by BY KEN ROBERTS ¿ kroberts@post-dispatch.com > 618-257-0745 , St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The youngest son of former NASCAR Winston Cup champion and St. Louis area native Rusty Wallace, Steve Wallace found victory lane in Bandoleros, Legend Cars, late models and ARCA cars as he moved up through the stock car racing ranks.

But Wallace, 21 of Charlotte, N.C., hasn't won in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 18 tries this season, he has five top-10 finishes with earnings of $505,579.

Wallace will make start No. 19 Saturday night in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway when the Nationwide series makes its annual stop in Madison.

Since joining NASCAR's No. 2 circuit as a 17-year-old in 2005, Wallace has made 105 starts with two top fives and 12 top-10 finishes while winning $3,006,519.

His best year was 2008, when he had fifth-place finishes in back-to-back races at Richmond and Darlington. He ended with seven top 10s and won $1,162,824.

Still, Wallace described his winless streak as "really frustrating. Whenever you run really good, you know you can win races. I haven't had that feeling yet this year. The only time I really felt like I was capable was at Milwaukee."

In that race, Wallace had been running in second or third for most of the day before a bad pit stop late relegated him to sixth.

"We've been running in the top 10 and top five," he said. "But we just haven't had the perfect, really strong finishes yet. Whenever I think we can run in the top 10, I really feel like that's strong."

After crashing and ending up 29th at Dover on May 30, Wallace has been seventh at Nashville, 14th at Kentucky, sixth at Milwaukee, 11th at Loudon, N.H., 12th at Daytona and 16th at Chicagoland Speedway.

"We've been talking to other guys (at the track) and I feel like our setups are close every time we unload the race cars," he said. "It's just not paying off this year."

Championship crew chief Tripp Bruce was brought on board recently to try and help get Wallace to victory lane. Bruce joined Rusty Wallace Inc. the week of the Milwaukee race and that has given the younger Wallace some needed confidence.

Bruce was the winning crew chief last year for NASCAR Truck champion Johnny Benson. But when Bill Davis Racing closed its shop this season, Rusty Wallace hired Bruce, who is Steve's fourth crew chief in just over a year.

Add to the mix engineer Dale Ferguson, who had been an interim crew chief before Bruce was hired.

Wallace said Bruce and Ferguson were "really paying off for us. I think the difference is that Tripp is more prepared. Tripp's more involved with stuff than guys I've had in the past. ... You can have one guy that can change the whole deal.

"We've got some momentum built. We've been running real strong. That's what's most important."

Now Wallace wants to carry that momentum into the second half of the season and score his first victory.

"We've had our really good runs and we've had a couple of runs that we haven't run as good as we wanted to," he said. "At the start of the season we had a couple of wrecks that took us out of the points (race). But we're marching back up (he is ninth with 2,065 points).

"Everything is so far so good. We're really working hard on this deal and we feel like we're getting our heads back above water. We're back running good again."

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DODGE DEALERS 250

What - Race No. 19 on the NASCAR Nationwide Series 35-race schedule.

When - 8:45 p.m. Saturday.

Where - Gateway International Raceway,

1.25-mile oval.

Who - Kyle Busch, two-time race and defending champion Carl Edwards, Kenny Wallace, Steve Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Justin Allgaier, Jason Leffler, two-time race champion Reed Sorenson, Jason Keller and others.

On air - ESPN2; KSD (93.7 FM).

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Dodge Dealer 250 Schedule

Today - Gates open at 5:30 p.m.; first practice session 6-7:15 p.m.; second practice session 7:45-9 p.m.

Tickets - $20 for adults and juniors (12 and under).

Parking - Free.

Saturday - Parking lots open at 12:30 p.m.; gates open at 2 p.m.; American Red Cross/Backstoppers Charity Track Walk 2:15-3:15 p.m.; qualifying (two laps) 4:05-5:05 p.m.; driver introductions, 8 p.m.; Dodge Dealers 250 (200 laps) green flag, 8:45 p.m.

Tickets - $45-$65 for adults; $25-$35 for juniors (12 and under).

Parking - $15 on site in advance; $20 day of event.

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