Bubba Wallace during pre-race driver introductions for the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. (Photo: Yasser Khan | The Podium Finish)
LEBANON, Tenn. — After coming down pit road for his first green flag stop of Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, the night was already looking bleak for Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry.
After making that scheduled green flag stop, Wallace was forced to come back down pit road for a speeding violation, putting his 23XI team in peril for the rest of the event.
The 23XI driver was able to qualify in the 12th position during Saturday’s qualification session, giving himself a shot at a good finish, something his organization has desperately needed in the past month. In the past three NASCAR Cup Series events, Wallace slotted in at the highest of a 33rd-place finish.
The month of May didn’t treat the driver out of Mobile, Alabama, kindly, as he was in a different position than he had ever in before at this point in the season. The 23XI driver was firmly ahead of the playoff cutline at 81 points to the good, but that advantage slowly dwindled throughout that rough stretch of finishes. Wallace headed into Nashville with a 45-point cushion, but that untimely speeding penalty on pit road cost the No. 23 some crucial ground.
Wallace at that point saw his points fall to 21 to the good, while running back in the 35th position and a lap down. All signs were pointing towards a tough and long night for Wallace and his 23XI team, but that would not be the case later on in the show.
Wallace drove in the back of the field for the first half of the race, slowly picking off cars one by one to move into the top 25 by Lap 140. After Stage 2 had finished, all of the lead lap cars entered pit road for service, where Wallace’s pit crew gave him an advantage with a clean and efficient pit stop that moved the No. 23 from outside the top 15 to just outside the top 10.
Bubba Wallace comes down pit road for a green flag pit stop in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. (Photo: Yasser Khan | The Podium Finish)
On the restart for the final stage, Wallace stood his ground at 12th while Ryan Preece spun out in the rear of the field and brought out the seventh caution of the race. The field restarted yet again, and the 23XI Racing Toyota Camry found a way into the top ten.
Wallace was able to move up a few more spots throughout that final green flag stretch and work his way into the 6th position when it was all set and done. The No. 23 team had found what they were looking for the entirety of the past month of May, and it was pretty clear that Wallace was at a huge sigh of relief.
“God almighty, it was a great day”, Wallace said in his post-race interview with NASCAR. “I hate that we got our speeding penalty. I thought I ran my lights [on the dash]; we can go back to the shop and double-check it to see if I messed up. It’s frustrating because I knew our car was fast. It was nice to methodically carve our way through the field and make passes”.
Wallace was beating on himself pretty hard for that speed penalty earlier in the race, but he fought his way back to a good result in a time of desperation. But the veteran driver was aware that his No. 23 team had struggled in the past few races, and a finish like this could go a long way for a playoff push.
“After those back-to-back top-three finishes (Homestead Miami and Martinsville), I was expecting it every week… I think that may have jinxed us. I have the utmost confidence in this team to continue getting finishes like this consistently.”
Wallace knew all along that his team had the speed to finish well in every race this year, it just came down to execution near the end of the race.
“Getting our morale back and confidence back is big for us. We knew we could do it”.
Wallace now sits at 54 points to the good in the playoff standings, as he sits 10th in the regular season points standings, giving his 23XI team confidence heading to a track where Wallace has found success in the past in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, that track being Michigan International Speedway.
Coverage of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway will be aired live on Amazon Prime at 2:00 p.m. ET, with radio coverage provided by The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
