victories arrived, at Volusia County and at New Hampshire, and he ended runner-up in the Busch standings to Bobby Labonte. He also filled in for Kyle Petty in Cup races at Charlotte and Dover, and at the Pyroil 500 he raced against his brothers Mike and Rusty.

Dirt Devil signed on as backer in 1992, and his third Busch Series victory came at Martinsville that year. Several mechanical problems dropped him to sixth in points by the end of the season.

How did Kenny Wallace's full-time Winston Cup career unfold?

Wallace moved to full-time Winston Cup racing in 1993. The car was a Dirt Devil-backed Pontiac Grand Prix, carrying number 40 for SABCO Racing. He finished 23rd in points with three top-tens, and the ride ended at the close of the season. That same year his Busch Series campaign brought three wins at Bristol, Richmond and Martinsville.

Robert Yates Racing then hired him late in 1993 to replace the injured Ernie Irvan. The team used him in twelve races, and he landed in the top ten on three occasions. In 1995 he and FILMAR divided their season between Cup and Busch races, making eleven Cup starts in the No. 81 car. That year he also won once in the Busch Series, with the Red Dog Ford at Richmond.

Wallace and FILMAR ran Cup full-time from 1996, funded by Square D. That year they recorded two top-ten finishes and finished 28th in points, and Wallace claimed another Busch Series win at Richmond. The following season he took two poles, at Bristol and Martinsville, but the team dropped five places in the standings.

Even with seven top-tens in 1998, Wallace and Square D parted ways with FILMAR and moved to the No. 55 car that Andy Petree Racing had just entered. With the new team he finished in the top ten five times and recorded a career-best 22nd place in points. In 2000 he managed just one top-ten and finished 26th in points before leaving the team.

The only top-ten of that 2000 season came in the Winston 500, where he finished second to Dale Earnhardt. That race was Earnhardt's 76th and final victory, and Wallace had helped push him to the lead in four laps.

What happened in Wallace's later NASCAR seasons?

From 2001 Wallace split his time between full-time Busch Series rides and occasional Cup appearances. He signed with the unsponsored Eel River Racing team, then drove the No. 48 Goulds Pumps Chevrolet for Innovative Motorsports. He won at North Carolina Speedway, his first win in seven years, and finished tenth in points with seven top-fives.

In 2002 he finished seventh in the Busch standings with thirteen top-tens. Richard Childress Racing gave him a ride in the No. 29 car at Martinsville after Kevin Harvick received a suspension for a deliberate wreck in a Truck Series event the day before. Later that year Bill Davis Racing brought him in as the successor to Hut Stricklin in the No. 23 Dodge, and he drove that car full-time in 2003.

In 2004 Wallace and the team competed in the Busch Series, where he recorded ten top-tens and finished tenth in points. He also drove five Cup races for Michael Waltrip Racing that year. In 2005 Davis Racing closed its Busch team, which gave Wallace and backer Stacker 2 a place in ppc Racing's No. 22 Ford. The season ended with seventh in the standings, five top-fives and eleven top-tens. During that season Stacker 2 left NASCAR, and the team lost its sponsorship.

His Cup seat time with Furniture Row Racing began in 2005, and he ran seventeen races with the team in 2006, recording four top-tens. Wallace left ppc Racing when Furniture Row committed to a full-time Cup programme. Although he had earned a place in the All-Star Race at Charlotte, he could not keep the No. 78 car inside the top 35 in owner points and left the team in August 2007. He also stepped in for Kyle Petty at Bristol that month, piloting the No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge.

What happened when Wallace raced at Daytona in 2008?

Wallace drove a second Furniture Row car, the No. 87 Denver Mattress Chevrolet, as a backup for Joe Nemechek. Nemechek qualified the main car on pole day, so Wallace got his chance. He finished eighth in the first Duel. He was black-flagged for failing to keep the required speed and finished last.

Earlier in 2008 Wallace had driven for Armando Fitz in the Nationwide Series before moving to Jay Robinson's No. 28 team. Across the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons he finished in the top ten three times. He then left Robinson for RAB Racing, working without a salary in return for access to strong equipment.

In 2011 Wallace recorded eleven top-tens for RAB, with a best finish of fifth at Richmond and seventh place in the Nationwide Series standings. He announced a return to the team for 2012, but sponsorship issues limited him to the first five races before he moved to a partial schedule. In January 2012 the team also announced an attempt at the Daytona 500 in the No. 09 American Ethanol Toyota Camry, but fuel pump problems in the Gatorade Duel meant it failed to qualify.

