Bubba Wallace climbing in his car on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — After being poised for a top-five finish last week at Richmond before a late race incident took it away, Bubba Wallace came to Martinsville Speedway looking to get it back.
And he did that with gusto.
Wallace ran up front all day and with the help of late-race yellow, was able to finish in the fourth position.
The weekend got off to a strong start for Wallace, finishing second in practice. Wallace then carried that speed over to qualifying, getting to the final round and putting his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry on the front row in the second position. This topped his previous best Martinsville starting position of sixth.
The Cook Out 400 went green with Kyle Larson in the inside lane with Wallace to his outside. Larson got a great get-off and cleared Wallace out of Turn 2 onto the backstraightaway.
Larson grew his lead throughout Stage 1, but in the closing laps, as lapped traffic intensified, Wallace began running down the No. 5 car. Wallace got to the back bumper of Larson, and almost got inside of him coming off of Turn 4. However, the Mobile, Alabama, native was unable to get there and finished the stage in second. Larson led all 80 laps of Stage 1, with all of them being green flag laps.
All of the lead lap cars came down pit road under yellow and took four tires and fuel, besides three cars. Those three were Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Joey Logano. Logano jumped from sixth to the lead.
The restart came on Lap 94, with Logano leading the field in the bottom lane and Larson on the top. Wallace lined up in the bottom lane behind Logano in third place. Once the leaders hit the restart zone, Logano and Wallace got a great launch, with both drivers clearing Larson by the end of the lap.
Wallace with his tire advantage kept his gap to Logano very close and never let it get over a second. The only problem is Wallace couldn’t make the pass to take the lead. On Lap 163, Denny Hamlin passed Wallace for the second position, and then on Lap 170, got around Logano for the lead.
Bubba Wallace during the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Once Logano got passed, he became vulnerable and began getting passed. Wallace was able to get by Logano quickly after Hamlin took the lead, and just like in Stage 1, made a late charge for the stage win but was unable to do so. Wallace finished Stage 2 in second place.
Stage 3 went green on Lap 194 with Wallace restarting behind Hamlin in the bottom lane in the third position. This restart wasn’t as good as the last one, but Wallace was able to hold on to third when everyone began singling out.
After a quick yellow for Christopher Bell on Lap 203, the race continued to run green like the first two stages, forcing green flag pit stops to begin. Wallace came down pit road on Lap 298 while running in the third position. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson came down at the same time as Wallace.
After coming out of the pits and getting back on track, Wallace lost two positions, getting passed by Larson and William Byron. Wallace’s pit stall position was located in the turn, which helps the driver get out of his stall with the timing loops, but hurts the pit crew while making the stop.
“We lost a little bit on the last stop,” Wallace said. “We got too free.”
Once everyone made their pit stop, Wallace cycled out into the fifth position. Following the pit stops, Ryan Blaney began climbing the running order and passed Wallace for fifth place.
The race stayed green and looked like Byron was going to cruise to the win and Wallace was going to finish in sixth. That was until John Hunter Nemechek had a right front tire failure and hit the wall in Turn 3, bringing out a caution with just two laps to go and sending the race to NASCAR Overtime.
“I was content in finishing in sixth, and that’s why you never give up,” Wallace said post-race.
Bubba Wallace on track at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday afternoon. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Only four cars decided to pit under caution for the overtime restart, Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones and Ryan Preece. All of the other lead lap cars stayed out on track.
Wallace restarted in the third row on the bottom for overtime. The bottom lane got a solid restart but was pretty even with the top lane.
Using the bottom lane, Wallace was able to get passed Blaney, who was on the top, to move into fourth. Then coming out of Turn 4, Wallace got to the inside of Elliott and almost made the pass at the start/finish line for a podium finish. Wallace came up a little short, coming home in fourth as Byron took the checkered flag to win the race.
“Yeah, hats off to everybody at 23XI,” Wallace said following the race. “We do a lot of stuff during the week, and I’m finally starting to understand that it all pays off.”
The fourth-place finish was the first top-five finish for Wallace and the No. 23 team since race two at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“We needed that,” Wallace said.
