Bubba Wallace apologizes for 'silly mistakes' after P7 finish at Darlington

Even though he moved up in the NASCAR Playoff standings and finished P7, Bubba Wallace had apologies to make after the race. This was the second top-10 finish at Darlington of the season for Wallace and his team. So, why is the 23 driver so down about Sunday?

Well, we know that Bubba Wallace made a mistake in the closing lap of Stage 1. He was racing Joey Logano, trying to pick up a bonus point with a top-10 finish, and he lost control. Wallace’s car tipped up and tagged the back of Logano, and the 23 went spinning.

It caused issues with Logano that his team had to deal with all night long, it felt like. Apparently, Wallace also made an enemy out of AJ Allmendinger. Not great if you’re trying to make the Round of 12 with two more races to go.

“Let the team down,” Wallace said to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “I just made silly mistakes, dumb mistakes to the 22 and 16 and they made it hell, rightfully so. Apologies to them. Just did not execute as a driver today and felt really good going into the race. But got some regrouping to do and some things to figure out. Going to Kansas gotta regroup and move forward.”

That is the typical Bubba Wallace pushed past Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Kevin Harvick in the playoff standings, but he “let the team down” by not getting a top-5. He also wasn’t able to earn stage points, which really put a damper on his day.

The way Wallace likely sees it, he could have had 5 or 10 more points on the night and put himself above the cutline, instead of one point below the line.

Bubba Wallace did do many things right

The difference between Wallace now and Wallace at the beginning of the season – he doesn’t give up as easily. Those first six weeks of the year were TOUGH on Bubba. He had DNFs and miscues on pit road, and it all got to his head enough to make him say that he might need to be replaced!

Once Bubba Wallace was able to get away from his newest rivals in the 22 and 16 cars, he had a path to the top-5. He held a spot there in the group until Ross Chastain came on strong late as well as Brad Keselowski at the end.

“Yeah no doubt, I think you gotta stick with it,” he continued with Pockrass. “These races are long. I thought about what happened with the 19 [Martin Truex Jr.] in the spring [race], right? Him and Ross [Chastain] got together, he spun, and then before his crash into Turn 1, he was back up front. So it’s like, we don’t have any damage we’re good, just put some new tires on it and we’ll come back up through the field and we did that. So, it was good.”

Bubba Wallace felt he let his team down and said he deserved Joey Logano and AJ Allmendinger making things hard on him after his mistakes led to contact. His seventh-place finish, though, showed some perseverance that a driver needs in the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/gXewfgxtKW

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 4, 2023

Some good, some bad – Bubba Wallace has to focus and not let the little things distract him. After all, he could have had a day like Christopher Bell when it was all said and done. Bell is now on the cutline above Wallace after being a top-eight driver coming into the playoffs.