Wallace

If there's one element that ties the NASCAR community together, it's the feeling of family.

Drivers, crew chiefs, car owners and team members may all want to beat the fenders off competitors on race day, but whenever the community suffers a loss or difficult time, the NASCAR family pulls together with lightning speed.

The most recent example of that unity was two weeks ago when Jerry Nadeau was critically injured in a crash while practicing at Richmond, Va. Countless offers of assistance and prayers came flooding in not only to Nadeau's family, but also to MB2 Motorsports, for which Nadeau drives the No. 01 Pontiac.

While Nadeau's recovery will likely take a long time, his wife Jada will continue to have all the emotional support she needs, courtesy of her brothers and sisters in the NASCAR community.

Mike Wallace knows a lot about family. He comes from one of the most well-known families in racing, with older brother and former Winston Cup champ Rusty and younger brother and fellow Cup competitor Kenny.

When Wallace, who has been running a partial schedule on the Busch Series this season, was contacted about replacing Nadeau, he didn't even have to think about it. When family calls, you go.

Wallace will make his debut as Nadeau's replacement Saturday night in the Winston Open at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He knows his tenure could be short, or possibly be extended if Nadeau's recovery is slow, but none of that matters to Wallace. He has come on board to help his racing brother and will do everything in his power to try and fill Nadeau's shoes as well as possible.

"I think what I have is a very simple task at hand," Wallace said. "The racing world is basically like the military, like the U.S. Army sponsorship. If something happens to someone, you need to get in there and fill in right away and do the job.

"In this particular situation, Jerry's been in a very good race team with MB2, they have a very fast race car, and while he's injured, (team general manager) Jay Frye and (crew chief) Ryan Pemberton have confidence in my ability, because we've worked together in the past, for me to just kind of step in to the car, keep it in the performance it's had, get it further up in the points, and when Jerry comes back, they wouldn't have missed a beat."

And, despite getting used to new equipment and trying to be brought up to speed in a hurry, Wallace is eager to show what he can do in a Winston Cup car.

"I'm hoping it's not going to be a problem (getting up to speed) because some of the guys that are working on Jerry's team, I've worked with in the past at either Penske Racing (brother Rusty's team) or the A.J. Foyt team," Wallace said. "So, it's not like I'm walking into a situation where the guys don't know me or I don't know them.

"Like I told Ryan, don't change anything except the seat location that you were doing for Jerry. Just give me the same setup and everything else, we'll go out and run and make any adjustments we have to from there. I didn't walk in the door saying I need this or need that. I'm just kind of fitting into the program. And besides the driver aspect, I'm just trying to keep the guys' morale up right now. Their driver got hurt and it bothers them. I'm just trying to keep them enthused that they'll go out this weekend, starting with The Winston and going throughout the year until Jerry comes back, to keep them all pumped up and excited."

Wallace has developed a reputation of being one of the sport's "super-subs," the kind of driver who can quickly take on a substitute role for another, race clean, not tear up equipment and, most importantly, be competitive.

"Just in the last couple of years, I've replaced Jeremy Mayfield in the 12 car and Stacy Compton in the 14 car and I just went racing," Wallace said. "Both those teams were extremely complimentary to me in regards to my performance, enhancement of those cars and moving them up a few spots in the points, and everything else.

"As far as being called a 'super-sub,' that's not my choice. I'd love to have my own full-time Winston Cup program, but I'll tell you what: I'm glad that these people consider me to have the ability to step into their team and run well. There's a lot of drivers out there, and to be considered one that can step up to the table right away, I take that as a compliment. I just hope that some day we can do our own thing."

Without a regular Winston Cup ride this season, Wallace has not been idle by any means. He's ranked 12th in the Busch points, driving the No. 4 Chevrolet for Biagi Brothers Racing. Working out of Wallace's shop in suburban Charlotte, the operation is bare-bone, with limited funding and just six full-time employees. Yet, with where the team is in the standings and with how competitive it has been thus far in 2003, you'd be hard-pressed to find a team that can get more bang for its buck.

"We hang our own bodies, we do everything," Wallace said. "We're competing against the likes of the Childresses and people of that nature, where they've got like 20 people on their team and all the resources they have, I think we're having an averagely good season. We haven't won a race, and you're never satisfied with that until that point happens."

While the long-range success and viability of his Busch team is contingent upon attracting more sponsorship, Wallace is totally focused on making that team as successful as possible despite limited resources.

He's equally as focused on doing well in Nadeau's car. But more than anything, Wallace makes it clear that he wants Nadeau to worry only about getting better, that his ride will be there when he's back at full strength. And until then, that ride will be in Wallace's talented and experienced hands.

"For Jerry's sake, I hope he makes an expedited recovery and goes on," Wallace said. "But if not, we're there to fill in for him for the whole year. I think it's going to be at least a couple of months (before Nadeau returns to the track). I don't think he's going to come back in a couple of weeks or anything like that. There's a healing process that takes time, and his team is 100 percent behind him. They want him only at full strength. They don't want him rushing his return.

"As for me, I'm going to a real good race team, an established team that has credible notes and a crew chief that's been around for years. We should be able to run well right away, I really feel confident. I feel confident we should run well this weekend in the Winston Open. I see winning that and going on into The Winston, along with the (Coca-Cola) 600 next week. I just want to run well for both the team and myself."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at motorsportwriter@yahoo.com.