Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Wally Dallenbach #16 Keystone Beer Ford

    Wally Dallenbach was a heck of a Trans-Am racer, winning championships in 1985 and 1986, but his foray into NASCAR was for the most part, a disaster~ He is the only driver in NASCAR history to drive full seasons for both Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush and not win a race~ He also failed to win for Richard Petty, although Petty didn't have the equipment to be competitive at the time, so I won't knock him for that~

    Dallenbach's first full season in the Cup series came in 1992, driving for Jack Roush in the #16 Keystone Beer Ford~ There's no way of avoiding the fact that this was a disastrous season, with Dallenbach only netting 1 top 5, in the Bud at the Glen~ He led a total of 0 laps during the season, with 0 poles, 1 top 5, 1 top 10, and only finished on the lead lap in 3 races~ He finished 24th in the final points standings~

                                          Wally on track in the #16 Keystone Beer Ford~
Wally Dallenbach #16 Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog

    His second and final season with the Roush team proved to be a little better than the previous season, with Dallenbach posting a top 10 in the Daytona 500 with a 10th place finish~ In the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 @ Atlanta, Dallenbach led his first career laps in the Cup series, leading 2 laps before souring out and finishing 25th~ He flirted with a top 10 in the Food City 500 @ Bristol, coming home in the 11th position~ In the Save Mart Supermarkets 300K @ Sonoma, Dallenbach picked up another top 10, with a 7th place finish~

    His next top 10 of the season came in the DieHard 500 @ Talladega, where he finished 10th~ The following race, the Budweiser at the Glen, Wally qualified in the 10th position, and looked like he was going to win the race before a late race caution came out, causing Mark Martin to narrow the gap and pick up the win, while Wally finished 2nd, his best career finish~ The closest he would come to another top 10 during the season was in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 @ Darlington, where he finished in the 11th position~

    Wally finished the season with 0 poles, 0 wins, 1 top 5, and 4 top 10's, while finishing 22nd in the final points standings~ He finished on the lead lap 4 times~  Dallenbach was let go following this season in favor of Ted Musgrave, with sponsorship from the Family Channel~ He went on to drive for Richard Petty in 1994, but was let go part way through the season due to lackluster results~

                                              Wally Dallenbach #16 Keystone Beer Ford~
Wally Dallenbach #16 Keystone Beer Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog Roush Racing Planters Kate
                                                             Click pics to enlarge~
Wally Dallenbach #16 Keystone Beer Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog Roush Racing Planters Kate
    *UPDATED* ***This post was updated with custom pictures on 7-10-2016 that show the car with the Keystone Beer logos.. the review below is based on the original Racing Champions car, and not the one in the updated pics~***

     As with all beer/tobacco sponsored Racing Champions cars, this car doesn't have its true sponsor on the car~ RC instead chose to put "Roush Racing" on the car in place of the Keystone Beer logos~ They did however manage to put his secondary sponsor Planters on the car, which I think is cool, although they left it off of the deck lid, leaving it blank completely~ Another gripe I have about this RC car is the fact that they left the yellow striping off that goes around the bottom of the car, leaving it solid white~

    They also didn't get the shading right on the car number, making it 2 tone instead of shading the 2 colors into each other~ It's still a cool looking car for what it is~ The bright red of the car really stands out, and the card, showing a young Dallenbach looks pretty cool~ I give the car a B- rating~

    I have added a few videos from Dallenbach's career down below~ Thanks so much for stopping by to check out the blog~ 

                                                            Top 5 Dallenbach crashes~

                                                         1993 Bud at the Glen finish~

                                                         1994 Bud at the Glen finish~

                                            Jimmy Spencer vs. Dallenbach~ Dover 1996~

1 comment:

  1. Wally Dallenbach actually favorited my tweet on Twitter mentioning this blog post~ :D

    ReplyDelete