Bubba Wallace Looking to ‘Pounce on Opportunities’ to Rebound at Kansas After Dismal New Hampshire Showing

Bubba Wallace enters Kansas Speedway at the bottom of the playoff standings, 27 points adrift, for the second race of the Round of 12. Though not on the brink of elimination just yet, the next race at the Charlotte Roval is hardly the track most drivers circle as their golden ticket, especially with Shane van Gisbergen’s stranglehold on road courses. That makes Kansas Wallace’s best shot, either by winning outright or stacking enough points to keep hope alive.

Redemption at Kansas is not just a pipe dream. Wallace won there in 2022, charging from sixth on the grid after banking stage finishes of fifth and fourth, before sealing the deal at the checkered flag.

Reflecting on the task ahead, Wallace said, “We look at last weekend out of the 12 playoff cars, two of them had bad days. Myself and the #45.”

“Everyone else had a pretty solid day. So, I don’t wish any ill on anybody, but if you got to capitalize on others’ mistakes and those opportunities that are kind of in there in front of you, you need to pounce on.”

“So, if we go out and just run our own race, run our own weekend, have a good solid points day, we’ll never know what it looks like at the end until we get there. But that’s all we can focus on,” Wallace added.

The numbers, however, tell a harder truth. Wallace managed a top-five at Kansas in the spring of 2023, but his last four results there read 33rd, 17th, 17th, and 32nd. His playoff push has leaned heavily on banking stage points, and without them, the climb steepens. His teammate, Tyler Reddick, has also stumbled at Kansas recently, finishing 17th, 25th, and 20th in his last three trips.

The Roval, with its punishing infield hairpin and unpredictable nature, threatens to be even more challenging for 23XI. And with van Gisbergen lurking as a road-course ace, the margin for error shrinks. Wallace admitted as much, saying,

“It’s good that he’s (SVG) not in, right? To really shake up things, but yeah. No, I look at this as not necessarily we’re in a must-win situation, but with all the success that we just talked about, there’s no reason why we can’t get back to victory lane here and get back to the stress-free environment that we had in the first round. Yeah, also looking forward to the Roval, too. We’ve been faster and had speed. So, it should be a fun next couple of weeks.”

Team co-owner Denny Hamlin also has his hopes alive for the team, insisting Wallace and Reddick are not yet in must-win mode. He admitted that at New Hampshire, the 23XI cars lacked both speed and handling, but stressed that Kansas only becomes a true win-or-go-home scenario if the deficit slips below 30 points heading into the finale.

Even so, time is running short, and for Wallace, the Kansas weekend could be make-or-break.