No one thought Bubba Wallace would win at Watkins Glen, but he had a game plan and stuck to it in terms of points. Wallace ran in the top-10 most of the afternoon and finished P12 at Watkins Glen. It was his best performance at the track in his NASCAR career.
Before this weekend, Bubba Wallace had never qualified or finished better than P23. This weekend, he qualified and finished P12. He also put distance between himself and the playoff bubble.
He came in 28 points up on Daniel Suárez and came out 32 points up on Ty Gibbs as far as the cutline is concerned. The goal was to pick up points, and Wallace did that.
“Just executing really,” Wallace said after. “Thanks, Byron for winning that. Didn’t have a new winner. … Man, I’m proud of myself, that’s the first time I’ve felt proud of myself after a road course race. Just executed and didn’t lose focus maybe one time and that’s the difference maker. You gotta stay on it, especially at these places.”
It helps to get advice from an IndyCar legend ahead of the race.
“Shoutout to Scott Dixon I actually talked to him this morning about the mental piece of it, right? It’s hard when you climb in a road course race and you tell yourself you’re gonna crash or you’re gonna suck. … But when you tell yourself that every time, he basically told me to shut the hell up and I’m here for a reason and to trust in myself and believe in myself and this is what can happen. So, I don’t think I had one lap where I said I was gonna suck, so that’s good.”
All things considered, Bubba Wallace got the job done on Sunday at Watkins Glen.
Bubba Wallace raced ‘smart’ like his boss said to
After winning the pole at Watkins Glen, Denny Hamlin was asked about Wallace’s chance at the playoffs. Before the race got going at The Glen, Hamlin wanted his driver to just “race smart” and do what he needed to do. With a plan to points race on a course he didn’t perform well at, Wallace did just that.
Early in the race, Daniel Suárez and Bubba Wallace were right next to each other on the backend of the top-10. On Lap 5, Suárez spun around in the bus stop and it was catastrophic. The 99 team never recovered and lost a ton of points to the 23 team.
It also helped when Chase Elliott ran out of fuel. On lap 55, Elliott came to a stop and was short on fuel. Other teams were making green flag stops to get fuel for the end of the race.
Ultimately, it helped that William Byron was so dominant. He won, held off drivers like Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger, and the playoff bubble stayed put where it was before this weekend.
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