Bubba Wallace was numb.
Following a month of deep anxiety and nerves over all the possible outcomes that could have transpired by this weekend at Daytona, there was nothing else to feel upon surviving the night and advancing to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the first time in his career.
“I’m just mentally exhausted,” Wallace said.
The 29-year-old had spent most of the summer near the playoff cutline, falling to the bubble two weeks ago when Michael McDowell won at Indianapolis, meaning that another new winner outside of the provisional playoff grid would bump him out of championship contention.
That was especially nerve-wracking when taking into account that Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger were amongst those needing to win their way in over the final two weeks at Watkins Glen and Daytona.
Simultaneous to that, Wallace was also racing Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez on championship points to remain in that final playoff spot, with the caveat that there were no new winners from the outside looking in.
Wallace has also been a racer who has very publicly and very honestly detailed his battles with mental health. The playoff battle certainly added additional weight for him to carry over the past several weeks and everyone in his orbit could see it.
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up crying, I don’t know. My wife was crying. Amanda was crying so she was crying for me. But just proud of the team. Having that weight off your shoulders just allows you to breathe. So that’s what I’m focused on. Taking a deep breath and getting ready to go back to work Monday.”
Bubba Wallace on making the NASCAR Playoffs, what it means for 23XI Racing
Wallace said he was waking up at 2:30 a.m. every night, ‘stressed to the max,’ and frequently making his wife wonder if she wasn’t supporting him enough or the right way and there wasn’t much anyone could do.
Saturday just had to play itself out.
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Gibbs crashed out early and Suarez just never factored into the stage results meaning that Wallace could only miss the playoffs by virtue of a new winner.
“We saw the 54 [Gibbs] and a lot of cars get taken out [in a 12-car accident on Lap 96] and knew what we wanted to do,” Wallace said. “We just didn’t need a new winner.”
Then came the late charge by Elliott and Bowman but they were surrounded by Fords and the two Chevrolet drivers just couldn’t stay locked onto anyone’s bumper and faded over the course of a green-white-checkered finish.
“With about 10 to go, I was like, ‘There’s going to be a new winner,’ then about eight to go, ‘All right, no new winner,’ so it was just an emotional rollercoaster those last laps,” he said.
“I lifted coming to the checkered flag. I’ve never done that in a superspeedway. I backed out of it because there was no way I was going to get caught up in a crash. Just get me to the checkered flag.”
It might have been too surreal for feelings, Wallace immediately being overtaken by his family and crew on pit road, a group that also included team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
That ownership group, speaking to the pressure, said their only expectations this season would be the No. 23 car making the playoffs. Wallace went through a figurative ringer to get there, but he will be amongst the field of 16 next weekend when the playoffs begin at Darlington Raceway.
“He went through the toughest tests,” Hamlin said. “The toughest test is you’ve got two road courses that he’s not at the top at, and he’s got a superspeedway and he’s got to lead and he’s got to find a way to hold it, and he held serve to say the least.
“So really happy for that team and Bubba for accomplishing what we set out for a goal for that team at the beginning of the year, and that was to have two cars in the playoffs. That was the only goal that that race team had. Now it’s all up to them.”
Wallace has two Cup Series wins, at Talladega and Kansas, and both came during the playoffs but when Wallace wasn’t championship eligible. The next 10 weeks sets up nicely for the No. 23 team, but like Hamlin said, it’s all up to them now.
Hamlin is also one of the playoff favorites Wallace will have to go through.
“He’s going to have fast cars, I can assure you of that,” Hamlin said. “And so, I think he’s going to be excited and love the challenge that this is going to put in front of them. Certainly, I believe that the tracks lay out well for Bubba now, especially the first round, so I think certainly they can find themselves for a threat to go as deep as their execution.
“I think that’s going to be the key is, if they can execute to get some stage points, they can run pretty deep.”
If Wallace thought the past several weeks were stressful, he’s about to jump from the frying pan and into the fire, because that’s what the Cup Series playoffs represent.
“It’s pretty special. Just relieved,” Wallace said. “I don’t have much emotion, just relieved, drained mentally. Glad we’ve got the day off tomorrow, because I’ll be hurting on Monday.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.