Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing unfazed by pressure in recording first top-10
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
LONG POND, Pa. – Bubba Wallace knew the team he joined this year, 23XI Racing, could finish among the top five in races.
But it's one thing to have confidence about doing it. And another to actually achieve it.
Certainly, winning is the goal, but Wallace gladly checked a box with a fifth-place finish Sunday at Pocono Raceway. The 19th race of the season marked his first top-10 of the year.
"We know we can do it," said Wallace, who finished second in the 2018 Daytona 500. "It’s good to check that off the list. Now we have got to keep doing it. … Then that will show that we’re really here."
As the only Black full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series and the driver for an organization put together less than a year ago by driver Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan, Wallace knows that the spotlight is on him to perform more quickly than a first-year team should be expected to produce consistent top-five finishes.
Jordan was at Pocono over the weekend (his second visit to the race track in the past four weeks), but Wallace has tried to deflect any talk about pressure.
"The pressure is on, obviously," said Wallace, whose advocacy for social justice has made him a polarizing figure to the NASCAR fan base. "[Jordan] just wants us to keep getting better, him and Denny. ... Progression is what I’m seeing most importantly.
"As far as the pressure? Look at last year."
On the track, the biggest struggles for the team have come in running well at times during races but not earning comparable finishing spots. The total execution from all parts of the team has resulted in disappointing finishes.
The first part of the season, crew chief Mike Wheeler thought the team was finishing 10 spots or more worse than where they could have finished, considering their speed. In recent months, they have reduced that to a handful of spots.
"Bubba put a lot of it on his shoulders, having mistakes or running too hard, running into somebody," Wheeler said. "A lot of our good cars, early in the race, we’d get damage.
"He’s like, ‘I’ve got to stop doing that.’ And Denny beat him up, too."
Wallace, who is in his fourth full Cup season and seeking his first Cup victory and playoff spot, overcame damage Sunday, the type of thing that has hindered him in the past. This time, it occurred when he had contact with the wall on a restart in the first half of the race.
"For sure, top-10 finishes half the races [were possible]. The cars had speed," Wheeler said. "We didn’t execute. We got fifth in Stage 1 [on Sunday], we got fifth at the end of the race, and we had trouble in between.
"We still did it. Hopefully, we did shake part of the monkey off our back."
The fifth-place finish came through fuel-saving strategy, but Wallace thought his team had a fast enough car to take advantage of that strategy at a track where he had never finished better than 14th.
"A lot of people ran out [of gas], but we had a strategy and stuck to it," he said. "Everybody knows in NASCAR, strategy is part of it in some way or some fashion.
"Our races usually get caught up by a caution, and our strategy goes out the window."
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Wheeler, a former crew chief for Hamlin who was handpicked by Hamlin to lead the team, believes he has a good understanding of expectations inside the walls of the shop and can keep out the noise from outside the shop that the team has underperformed this season.
"I know my owners’ true perception of us," Wheeler said. "And I know they believe in the trajectory we’re going. They know it’s not easy to turn key and go.
"It’s not easy for Bubba to just hop into a top-five car from where he’s been the last four years and go lead laps. It’s just not there. As long as we’re going from a 20th-place team to a 15th-place team toward a top-10 team, they’re happy."
Wallace certainly hears those who wonder if Jordan is getting frustrated without solid results. As competitors, they all are frustrated.
Wheeler says the team follows the directive from "The Last Dance" of "just work hard."
For Wallace, he knows that everyone expects the Jordan team driver to win. At the same time, he thinks everyone inside the team knows what to expect of a driver working with a group in their first year.
"He understands — everybody talks about, ‘He’s a winner, he’s a champion,’" Wallace said. "But he’s also a realistic person. He wants to win, for sure, but he knows what it’s going to take for us to get there.
"It’s more from me. It’s more from the team. It’s more of a group effort."
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Thinking Out Loud
The Pocono doubleheader, the first back-to-back Cup races with fans, was a rousing success, with big crowds and a sold-out infield.
Now some might say, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
But here’s a suggestion that continues to make sense: Use two different aero packages for the two races. That way, what people see Saturday could be different from what they see Sunday.
Yes, the fuel-mileage aspect of the race Sunday made it different from Saturday's, but NASCAR shouldn’t be relying on such circumstances.
The teams already have to bring backup cars, so why not use them? Then there would be no need for concern about drivers saving equipment Saturday in looking ahead to Sunday.
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Stat of Note
Hendrick Motorsports is the only organization since 1967 to win six consecutive Cup races, having done so in both 2007 and 2021. Kyle Busch snapped the team’s winning streak Sunday at Pocono.
They Said It
"I typically drink all the beers. Can't do all that because I got to race a car tomorrow. I have to be way more responsible than I really want to be right now." — Alex Bowman after winning Saturday, knowing he had another race Sunday
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
