For the first time since going full-time Cup Series racing in 2018, Bubba Wallace will arrive at a racetrack on the heels of three consecutive top-10 finishes. Wallace – in his second season with the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing – came home with an impressive fifth-place finish last weekend on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after finishing eighth at Pocono and third at Loudon.
After being highly critical of his race team’s performance just a few weeks ago, Wallace has changed his tune dramatically and feels extremely optimistic about where things are headed and his outlook for the next four races leading up to the playoffs. Wallace, of course, needs to win one of the next four races to be championship-eligible when the playoffs begin.
“I’m frustrated with myself but happy with the luck finally changing around,” he said. “It seems like we’ve been beat down so much over this year. We’ve got four races to go to continue to climb. I’m proud of this team. I’m proud of everyone on this Toyota Camry TRD. We just have to keep going. We’ve got Michigan coming up. I’m really strong there, so I’m looking forward to that. Richmond and Daytona and Watkins Glen – we have to survive there.”
While Wallace does have a top-10 finish at Michigan, which came in the form of a ninth-place showing in 2020 with his former team at Richard Petty Motorsports, he has room for improvement at the site of this weekend’s race. Other than the one top-10, his best Michigan finish is 19th – where he’s taken the checkered flag in three of his eight starts at the track.