Second time around, Wallace carrying a new mentality into NASCAR's playoffs

Bubba Wallace is back in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. But in a way, there’s also a different version of Wallace in this edition of the postseason.

“I don’t feel like 2023 playoff Bubba,” Wallace said Wednesday. “Where it was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s cool to be talking to you guys for playoff media day.’ I feel like I belong here and want to continue this trend, and I have the utmost confidence in our team, our ability, and our potential to carry this into making a deep run. It all started back in February, but everything ramps up another notch for the next 10 weeks.”

It is the second time in Wallace’s career that he and the No. 23 team have qualified for the postseason. Wallace did so for the first time in 2023 by pointing his way onto the grid. He finished a career-best 10th in the championship standings, but went winless on the season.

Wallace earned his spot this year with a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400. The win clinched Wallace a spot, but it also solidified the playoff-type season that Wallace and first-year crew chief Charles Denike have put together, and one that has led the way for 23XI Racing with a victory and in laps led.

Having finished the regular season 11th in the championship standings, Wallace was reseeded ninth on the strength of his victory and three stage wins. He was also sixth-best in stage points earned (162).

It all comes together for a much different picture for Wallace as this playoff picture begins. And one that has him feeling better prepared as well.

“Hell, I came off a 26-week stretch of stress, and we made it in (the last time),” Wallace said. “We were the last car in, right? You get Sunday to enjoy it, but then you’re back into, ‘All right, here’s the playoffs.’ Now, I've just come off a month-long stress-free stretch, and so I think experiencing that was really nice. I said for a month, I didn’t care. I didn’t care if we won, if we wrecked, whatever. But I didn’t care in a good way. I care so much about racing that I can often get lost on where you’re at, and that causes problems. It causes frustration, it causes speed loss, it causes everything.

“Richmond is a good example. We showed up for practice, and we were awful. And I was like, ‘Well, Saturday’s going to be a long day.’ Then we’re leading. I didn’t write off Richmond, but I kind of just changed the approach like, ‘Be ready to work hard here for 10th place.’ And you just kind of take a step back and you can analyze things better, you slow things down, the processes of everything, and next thing you know, you’re up there leading and have a dominant car. So, I really look at Richmond as a big, big highlight for me and the mentality side of it. We have to have just 10 weeks of that – with all four tires on the car.”

The postseason, however, is all about winning. It helps a driver through the rounds, and often comes down to winning the finale to secure the championship. Wallace has twice won in the postseason, but both of those came in years after Wallace had missed the playoffs.

Can they do it now when it matters most?

“Absolutely,” Wallace said. “Hell, I’m good at winning in the playoffs when I’m not in the playoffs. I look at the schedule and there are a lot of good tracks for us coming up. We’ve had speed at almost every track on the circuit for the next 10 weeks. So, it just takes a little bit more (to win). It takes beating (Kyle Larson), (William Byron), and (Denny Hamlin). It takes beating the other 15 guys you’re racing against to do it.

“And yes, we’ve had the speed to do that. We’ve just got to clean up the execution standpoint and go capitalize on that.”