23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace heads to Talladega Superspeedway as the winner of the last year’s edition of the race.
It was also his first career win in the Cup Series. The win was supposed to kickstart a new era for 23XI Racing, just a year in their operation. However, nine races into the 2022 season, it is fair to say that Wallace’s season has been disappointing.
Heading into Talladega Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass asked Joey Logano what made Bubba Wallace a good Super Speedway racer at Daytona and Talladega.
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that’s a good question about because it’s it’s kind of happened recently um you know and i’d say he’s uh he’s a fairly patient speedway racer um where you know he he makes some moves every now and again but most of the time he’s the pretty patient on kind of letting the the race come to him um you know he used to be a lot more aggressive make moves and a lot of times they didn’t work they weren’t fully calculated: Said Logano
which made him obviously fairly easy to beat now it’s not quite like that anymore where he’s he’s up this game and kind of found his own niche of speedway racing um that works for him and he does a good job of surviving him right i mean that’s the other piece i see he does a good job at
getting to the end um which plays that patient piece.
Bubba Wallace aiming for consecutive Talladega win
“I’m excited for Talladega,” Wallace. “It seems like the speedway stuff has been solid the last few weeks races. So, (let’s) continue that trend (getting) back there and hopefully get us another win.”
Wallace also spoke about the desire to keep the winning car and he has already talked to Hamlin about it. While the drivers are charged for the car, Hamlin, who knows what it means to keep mementos of your big wins, won’t be charging any money to Wallace. However, the 23XI Racing driver doesn’t know where to put the car yet.
“I don’t know where the hell I’m going to put it; I don’t have any room at the house,” said Wallace. “Maybe (do) like (Christopher) Bell and put it in our dining room, but it wouldn’t fit through the front door. Yeah, I’m going to have that in my possession soon.”
Wallace was referencing the way Bell put his car in the dining room after he won the Chili Bowl back in 2017. While Wallace might have struggled on many tracks, he generally posts good results on Superspeedways. This gives him extra confidence to approach Talladega Superspeedway.
“I felt like once we got in the Cup car, things started to kind of click,” Wallace said. “Hell, I finished 15th in my first (superspeedway) Cup race in 2017 (at Daytona) when I was filling in (for Aric Almirola). And our car was fast; I was just riding along, not really knowing what to do. Then obviously, we followed up that year in 2018 with a second at the (Daytona) 500, and then we’ve had speed the rest of the races. I would just make dumb moves and take us out of contention or just be caught up in somebody else’s mess.
“So, I just took it as, hey, we fight like hell at the beginning, wherever we start. If we can get to the lead, get there and if we lose it, we lose it. It’s fine. We don’t need to be in the eye of the storm to get our spots back because it’s not worth it. We’d like to get stage points but at the end of the day, getting a race win is the most important thing for us.”
It will be a big morale boost for the team if Wallace performs better or get the win there.