Bad week for the Wallaces.

The number of Wallace brothers currently competing in the NASCAR Winston Cup series could be cut to just one in next weekend's Pepsi 400 at Daytona with the announcement that Kenny Wallace has resigned from Eel River Racing and increasing uncertainty surrounding Mike Wallace's place with Ultra Motorsports.

The number of Wallace brothers currently competing in the NASCAR Winston Cup series could be cut to just one in next weekend's Pepsi 400 at Daytona with the announcement that Kenny Wallace has resigned from Eel River Racing and increasing uncertainty surrounding Mike Wallace's place with Ultra Motorsports.

Rusty Wallace could well be the sole representative of the Wallace clan when the NASCAR Winston Cup circus makes an emotional return to the Daytona International Speedway next weekend for the traditional; July 4th weekend Pepsi 400 at the 2.5-ile Superspeedway following the departure of youngest brother Kenny from Eel River Racing and the probability of Robby Gordon replacing middle brother Mike in the No.7 Ultra Motorsports Ford.

Kenny Wallace, who has failed to qualify for the last three races with the beleaguered Eel River outfit, finally called it quits after a row over the No.27's performance with team bosses Jack Birmingham and Barry Dodgson and will be replaced by the teams 2000 driver, Mike Bliss, at Daytona.

The move ends one of the saddest chapters of the year as Wallace, a talented driver whose legendary bad luck has returned once again, struggled to make the Sauer's sponsored Pontiac competitive when it clearly wasn't. The team have failed to qualify for four races this year and Wallace has yet to record a top 20 finish.

Ironically, Wallace leaves the team a week before returning to the place where they scored their best result of the year thus far, a 25th place finish in the tragic Daytona 500 in February, a p[position equalled in Texas. Other than that Wallace has finished inside the top 30 only twice and has recorded four failures to finish in ten other starts.

Currently sitting 43rd in drivers points, Wallace started the year with an unsponsored car after Square D elected to remain with Andy Petree Racing and Pfizer/Viagra, who sponsored Eel River in 2000 transferred to Mark Martin's Roush Racing squad. Hills Bros. Sponsors of Junie Donlavey's No.90 Ford Taurus stepped in on a couple of occasions but it wasn't until the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte did the team announce that the C.F Sauer company, famous for their salad dressings and spices, had come on board.

However the team have made only one race since Charlotte and the team went home early at Michigan, Pocono and Sears Point, the last failure proving to be the final straw and causing Wallace to leave.

Mike Wallace's position with Ultra Motorsports is less clear and there has been no official confirmation as to who will pilot the No.7 Nations Rent Ford at Daytona after Ted Musgrave and Robby Gordon took over driving duties at Pocono and Sears Point respectively in order to give the team a second opinion on the car.

Wallace had been slated to drive at Daytona but he was recently quoted as saying he doubted that would hold true while Gordon, who almost won at Sears Point before eventually coming home second, appears very confident of resuming his Winston Cup career in the very near future. The middle Wallace brother has shown flashes of promise in his first year back in Winston Cup since 1996 and the former Ultra Motorsports NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver has scored two top ten finishes this year at Daytona (6th) and Talladega (9th). However he is only 38th in points and it is clear that the team have taken a backwards step compared to last year when Michael Waltrip didn't exactly shine for the team and the time may have come for team-boss Jim Smith to wield the axe.

Both parties are currently tight lipped but expect the issue to be resolved over the next couple of days.

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