LONG POND, PA.: Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. clearly had his best run of the season in Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
After finishing 14th in Saturday’s first even of a doubleheader at the 2.5-mile triangle, Wallace and his Mike Wheeler-led team went to work to prepare for 140 laps of racing on Sunday in Long Pond.
After starting seventh in his No. 23 DraftKings Toyota Camry, Wallace was able to maintain the pace throughout Stage 1 to finish fifth and capture some coveted stage points and position for his Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-led team.
While Stage 2 didn’t go as smooth as Stage 1 and Wallace even picked up some damage in the stage while in traffic, Wallace positioned himself accordingly and captured 16th at the green and white checkered.
With the race taking a green-flag look during Stage 3, the race would take a fuel-mileage approach with Wallace dropping to pit road with 43 laps to go for fuel only and setting the tone for the rest of his race.
With encouragement from his team and spotter Freddie Kraft, Wallace had maneuvered to seventh with 15 laps to go.
Over the next 37.5-miles, Wallace did enough fuel conservation to take fifth at the checkered flag, collecting his career-best finish for the newly formed team – and earning not only his first top-five but his first top-10 overall in 2021.
“It’s big,” said Wallace of his result. “A lot of confidence for myself which is huge. I knew we were in a worse position than the 18 (Kyle Busch), so we were just racing our race and I was doing as best as I could. But all-in-all, really solid weekend. Great race for DraftKings in their first race on our Camry is the first top-five for our team.
“That’s a little pen to the paper action to get them to resign, but all-in-all, just happy with how the weekend went. Smooth sailing for the most part today. It was a little bit tricky. Perseverance. We got through it, and I’m proud of everybody.”
Kowing the race came down to who had the most fuel in the tank, Wallace credited the members of his team for contributing to his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series top-five.
“It came down to fuel strategy there, but I appreciate Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief), J.R. (Houston, engineer), Freddie (Kraft, spotter), telling me what to do – 80% there, 60% here, the whole time,” he said. “It got so annoying, but it worked out. That’s what it takes. It takes a team effort to pull off this.”
With team co-owner Jordan in attendance this weekend at Pocono, Wallace said the finish that much more.
“Great day for us. Great day for DraftKings – their first race is the first top-five for our team,” added Wallace. “That makes you want to resign, but all-in-all, really good day. Really good weekend for us. We knew that we had the speed. Bossman was here – MJ (Michael Jordan) was here.
“We had the whole staff out, so it was a good day. Good weekend.”
Carrying an average finish of 20.7 entering Sunday’s race – the hype surround 23XI hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations but over the last month there has been significant progress at the shop which has transferred to on-track results.
Since the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Wallace hasn’t finished outside the top-20 and he is happy with the evolution of his rookie team – but his ultimate goal to earn a spot in NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs remains a huge challenge.
“We wanted the Playoffs when we started the season,” offered Wallace. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We know that we are in a hole, but it’s finishes like that, that we have to capitalize on the speed in our cars.
“Today shows what we can do. We’ve got to keep up the momentum.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
