Wallace encouraged by playoff position but still ‘a lot of work to do’

Bubba Wallace is not comfortable with his position on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid, but what a difference a year makes when coming to Nashville Superspeedway.

Wallace goes into Sunday night’s race (7 p.m. ET, NBC) above the cutline by 26 points in 15th position. There are 10 races left in the regular season, and Wallace is looking for his first postseason berth.

Saturday afternoon, as Wallace reviewed practice tape for the Ally 400, he was struck by a graphic NBC Sports displayed.

"They put up the points bubble, and it’s cool to see your name above the cutline,” Wallace said. “I think in my last five years, we weren't even in the top 20 at this point. So, it’s cool. We've got a lot of work to do, but I think moving forward, we’ve just got to realize the situation that presents itself each and every weekend and capitalize on that if it’s a good one.”

Nashville could be one of those races. Wallace said his team has a lot of speed in the No. 23 Toyota, which was good enough to be sixth-fastest overall in practice. In qualifying, where Wallace advanced to the final round, he spun off Turn 4 and didn’t get to complete a fast lap. But he’ll start inside the top 10 -- so long as the team does not make any adjustments to the car before the green flag.

More NASCAR

Dye gets Cup Series ride with Live Fast

Larson’s OT theatrics come up short after setting Kansas record

Late spin, pit road decisions shake up Kansas order after contact-filled overtime

It's been an up-and-down few weeks for Wallace. He scored three consecutive top-five finishes in Kansas, Darlington, and Charlotte but finished 30th in St. Louis after a brake rotor issue and was 17th on the Sonoma road course.

“Sonoma, we survived,” Wallace said. “[The issue at World Wide Technology Raceway], that was unfortunate; five laps to go, gave away a lot of points. Fortunately, the guys we’re racing around had bad days, so it wasn’t that big of a hit, but we could be a lot more.

“But if we win, we’re in. So that’s our main goal.”

Wallace feels he and the 23 team are better poised to make the most of their potential this year early enough to make playoff race wins really count. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images

Both of Wallace’s two wins in the Cup Series have come late in the year -- but they were races in the playoffs, which Wallace was not a part of.

Despite his precarious position as the regular season winds down, Wallace said he and the team will not change “a thing.” Wallace will not focus on protecting his spot on the playoff grid, and crew chief Bootie Barker will not start calling races differently.

It’s a bit ironic Wallace returns to Nashville in this position. Nashville was the race last year that was a turning point for Wallace and his team. Although they had speed, it was a race filled with mistakes that took him out of contention and capped off by Wallace losing his cool on the radio.

But it gave way to a solid end to the regular season as Wallace earned four top-10 finishes in the final nine races. The foundation built last year has carried over into 2023 -- which Wallace said he was eager for before the end of last season.

The difference, he says, is “not making mistakes” with the car and on pit road and “not making mistakes on my side. I’m maturing as a driver, a person.”

And so, as Wallace gets ready for Nashville once more, he now knows what it takes to compete for a playoff spot and has the whole package to do it.

“I got the team, got the car, got the crew, got the pit crew, manufacturer, sponsors,” he said. “But we got the driver, too. It’s fun to be where we’re at. Confidence is high. It’s continued to be high from last year, but I realized you can’t just say that your confidence is up and not back it up. You’ve got to put in the work to equal out that confidence, and we’ve been able to do that.

“It’s been fun the last couple of months, just being up front, having your name in the mix and getting after it.”