NASCAR
Bubba Wallace’s Fourth Straight Top 10 Was Too Little, Too Late: ‘I Failed Everybody’
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterPublished08 Aug 2022
After 167 races spent more or less in a rut, Bubba Wallace is finally in a groove. Unfortunately for the driver of the No. 23 Toyota, it’s not yet enough to get him to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Wallace is going to have to win one of the three remaining regular-season races to qualify. Even then, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, or Austin Dillon could make a ride onto Victory Lane before the end of the month an exercise in futility.
Bubba Wallace is posting the best run of his Cup Series career
When Bubba Wallace left Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on July 3 after brake failure ended his day eight laps short of the finish, he ranked 25th in points. Though he finished only 14th the following week in Atlanta, it was nevertheless the start of an impressive run.
In the four weeks since, Wallace’s results log looks like this:
- Third place at Loudon after qualifying fourth.
- Eighth at Pocono after qualifying seventh.
- Fifth at Indianapolis after starting 19th.
- Second at Michigan after winning the pole for the first time in 171 starts.
It’s easily the best month of the 23XI Racing driver’s NASCAR Cup Series career and boosted him to 19th in points. Wallace, who began in the Cup Series in 2017, is the only driver to have finished in the top 10 in each of the past four races; Martin Truex Jr. is the only other competitor with as many as three top-10 showings in that span.
Bubba Wallace leaves Michigan bitterly disappointed: ‘I failed everybody’
Bubba Wallace is in must-win mode as he looks to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time. With 15 winners in 23 races, no more than one driver can qualify on points, and Wallace cannot mathematically catch the winless Ryan Blaney to qualify via that route. Worse, if Wallace and a winless driver ahead of him in points somehow triumph in the final three races, one of the 17 winners will miss the playoffs. It will come down to season-long points.
Kurt Busch is the only winner behind Wallace in points, but the margin is a mere eight points despite his 23XI teammate missing the past three races with concussion-like symptoms. If Busch gains medical approval to resume racing this weekend at Richmond, it’s entirely plausible he’ll make up the eight-point gap despite Wallace’s hot streak.
It all helps explain why Wallace was heartbroken as he exited his car following the second-place showing at Michigan International Speedway. Winning the pole and leading a season-high 22 laps while repping a major team sponsor didn’t accomplish the objective: winning.
“All in all, an incredible weekend,” he told NBC Sports on pit lane. “Appreciate my team. Wish we could have got Toyota in Victory Lane. Wish we got McDonald’s back in Victory Lane. She was fast all week, man.
“I’ll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody. “
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