Bubba Wallace wins pole award at Texas Motor Speedway
For just the second time in his Cup Series career, Bubba Wallace has won the pole. It is his first at Texas Motor Speedway. Last season, he won the pole at Michigan. Wallace is in a points deficit, 12th out of 12 drivers remaining in the NASCAR Playoffs.
With pole position secured, Bubba Wallace is letting folks know he’s here to compete. Seriously, he has a chance to score stage points right off the bat and then from there, anything can happen. Is this a Cinderella run in the making?
Wallace was able to beat out Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski, the RFK duo, for the pole award. Other playoff drivers starting in the top-10 include Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin.
The McDonald’s No. 23 will lead the field to green for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400.
Coming into this weekend, Bubba Wallace and his team know that they have a lot of work to do. This is the start of the Round of 12 and this team isn’t ready to leave the playoffs yet. There is no doubt about it, Wallace is having the season of his lifetime right now. He just needs to finish it up with a win before 2023 ends.
When you consider how much slower Tyler Reddick was than Wallace, it is even more impressive. Reddick had a pole award not long ago, and he was the winner at Kansas two weeks ago. I felt that Wallace was a top-10 playoff driver in the first round, now he has to step it up.
Winning the pole award is only going to help jumpstart that push into the Round of 8.
Bubba Wallace will lead field to green
As the end of this season has wound down, Bubba keeps stepping up to the moment. This season he has his best-ever career average starting position and his best average finishing position. He’s gone from a top-20 driver to a top-15 regular and maybe even better than that depending on the weekend and the track.
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Qualifying has been massive for Wallace as the season winds down. When the regular season was coming to an end and he needed points and track position, he got it done. Now he needs it again, and he keeps qualifying really well.
This is the third week in a row and the fourth time in five weeks that Wallace has qualified in the top-10. He was P19 at Darlington a few weeks ago.
With Bubba Wallace starting up front, the playoff situation could get flipped around. When there are five playoff drivers outside of the top-10, questions start to pop up.
Kyle Larson P11, Tyler Reddick P15, Martin Truex Jr. P16, William Byron P18, and Ryan Blaney P23 will have to work their way through the field. So, get ready for some action at Texas. While some have struggled early, this track will cause plenty of issues for drivers and teams.