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23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace had a disappointing P23 finish in the recently concluded 2023 YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The second race of Round of 12 didn’t go well for the #23 Toyota driver.
Wallace sits on the elimination line and needs to overcome a points deficit next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course with a win or top-5 finish.
Speaking to NBC after the race, Bubba Wallace admitted that the final pit stop didn’t work for him. He also admitted that he didn’t make the right call in the end that cost him track position.
“Just, I don’t know, we need to go back and debrief and figure out. But track position was so important.
"If the bottom and the middle lanes were riding and the pace slowed down enough you could make the third lane work, but that last pit stop we had a number we were trying to get for fuel and we came out 13th or 14th when we were 5th,” Wallace said as quoted by Pro Talk.
He continued:
“I made a wrong call there I cost us, and the 45 a lot of positions and a really good day. Didn’t make the right moves there at the end but just trying to make up for what we had lost, track position-wise.”
“Not the day that we needed” – Bubba Wallace
For the #23 Ford driver, the upcoming Charlotte Roval race will be a do-or-die race. He will look to repeat his last year’s performance to stay in the title contention. He scored a seventh-place finish last season at Charlotte.
About his results, Wallace said that he had to evaluate his performance and identify the problems:
“Not the day that we needed. We put ourselves behind working on a plan, which plans are great with your teammates, but I felt like it hurt us to start.
"We got buried in track position, and you had to fight and claw your way back up to the top … then we gave it away on the last pit stop. Not what we needed. Obviously, we had this one circled as a good weekend for us but just didn’t execute, as quoted by NBC.
Bubba Wallace is nine points below the cut-off line, standing tenth in the playoff standings with 3051 points.
