Bubba Wallace landed IMSA ride after asking Toyota for help on road courses
While Bubba Wallace has improved in recent years, his driving on road courses still leaves something to be desired. Like more top-10s. The NASCAR driver realized he needed more help, and that’s when he reached out to Toyota.
Right now, Bubba Wallace is in Daytona for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. He is set to drive, alongside Corey Heim and John Hunter Nemechek, the Smooge Racing No. 23 Toyota Supra GT4 EVO.
The Toyota trio from NASCAR is going to take on the four-hour BMW Endurance Challenge. That race will be on Friday, January 26. Of course, it is all in the buildup for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
While this team was announced recently, Bubba Wallace actually reached out to Toyota going back to last year, back in August.
“I said, ‘Hey, I need help,'” Wallace said in an interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
“They said, ‘we’re on it.’ So in the offseason they asked if I wanted to run this. I said ‘hell yeah, why not?'”
On the road last year Bubba Wallace had a DNF P37 finish at COTA, P17 at Sonoma, P31 at Chicago, P18 at Indianapolis, P12 at Watkins Glen, and finished P16 at the Roval. Not anything to write home about, which is why the 23XI Racing driver is in Daytona in January.
“It’s just a matter of race-craft – figuring out how to pass, set up passing, different things like that,” Wallace said.
While it took him a few runs to get used to the IMSA car, Bubba Wallace seems to have gotten comfortable. Wallace said he was now “sending it” on laps instead of being “timid.”
Bubba Wallace still willing to learn
The main takeaway I get from this IMSA stint is that Wallace is still wanting to learn and willing. He’s been in the Cup Series going on seven years now and has never done a sports car race before, but he’s doing it now.
Wallace is also doing it with two younger drivers, one a Truck Series talent in Heim, and the other a Cup Series competition in Nemechek – and he’s willing to work with them. There is a change in NASCAR, and it is likely still coming.
There was the dirt invasion of NASCAR. Now, we’re going to have the road course invasion. There is more emphasis on road courses. NASCAR put Watkins Glen in the playoffs. Not to mention, drivers like Shane van Gisbergen are going to take a look at NASCAR more and more.
Bubba Wallace and other drivers see the writing on the wall and they are reacting. A nice four-hour endurance race will be good for all three of these NASCAR drivers.