Harrison’s Burton win at Daytona brought a smile to a lot of people’s faces but Bubba Wallace was not one of them. The 23XI Racing driver was just over the playoff cutline going into the Coke Zero Sugar 400. After Burton won the race, the order was pushed down and Wallace now finds himself 21 points behind. That’s a huge gap to make up but his boss Denny Hamlin is keeping the faith in the driver of the #23 car due to Darlington’s attrition level.
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“We have seen the Southern 500 for whatever reason, it has some attrition,” Hamlin said on his podcast. “I wouldn’t hold out hope against Bubba going out there and having a great day. If he goes out there and he can get top three in each stage and finish in the top three, I think they put a tremendous amount of pressure on others to go out there and not have a bad day.”
It’s not that a 21-point gap cannot be closed in one race, only that it’s extremely difficult. Darlington is considered to be the toughest NASCAR track. Also, Chris Buescher, who sits 21 points ahead of the cutline, needs to have a bad day for Wallace to have any chance. The last time the #23 driver raced here, he finished P7 which is a good result. But he will have to do a lot better if he is to have any chance of making it into the round of 16.
Wallace finished P6 at Daytona, which is a fine result. He had finished in the top five at Indianapolis and Richmond as well. Just that one P20 finish at Michigan and Burton’s win on Saturday have put him in an extremely difficult situation. But he will still do whatever it takes to get into the playoffs.
23XI Racing star comes down hard on himself after Daytona
The 23XI Racing driver did not take the Daytona finish well despite it being top-10. He believes that the team should never have been in that position as he had multiple opportunities to win races earlier this year. Now, all of the pressure will be on him to deliver in the final regular-season race weekend. After making the playoffs last year, it’s not going to look good if he fails to do so this time, which unfortunately seems more likely.
“Got one car fighting for a regular season championship and another on the bubble. It’s unacceptable. I’ll take all that weight on my shoulders. I should’ve won multiple times and I haven’t. We don’t even deserve to be here and we aren’t. Gotta go win, that’s it,” the 30-year-old said after Saturday’s race.
Darlington is an incredibly tough place to race and Wallace has never won there. However, he has finished in the top 10 in each of the last four races there. Two of them were in the top five. He will have to find that kind of form and improve on it by a lot to stand a chance of making it to the playoffs.
