Chrissy Wallace (Right) was approved to compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2006. In 2009 her father, Mike Wallace (Left)and Chrissy faced off in a NASCAR national series event. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“My big thing is sponsorship,” Chrissy said. “You can’t race without money, and finding that money is a big problem right now. I’m sure I could go with a good team, but the big deal now is sponsorship.

“Dad and I have searched for it, sending out e-mails and things like that, but nobody wants to do anything right now. They want to know how spending money today is going to help them with their products. It’s killing everyone right now. It’s not about talent; it’s about money.”

Mike Wallace knows of several positive scenarios that could evolve for Chrissy, but none of them is going to happen without the dollars.

“Teams have said they will hire her,” Wallace said. “Kevin Harvick has said he’ll run her, but he can’t do that without sponsorship.

“Dale [Earhardt] Jr. came up to me at Pocono last year [where Chrissy was in the race put on by the Automobile Racing Club of America], and he said she was incredible. He saw her running down Scott Speed for the lead and said she was way better than he thought she was.

“He also said he would field her. But, again, he had to have sponsorship.”

Wallace knows full well his daughter isn’t the only driver whose career has stalled because of a lack of sponsorship. He stresses that he’s not an agent. He’s just a father doing all he can for his daughter.

“As a father, I want to open as many doors as I can,” he said. “If someone could do something for her, I would gladly step aside.

“But looking back, I wish I had taken some of the sponsorships I acquired and started my own team. That way I would have something to offer her at a lesser cost.

“I even thought about buying Rick Crawford’s Truck team, but the initial investment is one thing. It takes $50,000-$75,000 a week to keep it afloat. That’s a problem.”

Chrissy’s achievements as female race driver have generated a lot of positive publicity. She has been on the Bonnie Hunt television show and been featured in Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan – among many other publications - and has even walked the red carpet at ESPN’s ESPY awards show.

She was even interviewed for an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking of Wall Street, it seems the stock exchange has taken a keen interest in Chrissy.

“I talked with the [chief executive officer] of the exchange,” Wallace said. “He told me that if she got sponsorship from any company that traded on the exchange, we could use their corporate boardroom for negotiations. They would also stage a launch party for her and invite financial publications and the New York media.

“You know, I called him back to make sure I heard all of that correctly. He told me it was absolute fact.”

That’s good bang for someone’s buck.

“All I want to do is to run at a competitive level, either in the Trucks, the Nationwide Series or in the [Sprint] Cup series,” Chrissy said. “I don’t want to push anything to the point where I make a mistake or can’t reach my full potential.

“I just would like to run the trucks for another year or two and move up the ladder. The big thing is sponsorship and proving what I can do as an individual and not be concerned with anything or anyone else.”

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