Wallace ‘In The Game’ For Another Playoff Appearance

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – It’s no secret that Bubba Wallace has been one of the hottest drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series garage since Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway back in June.

He entered last weekend at Michigan Int’l Speedway with two straight top-five finishes and a string of five races where his worst finish was 13th. In his last six races, Wallace has an average finish of 10th — fourth best in the series — which dates back to his last DNF at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Wallace’s momentum continued on the two-mile Brooklyn, Mich., oval Monday. At a track where he nearly won at, but finished second to Kevin Harvick two years earlier, Wallace was poised for a potential breakthrough.

“We’ve shown up with our heads in the game, and we’ve been close a couple of times,” said Wallace, referencing the team’s recent mindset. “I said that at the beginning of the year – you have to put your name in the hat, and we went a long time not even having the right size of hat on.

“We’re definitely showing up and being in the game now, from the start of practice to the end of the race.”

The Mobile, Ala., native started fifth after rain washed out Saturday’s qualifying session, then led five laps and finished fourth in stage one before rain pushed the balance of the FireKeepers Casino 400 to Monday.

In the live points standings during the first stage, Wallace was as many as 18 points ahead of 16th place.

However, that moment of success for Wallace – who has been in a fierce cut line battle with Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher all summer – later became cloudy.

On lap 115, Wallace found himself running 11th amid a fanned-out restart, when then 10th-place Kyle Larson got loose and spun entering turn two. Stuck in the outside lane against the wall, Wallace had nowhere to go to avoid the spinning Larson in front of the pack.

He tapped the wall, but then sustained left front fender damage, wounding a No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE that had been on pace to contend for a win at that juncture.

The 30-year-old’s points fate was in the hands of his rivals, Buescher and Chastain, at that point based on where they finished. Buescher was also involved in the lap-115 caution, but came out better suited than the No. 23 team, with less damage.

Wallace ran around 25th from that point on, and at times lost the lead pack due to lack of speed and aerodynamic deficiencies amid the 200-mph Michigan race pace.

“We were going to get stage points. Unfortunately, the best driver in the world [expletive] spins out in front of us,” said Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, on the DirtyMo Media podcast Door Bumper Clear this week.

“It’s a tough week to say that you’re the best driver in the world and then spin out,” Kraft added, referencing Larson’s recent claim in a FloRacing article that he might be a more well-rounded driver than three-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen.

A wreck that affected Wallace just by him being in the wrong place at the wrong time dropped him to a significant low until late in the race. At times in the final stage, he was nine points back of Chastain, who occupied 16th, but luckily he caught a break in the final laps.

Wallace ended up leaving Michigan only one point back of the postseason cut line, after Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet spun in overtime and dropped to 25th, a single spot behind Wallace in the finishing order.

“The guys did a good job; all I can ask for is to show up with speed,” Wallace noted. “To be competitive, put your name in the hat … that’s what you want and that’s what we did.”

Now, Wallace enters the high-banked madhouse of Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, where he has had both career moments and cut line nerves.

Since 2021 at Daytona, Wallace boasts an average finish of ninth at the 2.5-mile oval, but he’s also been fighting for his playoff life in each of the past four summer races there.

In the 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400, then with Richard Petty Motorsports, Wallace was in a must-win situation. With two laps left, he put Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano three wide for the lead, however got loose from contact with Logano and a push from William Byron. Byron then stuck the leaders four-wide.

The beating and banging continued all the way to the finish, but Wallace went into the wall and eventually had to settle for fifth.

Wallace also needed a win to make the 2021 postseason, and he was running 10th on the final lap at Daytona. After Kurt Busch hooked Daniel Suarez into second-place Kevin Harvick, the big one happened.

Though he miraculously got through the wreck and finished behind childhood best friend Ryan Blaney in second, Wallace fell short of the win he needed to get into the playoffs.

Two summers ago at Daytona, Wallace was running inside the top 10 when leader Chase Briscoe was spun by Alex Bowman, sustaining damage in the process. Later in the race, nearly the whole field wrecked due to a damp track in turn two with 23 laps to go.

Wallace avoided the wreck, but got loose and spun on the apron. The key to winning that race was simply getting lucky and coming out of the carnage untouched. Austin Dillon did so and went on to win to make the postseason, eliminating Wallace by doing so.

However, Wallace’s fortune finally turned last year. He made the playoffs, finished 12th at Daytona, and was 10th in points at the end of the regular season. In short, Wallace has been there and done that numerous times already, so he knows exactly what to expect.

“It’s going to come down to the wire. It’s going to be about who doesn’t get caught in a wreck. Whatever team has the best strategy, they’re going to get the most stage points. It’s going to be close,” said 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin of how Saturday’s race will likely play out.

“You just can’t lay back on superspeedways like you used to.”

The plan for 23XI Racing and Wallace is simple: show up with speed, keep all four fenders on the car, and be in contention at the end.

One difference this time around compared to years prior is that Daytona isn’t the last chance to make the playoff field. There’s still Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sept. 1, another track Wallace has been strong at as of late.

Wallace has a streak of four consecutive top 10s at the Track Too Tough to Tame, with a seventh-place result in last year’s Southern 500.

“The mojo is there, but that is the past. Chase Elliott said it best a few years ago, that past success doesn’t mean future success. It is a new opportunity,” said Wallace.

He then jokingly rejoiced about the coming races not being road courses, where his two competitors have excelled, “although, I’m enjoying the time on road courses,” he added.

“It is nice to know there are good tracks coming up. It helps the vibe, and it helps the momentum for us, but it does not slow up the work process,” Wallace pointed out. “The workload just gets heavier for us, and we have enough great people on this team to dig through all of it and capitalize on it.”

Wallace will likely contend under the Daytona floodlights, but needs to stay out of trouble, like what found him at Michigan. He’s turned around an early summer slump once again in his Cup Series career.

Now the question remains, can Wallace pull out a clutch performance again to return to the playoffs?

Coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona is scheduled for Saturday night, Aug. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.