Bubba Wallace 'choked' on final restart at Texas: 'I gave it away'

Bubba Wallace had the pole award. He earned stage points. However, he couldn’t pull off the win as he was passed on the final restart. Wallace had the lead, chose the outside, and Chase Briscoe made him pay for it. William Byron was there to pick up the pieces and claim his sixth win of the NASCAR season.

Before the final restart, Bubba Wallace went toe-to-toe with Kyle Larson, and won! Larson slid up track, spun out, and wrecked. From there, it looked like Wallace was going to pull off the victory. Unfortunately for the 23XI Racing driver, it wasn’t meant to be.

Of course, Wallace was hard on himself after the race. As a driver who can get into his own head at times, this won’t help things in that regard.

“I just choked. I had my worst restart,” Wallace said to PRN. He was somber in his comments. “I hate it for my team. You have to go out there and fight for it and not give it away. I gave it away. This one is going to sting a little bit.”

On the NASCAR broadcast on NBC, Bubba Wallace continued his somber mood.

“The best restarted in the game gives it up on a restart,” Wallace said.

"The best restarter in the game gives it up on a restart."

Bubba Wallace finished 3rd after leading 111 laps. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Y8xYVUTNfP

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 24, 2023

To his credit, Bubba Wallace finished third. He led a race-high and career-high 111 laps. When you run up front, some races get away from you. The effort from Wallace and his team over the last two months has been impressive, though.

Bubba Wallace lets one get away

Then again, with an automatic spot in the Round of 8 on the line, you understand the disappointment. Bubba is 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. On that restart, when Byron passed Wallace on the bottom, I did notice something. Bubba last year, wrecks himself and Byron by making a bad block. Heck, maybe even Bubba six months ago does that.

Bubba Wallace the playoff driver, though? He makes the smart decision, doesn’t force the issue, and brings 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.