Bubba Wallace breaks down late battles with Kyle Larson and William Byron

Bubba Wallace was right in the mix for a victory during NASCAR’s venture to Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Late in the race, the 23XI Racing wheelman was mixing it up with Kyle Larson. While Larson had been leading the event, Wallace was fighting him for the win, when Larson’s car lost the air and went sideways into the wall.

Speaking with FOX’s Bob Pockrass afterwards, Wallace harkened back to the battle he had with the former NASCAR Cup Series champion.

“It was a fun battle, for sure. Fighting hard for a whole lap, and I thought it was going to be like that the whole time, because I wasn’t going to lift until he was going to lift,” said Wallace. “That’s unfortunately what happened. Unfortunately, he crashed and ruined his day.

“But we’re fighting for a win here in the Playoffs and to get to the next round.”

In the end, Wallace would end up in P3, as Larson’s Hendrick teammate William Byron got by him on the final restart, and would win the race. Continuing, Wallace elaborated on what went wrong for him, as he let Byron escape his grasp.

“Fair and square, he just out-restarted me, and it’s just frustrating. I really take pride in my restarts,” explained Wallace. “I tried to to everything right. I let everybody down today. It sucks.

“I think it was a good points day. I don’t know where we stack up now. But got to keep fighting. Got to keep rolling and learning and processing things better. That’s what the Playoffs and NASCAR (are) about. Got to keep going.”

Alas, it was still a great afternoon for Bubba Wallace, but a victory would’ve been his first of 2023, and locked him into the Round of 8. That has to sting, letting that one getting away.

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Moreover, you understand the disappointment from Wallace. He’s having a career-best season, but if he feels that he can get more and doesn’t, he might see it as a failure. 

Now that he’s in the thick of the playoff race, Wallace is showing that he can hang with the top drivers. He’s making the smart decision, not forcing the issue, and bringing his car home clean. Wallace went from 14 points below the cutline to just 2 points below and with Kyle Larson just ahead of him for that 12th spot. 

Good news, next week is Talladega, a track Bubba Wallace runs really well at. Bad news? It’s Talladega. Wallace led there in the spring when he made two bad blocks on Ryan Blaney and wrecked out of the race on the final lap.

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.