Bubba Wallace initiated team meeting early in season. Will he break out as NASCAR hits ovals?
Like most drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, Bubba Wallace is still chasing his first victory of the 2024 season.
The pilot of the No. 23 Toyota Camry is on the heels of his first career playoff berth and continues finding his place within the sport at 23XI Racing. His team keeps evolving as NASCAR does, and Wallace feels he learns something new every day.
Wallace has had a strong start to his campaign — finishing at least 16th in four of the six races thus far — but it wasn’t good enough for him.
Even with his back-to-back fifth-place performances at Daytona and Atlanta, the 30-year-old driver knows he’s capable of more. And as the circuit returns to ovals including Richmond at 7 p.m. Sunday, followed by Martinsville on April 7, Wallace likes the chances of his Toyota winding up in Victory Lane.
“We’re all hypersensitive about where we’re at,” Wallace told reporters. “I think Denny (Hamlin) said to me the next five, six races are set up for Toyotas. What are we, seven races now — after race four we were having a ‘come to Jesus meeting.’ I don’t care that it’s early, it’s the same start as I’ve always had. We’re looking to turn it around.”
Wallace said he initiated that “come to Jesus meeting” with his team after his 16th-place finish at Phoenix. He didn’t crack the Top 10 at Bristol or COTA — “that sucked,” he quipped — but is confident ahead of the upcoming races, starting with Richmond.
Richmond has produced legendary races, particularly the 2008 overtime thriller
Richmond Raceway, the 0.75-mile “D”-shaped oval lauded as “America’s premier short track,” has consistently played host to entertaining races.
In 2008, current NASCAR on FOX commentator Clint Bowyer won a wild overtime race that saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch make contact late.
With the way races are designed — two scheduled breaks after stages followed by a long green-flag run — in this era of the sport, a short track like Richmond could produce some strong racing down the stretch.
“If things happen late in the race, just the way you make lap time within the race itself really changes,” Tyler Reddick said. “With the length of the stages, you have to really just have a certain approach, understand your strategy and stick to it. So it can change really, really quick if cautions come late in the stages or at the end of the race. You just always have to be ready for that and keep that in the back of your mind as a race car driver.”
Kyle Larson, one with the fans, snags first pole position of season
Whether it lasts 20 minutes or two hours, Kyle Larson always tries to make some time for the fans.
He remembers being in the pits as a kid and wanting autographs from the NASCAR drivers. Something he loved about the sport was that drivers routinely made themselves accessible to fans in these settings.
Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion who won the 17th pole of his career during Saturday’s qualifying session, said he truly makes an effort to speak with every fan who chases him down at the race track. While overwhelming at times, he said he enjoys feeling like he’s making an impact on promoting his sport.
“Practice went well. Qualifying was good,” Larson said after winning the pole. “So, not expecting to win, but yeah, I think we have a car capable of contending.”
Kyle Busch says he will race Christopher Bell harder until he’s “sorry on the race track”
Kyle Busch called Christopher Bell back on the phone earlier in the week, and the two NASCAR Cup Series championship contenders spoke about what led to last week’s confrontation.
Busch, the two-time Cup champion, approached Bell on pit road after the 29-year-old Toyota driver spun him in last Sunday’s race at Circuit of the Americas. Bell gave him a call on Monday, and Busch wanted to explain his point of view.
“Run him harder for a little bit until he concedes that he’s sorry on the race track,” Busch told reporters. “And then get back to normal.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2024 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Bubba Wallace initiated team meeting early in season. Will he break out as NASCAR hits ovals?."
