NASCAR insiders break down playoff bubble implications after Pocono, voice concern for Bubba Wallace

The NASCAR playoff bubble is getting tighter, and drivers like Bubba Wallace have some serious work to do with nine regular-season races remaining. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about the playoff bubble implications after the Pocono race and voiced concern for Wallace.

“It was a tough day for some other contenders who actually really are on the bubble,” Gluck said.”…The bubble is moving all around, but there’s still a spot for these people to make it. …But now you even look at Bubba Wallace, somebody that’s come into the conversation here because he lost two spots when his brake rotor failed, as Riley Herbst did. Also, Tyler Reddick had to come in the garage to make sure that wasn’t going to happen to him.”

Gluck added, “Bubba is now only 29 points to the good where he was having a really solid consistent season. There’s five spots left on points, and you suddenly go wow, the time is running out here with more road courses, more superspeedways there’s probably going to be some more different winners.”

Bubba Wallace needs to win a race soon

Bianchi believes there will be some upsets in the last races of the regular season. “There is enough guys even outside of the road course, superspeedways, upsets can happen kind of thing,” Bianchi said. Bianchi also mentioned that guys like Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs are two drivers who can get a big win during the regular season, making the playoff bubble more interesting in the final handful of races.

It would be disappointing if Bubba Wallace doesn’t reach the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Ultimately, the 31-year-old has to find a way to win one of the next nine races, and he’s due for a victory since he hasn’t won a race since 2022.

“I was going to battle the 17 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Austin Cindric) and by the time I was ready to touch the pedal it just went to the floor and the brakes exploded,” Wallace said after the Pocono race. “I hate it, we’ve had two or three good races in-a-row and there goes the bad luck again. But hey, (Michael Jordan) told me there’s no such thing as bad luck. We create our own luck. I apologize to the racing gods. This weekend sucked aside from practice, but that pays nothing. I hate it for my guys.”