Mike Wallace teams with Phoenix for Daytona.

Mike Wallace will attempt to make the Daytona 500 with James Finch's #09 Phoenix Racing team.

Wallace, who finished 24th in last year's season opener with the #09 team and ninth for the team in 2003, has only missed the Daytona starting line-up once in the last six years despite rarely having the luxury of a guaranteed place in the starting field.

"I am definitely looking forward to Daytona this year," said Wallace, who will also be competing in the Craftsman Truck and Busch Series races at the 2.5-mile Superspeedway next month. "I have competed in all three Daytona weekend races a few times in the past with success, and I am looking forward to running in all three races again in 2007."

Wallace will drive the #46 Morgan-Dollar Motorsports Chevy sponsored by DirecTV in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday February 16th. He will then jump into his full time 2007 ride, the #7 GEICO Chevy for Phoenix Racing, in Saturday's Busch Series event. While both the #46 Truck and #7 Busch vehicles are locked into the field for their races based on last season's points. Wallace will have to qualify and race his way in the Daytona 500 with the #09 car.

"Being locked into the Truck and Busch Series races takes some of the pressure off of us so we can work on the race set-up," said Wallace. "The 09 we will have to work to get into the field, but we have been there before. We are using RCR motors in the Cup programme so the horsepower will be there."