Good news for Bubba Wallace, he had a 58-point cushion on the cutline coming into Indianapolis. He left only 28 points up, though. Not only that, Michael McDowell just stole a playoff spot from the rest of the NASCAR bubble drivers by dominating the field on the IMS road course.
Bubba Wallace did what he could at Indy. However, the rest of the field was just better on the road course than he was. Despite finishing P5 last season at this race, Wallace found himself struggling in the mess of the middle of the pack.
Wallace and others needed some caution flags to help them gain track position. But with 80 laps of green flag racing, it was just not in the cards. Even his teammate Tyler Reddick, who is one of the best on the road, had struggles. He went on to finish P4, but lost speed throughout the race.
It wasn’t just the win from McDowell that hurt Wallace. Chase Elliott and Daniel Suárez both had very strong races. This means that Wallace only leads Suárez by 28 points. Things could get very interesting in these last two weeks.
Elliott closed the gap a little bit on Wallace, however, it isn’t going to cut it. 80 points in two weeks is virtually insurmountable. The thing to worry about is the fact Suárez and Elliott both had a ton of speed. If that carries over to Watkins Glen, then he could really be in trouble.
On the other hand, a previous race winner could take the checkered flag next week and leave Wallace in a great place for Daytona. The bubble battle is not over by any means.
Bubba Wallace can’t get in his own head
Before the Verizon 200, Bubba Wallace talked about his attitude heading into the race. Compared to earlier this season, his outlook on racing and his own performances has changed. He knew he’d have to have a strong performance to hold these drivers off. He also knows he can’t get down on himself.
There is a reason why Wallace and his team have been building up a stash of points. Now they have a cushion of about one race worth of points and have two races to finish this one out. Keeping his head up is important in those last two weeks of the regular season.
“When you don’t give a damn about things that makes things fun, right?” Wallace said to media at Indy. “When you start thinking and overthinking that dials yourself right out and it’s not fun. So, I’m a damn good person of overthinking things, especially road course racing taking the fun right out of it. You just gotta go out and get back to the basics. I’ve hit up sim a lot this week just to figure out where Tyler was fast.”
Moving on to Watkins Glen, Bubba Wallace has to get with his team and think strategy. Maybe he runs a different pit cycle next week. Wallace ran long most of the day and it didn’t work out without caution flags to bring the field back together.
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