In July 2012 he was promised one race in a Penske Nationwide entry, though Sam Hornish Jr. got the seat instead.

How did Kenny Wallace's NASCAR career end?

Wallace's NASCAR career ended in 2015, after about 25 years in the national series. His final start came at Iowa in August with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he finished fifteenth. Earlier that year he drove a No. 26 Toyota for JGL Racing at Talladega and finished 38th after a late accident.

The 2013 season had its own milestones. Wallace made his 900th start in NASCAR's top three divisions at Chicagoland Speedway, then ran the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, where he started fourth and finished seventeenth. Because of a scheduling conflict, he also qualified Brian Vickers' Sprint Cup car at New Hampshire, and Vickers drove it to a seventh-place finish.

Early in 2015 he also took part in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals with Loyet Motorsports, showing that his racing went well beyond stock cars.

How successful was Wallace on dirt?

Wallace kept racing after NASCAR in a UMP DIRTcar modified. His 2012 title in the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals is the result he has called the highlight of his racing career. He has since won several Missouri and Illinois regional titles, and in 2025 he collected seven wins and thirty top-fives.

In August 2016 he drove the No. 36 Safecraft Safety Equipment truck in the Stadium Super Trucks race at Charlotte Dirt Track and finished eighth. He finished fourth in the DIRTcar Modified Nationals in both 2016 and 2017, winning one race in each season. In 2018 he won the IWK 250 after three drivers were disqualified for running illegal carburettors.

Wallace said in 2022 that he would race full-time for the last time that season, planning roughly 50 starts across DIRTcar UMP Modified events and the DIRTcar Nationals. Back-to-back regional titles in Missouri and Illinois came in 2022 and 2023. In 2025 he added a third regional title, a second I-55 Speedway championship and a fifth-place finish in the DIRTcar UMP standings.

What did Kenny Wallace do in broadcasting and media?

After leaving full-time NASCAR racing, Wallace worked as a Fox Sports reporter until 2017 and co-hosted The Late Shift on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio from 2015 to 2017. He started a personal YouTube channel in 2021, and since 2024 he has co-hosted the Herm and Schrader podcast with Ken Schrader.

His broadcasting work goes back further. In 2005 he co-hosted NASCAR RaceDay, the pre-race show on Speed Channel, alongside John Roberts. The two reunited in 2023 to cover several Cup races, and during his Fox years Wallace also occasionally broadcast NASCAR Truck Series events.

His YouTube channel focuses on motorsports, and Wallace is known for an expansive, comedic personality that comes through in his videos. By 2026 it had more than 158 thousand subscribers. The Herm and Schrader show is produced by Dirty Mo Media and shares personal racing anecdotes, along with talks with drivers who are still competing.

Career summary at a glance

Read together, the rows show a path from mechanic work to Cup, Busch and dirt-track racing, followed by a long run in broadcasting and online media.

What is Kenny Wallace's legacy in motorsport?

Wallace's legacy rests on a long NASCAR career, a 547-start Xfinity Series record that stood until Jeremy Clements passed it in 2026, and a late-career run of success in dirt racing. He is also known as a media figure who has covered the sport on radio, television and online.

His nine wins came in the Busch Series over several seasons and with several sponsors, from Dirt Devil to Red Dog. Family ties run through the story as well. His father Russ was a prolific short-track winner, and his brother Rusty won the 1989 Winston Cup championship and 55 Cup races. Brother Mike collected four Nationwide Series wins and five in the Camping World Truck Series, while Rusty's son Steve Wallace and Mike's daughter Chrissy Wallace have also raced in those series.

Wallace's own honour came in 2023, when he entered the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Rusty had been inducted there in 1998.

Why did sponsors matter so much to his career?

Sponsorship decided many of Wallace's seats. Dirt Devil, Square D, Stacker 2 and Denver Mattress all backed his cars at different points, and losing a backer could end a ride. When Stacker 2 left NASCAR in 2005, his team lost that funding.

Sponsors also shaped where he drove next. Stacker 2 backed his No. 48 Chevrolet in 2002, and that backing followed him to Bill Davis Racing the next season. In 2008 Denver Mattress was on the car he drove in the Daytona 500 attempt, and in 2012 American Ethanol was on the Toyota he tried to qualify.