NASCAR legend Kenny Wallace has opened up about his surprising experiences transitioning from the NASCAR circuit to grassroots dirt racing, revealing an unexpected hostility he faced from local racers early in his dirt track journey.
Wallace, whose NASCAR career spanned 25 years with appearances in the Xfinity Series and Cup Series, found the shift to local racing to be anything but smooth. During the Herm & Schrader show, Wallace shared:
“When you are a NASCAR driver, and you try to go race these guys on a local level, they do not like it.”
Many local racers viewed his presence as disruptive, worrying that it would upset the established competitive environment.
He added, “When I came back here, they hated me. And it was a shocking blow to me. It hurt me. It really did.”
Despite his deep roots in racing—growing up in a family of racers, including his well-known brothers Rusty and Mike Wallace—his return to grassroots dirt tracks proved far more challenging than he anticipated.
Over time, however, the atmosphere has taken a positive turn. Wallace’s commitment to the sport, including personally working on his vehicles, has earned him respect within the dirt racing community.
He explained, “Now, I’m not crying. I’m telling you why I work on my stuff myself. And now, all of a sudden, when I show up at the racetrack by myself, they finally see that I am a racecar driver.”
Wallace’s candid reflections follow his previous comments on the challenges women face in motorsport, referencing remarks made by former NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick.
Patrick had spoken about the physical demands of racing, stating that it is inherently more difficult for women. Wallace elaborated, as reported by Newsweek Sports:
“Danica Patrick would agree with you. When she pretty much quit racing, she came out with a really controversial [statement] but everybody agreed with her…
‘It’s easier for a man to win in racing because it’s tough. It’s hard.’… There are races that we’ve been young. And we come out of that car like a noodle, a wet noodle.”
