Wallace Notches Talladega Stage Win & Top 10 Finish

Bubba Wallace in action at Talladega Superspeedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

TALLADEGA, Ala. – 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace forced his way to the front of the NASCAR Cup Series field in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, earning a stage win and a top-10 finish.

Wallace followed the other Toyota Camry XSEs in the field forward in the opening stage, as they attempted to break the hopes of others to stretch the fuel for the 60-lap segment.

That move kept Wallace ahead of the chaos that ended the race for Ford Performance’s Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, who wrecked with Kyle Busch entering pit road on lap 43.

The Mobile, Ala., native repeated the move in the second stage to take the lead on the final lap of the stage. Wallace narrowly held on over Joey Logano to win the stage, his first since Circuit of the Americas earlier this season and second of the year.

Keeping the same strategy that has been in play in recent years, all of the Toyota entries pitted together with 26 laps to go in the final stage. Their momentum on-track was killed, however, by a late block by Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver Ross Chastain.

Boxed in, Wallace rode throughout much of the final 25 laps in 20th. After taking the white flag in 18th, he surged forward, pounding the back of his competitors' cars until they moved forward, either up the track or squeezing his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry into the narrow gaps that formed.

Wallace worked his way up to 10th when the checkered flag waved. He was later promoted to eighth following the post-race disqualifications of Logano and original second-place finisher Ryan Preece.

“I don’t really know what to think, as I think we were all waiting for a big wreck there at the end and it never happened,” Wallace said. “We ended up [top 10] , so that’s a good day for us. We didn’t need a new winner, but congrats to Austin (Cindric). All-in-all, our Leidos Toyota Camry was pretty solid today.

“It was nice not having to ride around, running half throttle and saving fuel. We did at times, but not as much. A clean race and now, we’re onto Texas.”

In addition to winning stage two, Wallace ended the opening stage in fifth. That netted the veteran driver an additional 15 points to his tally of 29 for finishing eighth.

The stage win and eighth-place finish moved the NASCAR Drive for Diversity alumnus up from eighth to seventh in the regular season point standings, 93 behind series leader William Byron.

Wallace is 75 points above the playoff cut line, currently held by A.J. Allmendinger.

Next for Wallace and the rest of the Cup Series is the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. He has a best finish of third there, coming in the 2023 playoff race after starting on the pole and leading 111 laps.

Broadcast coverage of the Wurth 400 at Texas is scheduled for Sunday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.