“Got to be mentally and physically ready”: Bubba Wallace breaks down his playoff mindset over “lot of work” for the Darlington opener

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace is a championship contender this year. Sitting 11th on points, the Alabama native is just days ahead of the Round of 16 opener, which is scheduled for August 31 at Darlington Raceway.

Last year, Bubba Wallace won the pole at the unique egg-shaped oval. It is one of the oldest racetracks on NASCAR’s schedule and probably the trickiest to pack speed on.

Thanks to its design with varying banking in the turns (turns 1 and 2 banked at 25 degrees and turns 3 and 4 at 23 degrees). However, Wallace is ready for the challenge. Focused on the playoff opener, the 31-year-old driver told Frontstretch.com (2:45),

“Looking forward to Darlington. It's been a fun track to learn and figure out, and continue to gain speed there. Sitting on the pole there last year was really really cool. It's a lot of work, you know, when we get to Darlington, the playoffs start. So just got to be mentally and physically ready, but looking forward to the challenge.”

Since finishing 26th at Sonoma back in July, Wallace’s performance has been quite consistent. The driver bagged three top-10s and snapped a 100-race winless streak at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which made him playoff eligible in the first place.

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Back when Bubba Wallace made history at Indianapolis

Bubba Wallace’s victory in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was special. It didn’t come easy as the Toyota icon had to battle an 18-minute rain delay, two overtime restarts, the fear of running out of fuel late, and a hard-charging Kyle Larson, who also happened to be the defending race champion.

However, his grit prevailed, and he managed to hold off Larson on back-to-back restarts. With that, Wallace became the first African American driver to win on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval. His victory margin was of 0.222 seconds.

“This one’s really cool,” Bubba Wallace said in his post-race interview. “Coming off Turn 4, I knew I was going to get there — unless we ran out of gas. I was surprised I wasn’t crying like a little baby.”

“Those last 20 laps there were ups and downs and I was telling myself ‘You won’t be able to do it’. Once I’d seen it was Larson, I knew he won here last year and he’s arguably the best in the field. So to beat the best, we had to be the best today,” he added.

Wallace now has three NASCAR Cup Series wins to his name. He also has six victories in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

The speedster will race for his second win of the season (fourth overall) in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Scheduled for Sunday, August 16, the 400-lap event, also the 25th race of the 2025 season, will be televised by USA, with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.