Wallace’s high-speed opportunity came at the request of NASCAR officials on behalf of series sponsor NEXTEL and Racing Radios, the Hampton, Ga.,-based company that serves as the “Official 2-Way Radio provider” for all three of the major NASCAR racing series. “I’ve enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Racing Radios and I jumped at the opportunity to assist them with their ‘Communication of the Future’ program for NASCAR,” Wallace said. “We were invited to bring our Miller Lite Dodge superspeedway car down for the test to assure quality audio at high rates of speed. The NASCAR, NEXTEL and Racing Radios officials were all extremely pleased at the end of the day, so I’d say that we did a good job for them.” Wallace’s speed far exceeded the official track qualifying record of 212.809mph (44.998 seconds), set by Bill Elliott on April 30, 1987.
“I guess it was about as official as you could get as we were operating under the watchful eyes of NASCAR,” chuckled crew chief Larry Carter, who flew to Talladega with Wallace after testing at Sonoma, Calif., on Tuesday. “John Darby (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Director) and Buster Auton (long-time series official who has served as the pace car driver since 1997) were in charge, along with officials from Racing Radios and NEXTEL. So, there were plenty of witnesses on hand.(Tom Roberts PR)(6-10-2004)
AND A world record of 221.160mph for a close course was established at Talladega on Aug. 9, 1975 by Mark Donohue in a Porsche 917-30 [Non-NASCAR].(6-11-2004)