Analysis: Bubba Wallace pads playoff cushion with 'exceptional' effort

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — A drive that may have saved his playoff hopes finally left Bubba Wallace proud of his efforts in a road-course race.

Notorious for struggling on twisting tracks throughout his career, Wallace left Watkins Glen International with a 32-point cushion as the final driver provisionally inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs grid heading into next weekend’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

“Exceptional day. Exceptional day,” Bootie Barker, crew chief of Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota, told NASCAR.com. “I mean, I’m super-pleased with how we ran. Stage points, everything was just clean. And Bubba did exceptional. So it gives us, I mean, just a massive chance at Daytona. So I’m real pleased.”

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Wallace left the 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course with a 12th-place finish, netting five stage points along the way to pad his provisional spot in the postseason as he aims to qualify for his first playoff run. That performance followed an 18th-place showing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course one week earlier that kept Daniel Suárez 28 points behind Wallace in the postseason hunt.

“It’s a really good day,” Wallace said. “You know, looking at last week, we gave up 30 points. And I think everybody, including myself, was like, ‘Man, probably gonna be the same thing (Sunday). We’ll go into a heads-up battle with the 99 (Suárez) or whoever it may be.’ But man, we actually gained points. So just thankful for the team, everybody at 23XI (Racing), Bootie continuing to preach to me about how good we actually are and how we don’t struggle as much as I think we do, and just giving me the right resources to get these good results because, man, it’s tough. I’m tough on myself. I think we all know that here. But just good to execute and come out with an OK points situation.”

Wallace’s place in the postseason picture has endured its fair share of ups and downs over the past several weeks. After the Aug. 7 race at Michigan, the Alabama native was 55 points to the good, a more-than-comfortable margin with three races left in the regular season. But road courses have typically been Wallace’s Achilles’ heel, emphasized by his collective one top five and two top 10s in 25 previous starts. He didn’t add to either column Sunday, but he added where it counts most — the points tally.

A chunk of credit, Wallace said, goes to Barker, who has helped keep Wallace’s chin high when Wallace has needed an extra kick of confidence.

“He’s a warrior, man,” Wallace said. “He leads the troops to battle, and he gets you in the right mindset. And that’s what you need. You know, this is an all-out war from the start of February to the start of November, and you have to just grind. And so to have that mentality that leadership is a massive help for us and for me. So at times where I get down and out, you know, he’s kind of there to get me right back in shape.”

Barker was realistic in his approach to the No. 23 team’s efforts and knew he had a capable driver. Bringing the right pieces together is one thing; getting those pieces and people to execute the job is another.

“We just all tried to get all we could,” Barker said. “I’m not gonna sit around here and tell you we were all just roses and everything was positivity. It wasn’t. It was a battle with all of us helping each other to get all we could. You know, it was tough. But we’re taking it serious, and I’m proud of everybody.”

Focus now shifts to Daytona, where Wallace and 17 others will fight for the final berth in the 16-driver playoff grid on Saturday night (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock, NBC Sports App). If Wallace wins or maintains a point advantage at Daytona without a first-time winner of 2023 emerging, the spot will be his. But if any other full-time driver wins at Daytona who has not yet won this season, Wallace would be ousted.

That makes the task at Daytona fairly straightforward.

“Attack,” Barker said. “We got to try to win it.”

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The problem, of course, is that will be most teams’ strategy.

“Hell, anybody can win Daytona, so we’ve just got to go and win,” he said. “That’d be great. You know, it’s not a must-win situation, but it can be. Look at the No. 3 car last year and what happened there. So you know, we’re not safe by any means. Doesn’t matter who’s behind me in points. It could be whoever’s (full-time) wins, so then we’re ultimately out. So long as you just go and execute and run our own race and don’t get caught up in something stupid, we’ll be all right.”

Wallace’s numbers on superspeedways speak for themselves: one win (Talladega-2, 2021) and five top fives since 2018. Daytona has been particularly rewarding for him, the site of three runner-up finishes, including two in the Daytona 500.

“Past success doesn’t guarantee future success, that’s for sure,” Wallace tempered. “So we’ve got to go out and just get through qualifying and stages and just run our own race. We know what we need to do there. We showed that at Talladega. Just don’t need to crash on the last corner.”

As for the pressure of trying to make the playoffs? Wallace welcomes it.

“I like when our backs are against the wall,” he said. “People were kind of writing us off. We show up and deliver, so it’s something to be proud about.”