Wallard was born in Schenectady, New York, on September 7, 1910. He began competing in 1935 on dirt tracks and at local fairgrounds. An early accident in which he broke his pelvis interrupted his development, but he resumed competition and made his first Championship Car appearance at the Syracuse 100 in 1941. His career was then halted by service in the United States Navy Seabees during the Second World War, during which he was stationed in Alaska and operated bulldozers building airfields.
After the war, Wallard resumed competition in AAA Championship events. He recorded a victory during the 1946 season and added a further Championship Car win at DuQuoin in 1948. By 1951 he was a seasoned but largely unheralded competitor. His seat for the Indianapolis 500 that year became available in part because Tony Bettenhausen had passed on driving the Belanger Special in favour of a newer front-wheel-drive car — a decision that would make Wallard's name.
In the 1951 Indianapolis 500, Wallard drove the No. 99 Belanger Special to one of the most decisive victories in the race's history. Starting from the front row, he led 159 of the 200 laps and became the first driver to complete the Indianapolis 500 in under four hours. He was 40 years old at the time, competing against younger men in newer machinery. The win was later characterised as a "Cinderella" result: a veteran running with a modest programme who dominated and set a time record in the same afternoon.
Because the FIA's World Drivers' Championship incorporated the Indianapolis 500 from 1950 through 1960, Wallard's victory earned him nine championship points and a seventh-place finish in the 1951 World Drivers' Championship standings.
One week after his Indianapolis victory, Wallard was competing at a race at Reading, Pennsylvania when his car caught fire in the home straight. He suffered severe burns across a large portion of his body and subsequently underwent 27 skin grafts during a prolonged recovery. The extent of the injuries was such that when he attempted a return to Indianapolis in 1954 — driving for Belanger Motors in a Kurtis Kraft — the loss of muscle tissue meant he was unable to control the car adequately through the qualification runs and he withdrew before starting.
After his retirement from racing, Wallard settled in Florida. He was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1955, an acknowledgement of his standing in American oval racing despite a career prematurely cut short. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida on November 29, 1963, of a heart attack that was directly related to the injuries he had sustained in the 1951 Reading crash. He was 53 years old.
Wallard's 1951 Indianapolis 500 victory stands as one of the race's more compelling results: a driver past the conventional prime, in a car passed over by a contemporary rival, leading for nearly four-fifths of the race and setting a first-under-four-hours benchmark. His F1 championship record spans three entries at Indianapolis — sixth in 1950, first in 1951, and a non-qualifier in 1954 — with a career total of nine World Championship points and one fastest lap. He was also inducted into the Schenectady City School District Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.
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