A year ago, Bubba Wallace won the pole award, led 22 laps on the day, and finished second at Michigan International Speedway. This year for the FireKeepers Casino 400, the 23XI Racing driver is hoping that he can get the job done and put his car in victory lane. He could use a win to lock himself into the NASCAR Playoffs.
Right now, Bubba Wallace is 54 points up on the cutline and has performed well lately. He led for the most laps in his career in a single race last week at Richmond after a solid qualifying effort. That is a track he has struggled at over the years. It was by far his best performance on the 3/4-mile track in his Cup career.
As for this weekend at Michigan, Wallace knows what he has to do. He got beat on the final restart, and Kevin Harvick was simply better. He isn’t called The Closer for no reason. But if Wallace wants to take that next step into being a perennial playoff driver, he has to execute.
“Feel good about it,” Wallace said vis PRN’s Garage Pass. “You know some things have changed with the car a little bit. Temperatures are going to be a little different. So, nothing’s ever the same. So, you have to just go out and execute and try to plan out that last restart just one spot better.”
With what seems like an attitude change this season, Bubba Wallace has outperformed himself in almost every way this year. Earlier this season he got way down on himself after a DNF at COTA. Pocono should have been a better finish, arguably Richmond should have too.
Michigan offers a new chance and don’t write off those road courses, either.
Bubba Wallace has strong shot at playoffs
In 15th place, Bubba Wallace could survive a surprise winner in the last month of the year. If Kevin Harvick wins at Michigan, it doesn’t change anything. If Brad Keselowski gets a win, it changes nothing for Wallace as far as points are concerned.
However, if Chase Elliott comes around and wins or Ty Gibbs has a career-best race and steals a win, it gets a little complicated. I’d say this weekend is his strongest chance of winning and Daytona is second. He’s just performed well on superspeedways his whole career.
What will make or break Wallace’s playoff chances are the road courses at Indy and Watkins Glen. Despite his history at road courses, I think Wallace has shown some real improvement in the last two seasons on the twists and turns. He was P5 at the Indy Road Course a season ago.
Wallace was also P7 at the Charlotte Roval a year ago. When he avoids mistakes and has speed, he’s capable of those kinds of performances. We will have to wait and see if he can repeat those strong road course performances. If he DNFs at Watkins Glen as he did a year ago, it could sink his playoff hopes. He will have his spotter, Freddie Kraft, back this week.