Bubba Wallace had refused to watch the ending of last year’s playoff race at Texas. However, he finally took a look at the tape this week. Getting ready to return to the Lone Star State this NASCAR Sunday, Wallace had to make notes.
The 23XI Racing driver was great at Texas in 2023. He had the lead and it looked like, if he could just outlast everyone else on the final restart, he would pick up his third career win. Well, he didn’t outlast them.
Instead, Bubba Wallace got pushed around a bit by Chase Briscoe, opening the door for William Byron to take off and win the race.
Wallace talked to the media on Saturday about the film and what he learned from rewatching that finish.
“That if Chase Briscoe is starting on the bottom, pick the bottom, don’t let him restart on the bottom, because he ain’t gonna lift. Nah,” Wallace said, joking. “We did look at a lot of restarts though. It all starts kind of from pushing. It’s who you want lined up on your bumper pushing to give you that advantage.
“So, I think we gotta do a better job of analyzing that in the moment and calling the right shots to set yourself up. But first, we gotta have a good race, we gotta get to the end, we gotta get to the Green-White-Checkered finishes, or whatever it was, to make that all come to fruition.”
Bubba Wallace led 111 laps during the race last year. He had one of the most complete races of his career. It began with a pole award and ended with P3. Despite the great overall performance, it was a missed opportunity. Returning to Texas, Wallace has his work cut out for him.
He won’t start P1 today. That honor goes to Kyle Larson. It wasn’t all bad for Wallace. He did earn a top-10 starting spot, the sixth time in nine races this season. Qualifying continues to be a big reason why Wallace has been able to up his performances on Sundays.
It appears that the Toyotas are going to be strong as well as the Fords. At least, if qualifying is any tell. There were three Fords, two Chevys, and five Toyotas in the final round of qualifying. Maybe we will get our first race where all three manufacturers are near the front.
After rewatching the tape from last year, Bubba Wallace believes he knows how to correct the mistakes he made. The only problem is getting in position to be in a position to lose or win.
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