(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Bubba Wallace put his road course struggles aside to finish 12th in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International, increasing his points margin by four.
“It’s a really good day,” Wallace summarized after Sunday’s race. “Looking at last week, we gave up 30 points. I think everybody, including myself, was like ‘man, probably gonna be the same thing.’
“I’m tough on myself, I think we all know that here, but it’s just good to execute and come out with an ok points day.”
After qualifying 12th, his best career start on a road course, Wallace got into the top 10 and earned five points across the first two stages. A caution came out for Chase Elliott on Lap 57 during green flag pit stops and the 23XI Racing driver lost some track position but still managed to finish inside the top 15.
“If we hadn’t caught that caution, he would have finished probably seventh to ninth,” crew chief Bootie Barker told The Podium Finish. “[Wallace] is extremely capable, but he can be his own worse enemy. He manned up and got it done. He did great.
“It’s just work and focus and all the things we do everywhere else. So just, it’s pulling this up as well.”
Wallace went from 28 points above the cutline to 32 above as Daniel Suarez spun and hit the wall exiting the bus stop on Lap 5. He lost significant track position and ended up with a 22nd-place finish. Suarez dropped to 43 points below the cutline.
Ty Gibbs finished fifth and moved up a spot in points. He’s 32 points below the cutline.
William Byron won his fifth race of the season, meaning a repeat winner kept Wallace inside the provisional playoff picture. Wallace is looking to secure the final available spot at Daytona.
“Compared to last weekend, I was pylon watching the whole race, trying to figure out who was where,” Wallace said. “Here, you can’t really see anything. I knew [Suarez] was behind me to start the race and then about three laps later I heard they were crashing behind me. I looked up and I had a big gap. I don’t want to say I hope it’s the 99, but if it was, we kind of got our gap. Sometimes you’re the bat, sometimes you’re the ball and you just have to go out and run your own race.
“I think we get fixated on Suarez — hell, anybody can win Daytona. We just got to go out and win, that’d be great. It’s not a must-win situation, but it can be. Look at the 3 car (Austin Dillon) last year, you know what happened there? We’re not safe by any means.”
Wallace ended up with one of his most complete road course races, a style of racing he’s admittedly struggled at. Before Sunday’s race, Wallace had an average finish of 27.8 at Watkins Glen. He explained how he’s worked to improve his road racing skills while addressing the media on Saturday.
As the No. 23 team can sniff the playoffs, Wallace said that a lot of his success falls on the leadership of Barker atop the pit box. The duo’s won two races together and are now just a race away from embarking on their first championship run.
“He’s a warrior man, he leads the troops to battle and gets you in the right mindset,” Wallace said. “This is an all-out war from the start of February to the start of November. You have to just grind. So to have that mentality [and] have that leadership is a massive help for us and for me. At times where I get down and out, he’s kind of there to get me right back in shape.”
The regular-season finale is set for Saturday, August 26 at 7 p.m. on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
