Bubba Wallace reflects on 'emotional day' without spotter Freddie Kraft

The race at Richmond was a little more difficult for Bubba Wallace and his team without spotter Freddie Kraft at the track. Kraft’s father passed away just before the race weekend. In his place was Trey Poole. The NASCAR driver worked well with his temporary spotter and came away with a solid finish.

Before the race, emotions were running high. Bubba Wallace taped over his own name on the car and wrote in Tommy Kraft in honor of Freddie’s father. With a P5 starting position, it was a matter of putting together a solid race in order to advance their position in the standings.

You could say job well done as Wallace picked up 25 points on the day and moved his advantage further away from the playoff cutline. It was a tough race to get through, and the Kraft family was on Wallace’s mind the entire time.

“Once I get past the frustration, I know it was a really good day for us,” Wallace said after the race, via NASCAR.com. “Emotional day. I just happened to look right at the door. Freddie’s dad passed away, so racing with a lot there. He was driving the s*** out of it. You know, I told him at the start of the race, like I’m just gonna sit back and let him wheel it, and man, we were awesome.”

If it weren’t for a mistake on pit road, Bubba Wallace would have been looking at a top-10 finish and possibly more. He was able to lead more laps than he ever has in his career as he was out in the wind for 80 laps. Teammate Tyler Reddick led for 81 laps and also had a pit road issue sink his chances.

Bubba Wallace wants to clean up pit road mistakes

When one mistake can sink your day, it hurts. Bubba Wallace and his team had a great strategy and a lot of speed in the No. 23 Toyota Camry. The good news is that Wallace picked up more points and outperformed the other bubble drivers.

Coming away from Richmond, it is easy to wonder what would happen if that pit stop hadn’t gone awry.

“Just had a hiccup of a pit stop, but just never really rebounded, recovered. Like, balance just went away. Man, it’s just hard. This place is tough, you know, finding the right line and the right balance, and we just fell off of it. So, one of the best here had the worst (final) restart — Harvick — and held us up, unfortunately, but it is what it is. We finished 12th. All in all, a good points day today. I don’t know where we’re at. We’ve got a pretty good gap, I’m assuming, so it’s [a] good day.”

Bubba Wallace can’t afford to have a DNF in the last month of the season. He needs to keep up the pace and keep outperforming expectations at tracks like the upcoming road courses. He showed last season that he isn’t too bad on these specific tracks at Indy and Watkins Glen.

So, will we see Bubba Wallace make the playoffs in 2023?