Making it into the playoffs is an arduous task for a NASCAR driver, a prospect that Bubba Wallace is well aware of. Last season, his spot in the final 16 came down to the wire in the race at Daytona, and fortunately for him, everything panned out as he expected, and he made the big leap in his career.

However, with the start of the 2024 season, Wallace isn’t looking to undergo the stress and nail-biting affair of last year. With three top-fives and a top-ten finish in his nine starts, he is well on track to avoid being in a similar situation. Despite a solid start and consistent performances, the 23XI star isn’t getting too comfortable, knowing how quickly things can turn on their head in the Cup Series.

Bubba Wallace is eyeing more positive runs, says he’s excited

Last season, Wallace was on the bubble to make it into the playoffs as the third-best winless driver in points. Also, he needed a win by Chris Buescher to secure his spot in the final 16. But things have changed since then, as the driver has delivered on his best-ever start in his Cup career and is looking to add more points during the regular season.

Ahead of the Talladega race, Bob Pockrass, in an interview, asked Wallace about his run this season in comparison to last year. To which he replied, “It’s a much better spot. Now we are not naive to the fact that it can all be taken away in one race. So we have to just not get comfortable and stay hungry. Proud of the effort that we’ve put in this year. There’s been a couple of races where we’ve given away but a much better spot than 365 days ago for sure.”

Going into the GEICO 500 race at Talladega, he also spoke about his preparation for the event and how he will approach it. “You could be taken out at lap 1 right? It more so just coming with the calm mindset, just how chaotic it can get right. Not try to overdo it, not try to overstep it, not trying to be a hero… So I’m just trying to come into it not getting to excited and take what it give us.”

However, the driver was unable to keep his good run going at Talladega, after being involved in a wreck with fellow Toyota drivers.

Wallace’s hunt for his first win of the season ended with a DNF

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With two top-10 finishes to his name in Martinsville and Texas, the 30-year-old was feeling optimistic about his chances for a solid finish at Talladega. However, in the final stage of the race, running in a pack with the Toyota drivers, Wallace got involved in a battle with Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek. Coming off at Turn 3, Jones tried to block Wallace’s charge going to the outside lane, resulting in a big crash.

The No. 23 car rammed the No. 43 car into the wall, while Nemechek, in his attempts to dodge the two cars, made contact with Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 car. The team strategy that was supposed to help them gain track position turned into a wreck fest, taking out more than half the Toyota Camry from the field.

Sharing his thoughts on the crash, Wallace said, “We were all pushing really hard to keep our line going, we had a plan and just didn’t execute it as well we should. You look forward to running these places and you just get trapped in somebody else’s mess. But I hate it, doesn’t make us look good at all. We’ll just reset and go to Dover, we got a long way to go, we’re fine, just frustrating.”

The DNF in today’s race saw Wallace drop down from the top 10 group in the leaderboard and is now placed 11th.