Arriving at Darlington Raceway where the battle to make the Playoffs ends, Bubba Wallace made a strong statement to start the weekend Saturday.
Wallace put his 23XI Racing Toyota Camry on pole, clocking in a 29.421-second lap to earn the top spot by over two tenths over Carson Hocevar.
It’s an important boost of confidence for Wallace and his team as they chase a Playoff berth in the final race in the regular season.
“You know, being on the bubble, 21 points out is a ton of pressure, right? Well, I think the pressure just switched. So we’re not here to mess around.”
Wallace enters the last race of the season 21 points below the cutline. While a win would give him an automatic berth and make it much easier, Wallace remains in on his points position and wants to have the best run possible.
“Anything can happen,” Wallace said. “We have to run our own race. It makes it a lot easier for us, having that first pit stall – as long as we execute, make the best call, do the best job on pit road.
“All I want is for every single person a part of this team, including myself, to go to bed tomorrow night saying, we did whatever we could. We did all we could and maybe it was good enough. Maybe it wasn’t. So that’s the lottery ticket. We’ll find out tomorrow for the race.”
Team owner Denny Hamlin explained that he told Wallace that his situation meant he couldn’t leave anything on the racetrack, and Wallace took that advice to heart, driving a rough but bold lap.
“Hell no,” Wallace said, when asked whether he found any sort of rhythm. “I pounded off the fence round one and two. I just so happened to work.”
Of the five drivers who are also racing for spots on points, Martin Truex Jr, Ty Gibbs, and Chris Buescher enter above the cutline, while Ross Chastain enters with an even deeper deficit than Wallace.
On Sunday, Truex will start fifth, Buescher will start tenth, Gibbs will start 13th, and Ross Chastain will roll off 22nd. It’ll fall to Truex to keep them in his mirror all race.
Wallace will be joined on the front row by Carson Hocevar, the drover of the No. 77 in his rookie season. Hocevar’s front-row start is the best qualifying result for Spire Motorsports in the team’s history, the previous best being Ross Chastain’s fifth-place starting position at COTA this year.
Hocevar and any other winless driver can also lock themselves into the postseason with a win of their own – there is no longer a rule that only drivers in the top thirty positions qualify.
For Bubba and the other points drivers, the race and the regular season aren’t over until they’re over, and it’s all about maximizing the entire day. Starting on the pole is the first step in that direction.
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