Wallace surges from two laps down to finish sixth at Iowa

Early in the final stage of Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350, Bubba Wallace found himself two laps down and seemingly out of contention for anything resembling a decent run at Iowa Speedway, but his No. 23 team never quit fighting. With the help of some timely yellows, the group turned things around.

Fresh off a Brickyard 400 win, Wallace entered Iowa with little to lose. But he qualified 15th and had a difficult afternoon on the 0.875-mile oval. Wallace broke a right-rear toe link, was caught out by the timing of a mid-race caution and sat 36th and two laps off-pace with less than 100 laps remaining.

In many races, that would have been a death sentence for his run, but Wallace caught a break in the final stage when cautions began to pile up. The 23XI Racing star quietly marched into the free pass position, got one lap back and then another as a lost side window brought out another caution on lap 281 of 350.

From there, the comeback was on. Wallace took the final restart in 32nd and noticed his car fired off well. He began picking off his fellow competitors one-by-one, steadily surging through the field.

The ensuing run went green to the finish, and by the time the checkered flag flew, Wallace had risen 26 positions to sixth.

It's his third-straight top 10, coming at three different, challenging ovals in Dover Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Iowa. It was also an incredible outcome given the odds his team faced just one hour earlier.

“Was ready to just debrief the whole car mid-race, figure out what we needed to do to just wholesale it,” Wallace said. “[We] had our damages, had our issues and just really fought hard to get our Altroo Camry back in the top 10.”

Now locked into the playoffs with a win at Indianapolis, the final weeks of the regular season provide Wallace an opportunity to destress, experiment, have fun and potentially score additional playoff points. More than anything, the period is giving his No. 23 team a chance to iron out final weaknesses ahead of what’s sure to be an intense playoff push.

Wallace felt Sunday’s run gave glimpse at what the team can improve while still ending on a positive note.

“I said earlier this weekend – we’ve got to expose our weaknesses,” Wallace said. “I think we put everybody to the test here today. It’ll be nice to see where we did fall, because I didn’t see anything there. A [heck] of a team effort all day.”