Bubba Wallace has a bit of a chip on his shoulder as the Round of 12 begins in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and validated the swagger with a pole run on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
The driver of the 23XI Racing No. 23 has heard for two months that he wouldn’t advance into the playoffs, or after he had, that he wouldn’t make it into the Round of 12. So here we are yet again, and the narrative is that Wallace will not advance into the Round of 8.
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It’s been a constant theme:
Bubba will never win a race
Bubba will never win a race under green
Bubba will never make the playoffs
Bubba will never make the second round of the playoffs
“We keep outkicking the goal posts and they keep moving it,” Wallace said. “That’s fine. We’ll make it work. You can’t help DARFs.
For the uninitiated, DARF means ‘Dumbass Race Fan’ in NASCAR vernacular.
Wallace made the playoffs as the lowest seed, No. 16 out of 16, and has needed to overcome a points deficit at the start of every round. In fact, last weekend at Bristol, he overcome the second largest single-race point deficit to advance in the history of the playoffs.
It comes down to stage points and stage wins, he says.
“You have to work your tail off,” Wallace said. “It always seems like we’re coming from behind. Every chance I’ve had to win a stage and get playoff points, I’ve choked.
“Our restarts are second to none compared to everyone else. It’s frustrating that I haven’t gotten our team playoff points. It is what it is. We’ll have to work really hard and execute. We’ll try our best but we’re going to come here to fight.”
He’ll have to because he once again faces a deficit — this time 14 points below the cutline.
Thus, winning the pole at Texas to start this round has to be a significant morale booster, because it’s easier to score those playoff points and stage wins when you start up front. It should be a morale booster, but it’s really not to him, because it doesn’t pay anything.
“It’s just qualifying,” Wallace said. “They don’t pay anything. It looks good on paper. This track is very treacherous. We have the best track position right now, but we know with strategy, everything is going to change and evolve. We are going to get behind at some point, so it is just a matter of making the most of every situation that we are in.
“Right now, we start on the pole, if we lead all the laps – some people may pit and cut it. You are going to get behind at some point, so we’ve got to figure out how to get back up there, but you can’t get complacent on the small victories. It takes a lot of them to get to a big victory, but it’s a good start.”
Wallace snaps Christopher Bell’s pole streak at three, a stretch that lasted the entire duration of the Round of 12, with Bell posting the ninth fastest time on Saturday.
Playoff drivers, and RFK Racing teammates, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski will start second and third.
Playoff driver Ross Chastain of Trackhouse starts fifth. Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing starts eighth. Denny Hamlin starts 10th next to Kyle Larson in 11th. Tyler Reddick starts 15th. Martin Truex starts 16th a row ahead of William Byron in 18th.
Ryan Blaney is the worst starting playoff driver at 23rd.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.