To put it lightly, Bubba Wallace had to limp to the finish of Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. A wreck on lap 10 of the race made sure that he was fighting his way back the rest of the afternoon. However, he salvaged the race and finished the race.
When this race was over, eight cars were DNF and in the garage before this was over. Drivers like Kyle Larson, William Byron, Kevin Harvick, and more met their fates early. That could have been the same situation for Bubba Wallace.
Even when he was a lap down, he kept plugging away at it. A P27 finish is nothing to be proud of. But the fight his team had is something to take pride in. This No. 23 car was dinged up by the end of the race.
“Long hard-fought day,” Wallace tweeted. “Proud of our team [23XI Racing] for never giving up and getting us past the checkered. Onward to Texas!”
There have been just a couple of bright spots for Bubba Wallace this season so far. His teammate Tyler Reddick has shown that the 23XI cars are fast. Even Wallace has shown that from time to time. Early wrecks and mistakes on pit road have cost both drivers spots on the track. It’s part of getting it figured out.
So, the only thing that Bubba can do is look ahead and move on to Texas. Circuit of the Americas is going to be rocking. Hopefully, we can get a warm weather day without rain.
Bubba Wallace and Road Courses
Looking at Bubba Wallace’s record on the road, it isn’t good. Like at all. There is something that seemed to change for Wallace last season, though. It might just be the types of road courses these are, but there was a noticeable trend.
Out of the six road course races in 2022, Wallace only got to the finish line twice. That’s right, four DNF finishes. Those include two suspension problems, an engine failure, and a brakes issue. However, the Indy Road Course and Charlotte Roval were completely different.
In these two races, Bubba Wallace was able to get to the finish line. A complete race. It showed a lot of toughness and grit to turn things around. Not just from the driver but his crew.
In those two races, Wallace recorded a P5 and P7 finish, respectively. Things will have to play out better than they did last season at COTA. That was a suspension issue that left Wallace in P38 just above Andy Lally. Yeah…
