Kenny Wallace knows what it's like to race on a dirt track. On Wednesday night, competitors in the Camping World Truck Series will get a little more experience with it as well.
Wallace was added to the Fox Sports 1 broadcast team for Wednesday's Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby 150 (9 p.m. ET). A veteran dirt racer, Wallace will offer reports and insight.
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The Truck Series is the only one of NASCAR's three major touring series that races on dirt. It started competing at the Tony Stewart-owned track in New Weston, Ohio, in 2013, with Austin Dillon winning the first race there. Darrell Wallace Jr. and Christopher Bell have won the subsequent races. The track is a half-mile clay oval.
The race lineup is set through standard qualifying followed by five qualifying heats. Then comes a last-chance qualifying race before the main event.
It's a unique outing for most of the Truck drivers — and for fans.
For Wallace, though, it's familiar ground.
He will run about 60 races this year, including 45 for Kenny Wallace Racing. He says he has run about 450 dirt races in his career, "just a few." After he races at Eldora, he will race at Tri-City Speedway near St. Louis in the 4th Annual Russ Wallace Memorial Race in honor of his father.
First, though, comes Eldora. Wallace said that if a driver is trying to transition from asphalt to dirt racing, Eldora is the place to do it. Stewart "prepares the track very hard — almost like asphalt — when the trucks first get out on the track," Wallace said.
Since NASCAR doesn't allow teams "to mess with the trucks very much," Wallace said, they are basically putting a dirt tire on an asphalt truck. That makes this a "great event for any experience level to run."
Still, that doesn't mean that Eldora is without its difficulties for drivers foraying into this type of race once a season.
Drivers learned that in the three races there to date. What is the biggest challenge?
"Being able to run close to the wall but not destroy the truck," Wallace said. "You've got to read the dirt right. The only time to pass on the bottom groove is early in the race when there is some grip there. When the bottom line is used up, guys have to go to the top like we run Darlington. Then drivers have to be able to stay there, time the slide job and not knock down the wall and destroy the truck."
Slipping and sliding at Eldora (Getty Images)
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In its three races, Eldora has been a high-profile event that even attracted Cup stars to run. Wallace himself ran the race in 2013. Kyle Larson is entered this season. Ryan Newman and Brad Keselowski have competed in seasons past.
It's a midweek event that snares more attention than most other races in the series – from both drivers and fans.
"The buzz and excitement have been tremendous from the very beginning, and the race has given drivers a huge challenge," Wallace said. "It takes them out of their comfort zone, which is a great thing. I'm really happy for these guys because for this one night, all eyes are on the Truck series."
Sprint Cup and the Xfinity Series run this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.