Lebanon, Tenn.— If Bubba Wallace considered 2022 his best year on the NASCAR Cup tour, then 2023 is even better—at least statistically.
Sixteen races into last season, Wallace had just one top five, two top 10s and had led 31 laps. Over the same period this year, the driver of the No. 23 Toyota has collected four top fives, five top 10s and led 53 laps.
More important, Wallace is 15th in the standings—the best-ever position for the 29-year-old racer with 10 events remaining in the regular season.
“It’s cool to see your name above the cut line,” Wallace said. “I think in the past five years, we weren’t even in the top 20 at this point. So it’s cool. We have a lot of work to do.
“Moving forward, we just have to realize the situation that presents itself each and every weekend and capitalize on that if it’s a good one. Like this weekend, we’ve got a lot of speed. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
Once again, Wallace was bitten by the qualifying bug at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday. After posting the second fastest lap in the first round of time trials, Wallace spun out as he approached the finish line in the final round.
Deja vu, perhaps? Last year, Wallace was the fastest driver in practice at the 1.33-mile concrete track and posted the top speed in best 10 consecutive lap averages. After qualifying 30th in a suddenly ill-handling car, the Ally 400 became an uphill battle.
Wallace didn’t surrender. He wheeled the No. 23 Toyota to seventh in Stage 1, sixth in Stage 2 and after an unfortunate pit road adventure, still salvaged a 12th-place finish.
The race didn’t come without a few harsh words on the radio followed by a difficult discussion with the team. Consequently, Wallace grew from the experience. And so did the team. Execution was an issue in 2022. The driver can recite from painful memory the team’s pit road woes, which included 10 loose wheels last year, including two at Nashville.
“So it’s just not making mistakes on that side of things, not making mistakes on my side, maturing as a driver, as a person, understanding the situations you’re in during the race,” said Wallace, who starts ninth on Sunday. “Look at Charlotte, we were not good. We had pit road troubles. But I understood, ‘We’ve got three stages left. We’ve got two stages left. Ok, it’s the last stage. No mistakes!’
“And we didn’t have any mistakes in the last stage, and it gave us the opportunity to finish fourth. You have to understand that before you get so dialed out because you think it’s over and you won’t recover. Then you go down that slippery slope on the mental side, ‘Try again next week,’ and it’s not even over.”
Managing his emotions has been a challenge for Wallace. Not only has he worked on his personal growth, but Wallace has invested in the driver/crew chief relationship with Bootie Barker as well.
“Our conversations to get better are very direct and to the point—and it’s working,” Wallace said. “It’s helping our team grow. Everybody kind of feeds off of us and it’s fun to be where we’re at right now.
“You have to show up and be ready for every opportunity that comes your way. No matter how tough it gets, you have to keep it going. Then when everything stops—the bad luck stops—the finishes start coming. So you’ve got to keep the faith.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
