“We’ve got to keep putting our name in the hat”: Bubba Wallace urges for correct strategy calls to qualify for NASCAR playoffs on points

By Sushmita

Modified Jul 24, 2023 18:49 GMT

NASCAR Cup Series Crayon 301 - Qualifying — Bubba Wallace during the NASCAR Cup Series Crayon 301 Qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 15, 2023 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Bubba Wallace is one of the drivers battling for a playoff spot this season. In 15th position, he is just above the cutline. Wallace will have to earn his way into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the first time in his career. The aim is to win, although points racing is an option.

Bubba Wallace is up against Daniel Suárez, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, and others. In the mix, we also have Chase Elliott who is 60 points behind the cutoff line and hasn't had a win this season.

Wallace has the chance to make a postseason pull with five races remaining until the playoffs begin at Darlington Raceway. In five full-time Cup Series seasons, he has yet to make the playoffs as a driver.

Ahead of the qualifying session at Pocono Raceway, Bubba Wallace sat down with Fox's Bob Pockrass and talked about his chances at playoffs.

"We had that conversation going into last weekend. It’s like, I hate points racing, it’s always bit us in the butt, but we gotta start doing that. I think you look at that, we’ve had speed. It’s been a minute since we’ve had a winning car, but we’ve had speed to run in the top-5 for sure," he said.

"Just haven’t executed to do that. Gotta put it all together, get points and get us a win and we’ll be good.”

He continued:

"We’ve been fast enough. Think it takes everything to win one of these things. We gotta keep doing our part, keep putting our name in the hat and it’ll turn around for us to get our win. But we’re in a spot, I can’t say a good spot because we’re in by what, two points? But we just gotta continue to work hard and we’ll be fine.”

Bubba Wallace qualified P10 for the Pocono Raceway. He crossed the finish line at P11 after being involved in a multi-car crash with Daniel Suarez and Joey Logano.

Has Bubba Wallace made it to NASCAR playoffs before?

Bubba Wallace is close to making it into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs as he's in his third season with 23XI Racing. He is now 15th on the playoff grid, 30 points over the cut line, and is right in the thick of the battle for the final few playoff spots.

He did win one race in each of his first two seasons with 23XI, but both came after the playoffs had already begun. But he got an opportunity to drive in the playoffs. The closest he got to the playoffs was when he got to drive Kurt Busch's playoff-qualified car at Kansas Speedway.

This year, he is just on the line to get his first-ever playoff spot and with a couple of racing points or a win, if possible, he might actually make it.