After snatching pole position at the Michigan Speedway, Bubba Wallace was agonizingly close to a playoff spot. Sadly, the spoils of victory went to Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick.

Meanwhile, Wallace finished in 2nd place and was utterly distraught at missing out on the win.

On the radio after the race, he berated himself and apologized to the team, but they were having none of it.

He miserably ranted, “Sorry I f***ing failed y’all. Absolute f***ing failure”.

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However, the 23XI Racing team refused to let him wallow in self-pity and insisted that he turned in a good performance. To be honest, they were right, because he has kept up his streak of Top 10 finishes with his runner-up position at Michigan.

What does all of this mean for Bubba Wallace and his playoffs quest?

With Harvick winning, it means that he has booked his Playoff berth, leaving just one up for grabs. All in all, it has made things much harder for many other drivers to enter the Playoffs.

For Bubba Wallace, it makes things especially harder because it could have easily been him in the Playoffs instead of Harvick. The loss was pretty painful because it comes on the back of his maiden NASCAR Cup Series pole position.

Of course, there is nothing that the #23 driver can do about it, other than to rue what could have been and then move on. Hopefully, his team will now help him focus on the next race.

In the coming week, he and the rest of the paddock will head to the Richmond Raceway. So Bubba Wallace will be hoping that there are no more new race winners.

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Of course, he will not be alone in his thinking. This is because the likes of Martin Truex Jr and Ryan Blaney will be thinking along similar lines.