Bubba Wallace holds final playoff spot with 5 races left in NASCAR Cup regular season
Wallace finished seventh at Dover and holds a 16-point lead on Ryan Preece for the final playoff spot. Wallace entered Dover just three points ahead of Preece, who finished 19th Sunday.
Twelve drivers have won this year to claim playoff spots. Four spots remain available via points with five races left in the regular season.
Those four drivers in a position position without a win are Tyler Reddick (156 points above the cutline), Alex Bowman (+63), Chris Buescher (+44) and Wallace (+16).
Those below the cutline are Preece (-16), Kyle Busch (-39), Ty Gibbs (-52), Michael McDowell (-77) and AJ Allmendinger (-80). No other drivers are within 80 points of the cutline.
Here is a look at the playoff standings heading into Sunday's Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (drivers in yellow have won this season):
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NBC Sports
7 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Long: Bubba Wallace takes pre-race message to heart to claim Brickyard 400 victory
INDIANAPOLIS — Amid the formality of the NASCAR Cup pre-race drivers meeting, Doug Boles had a message for competitors. The president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway noted that this year marked the 30th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's 1995 victory at the track, Boles then highlighted Tony Stewart's win here in 2005 and Kyle Busch's victory in 2015 at the Brickyard. 'So the people that win on the fives tend to be iconic people in our sport,' Boles said to the drivers. 'Hopefully, you are already right on your way to being iconic or at the beginning of that. And you look back at the Brickyard 400 … and think it started right here.' Boles' message resonated with a driver. The one who bear hugged him after a 420-mile Sunday drive — in a race extended by two overtimes. 'I heard all that you said in the drivers meeting,' Bubba Wallace told Boles after Wallace scored his third career Cup victory and snapped a 100-race winless streak. 'I thought I'm going to be the guy that wins and makes this an iconic event.' A different viewpoint When Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan hired Wallace to be the team's first driver ahead the 2021 season, Hamlin said Sunday that 'I believed in his capability, not necessarily the results that (he'd) shown, but I understood his potential.' Unlocking that potential was another thing. 'It was kind of a time where we were wrestling like, 'Man do I want it worse than him or not,'' Hamlin said of Wallace. 'I can't make him want it. … That's gong to have to come from within.' Nate Ryan, Hamlin saw Wallace start to show that increased drive the next year when Kurt Busch joined the team and again when Tyler Reddick came to 23XI Racing in 2023 — teammates providing motivation. Even so, Wallace didn't win. His last Cup victory came in 2022. 'We want to win and we put a lot of resources into doing that,' Hamlin said. 'So he's felt pressure. I think he's felt the pressure not only from me but Michael and everyone.' Although Wallace missed the playoffs last year for the third time in four seasons at 23XI Racing, Hamlin said he saw a change in the driver. 'His valleys weren't as low,' Hamlin said. 'It seemed like on the bad days, he was able to compartmentalize that and then think about the positives vs. everything sucks all the time. 'That's a tough way to live. We're in a business that if you can win 5% of the time you're a Hall of Famer. You're going to lose. This is a losing business. You have to find happiness in some other way than actually winning.' The change happened around the time Wallace became a father. 'Putting family first, that's all that matters,' Wallace said. 'Makes things easier. It gives you something to kind of focus onto.' A new voice With the pressure to succeed, Wallace faced another challenge this season. The team hired Charles Denike, who had no Cup experience, to be Wallace's crew chief. From the beginning, Hamlin touted Denike, a former military officer as a game-changer for Wallace. Wallace started the season strong. Winning seemed likely. But then it didn't come. Even after being among the leaders in stage points early in the season, Wallace found himself in the same place he has been in past summers — at or near the playoff cutline late in the regular season. Entering Sunday's race at Indianapolis, Wallace held the final playoff spot by 16 points on Ryan Preece. Adding to the pressure was the weather that changed the weekend schedule for teams. Rain canceled Friday's 50-minute practice, so NASCAR gave teams a 25-minute session Saturday. Even a 2.5-mile track can be crowded with traffic and not give teams a good read on their qualifying setup. With track position key, qualifying carries a heightened importance. But Wallace told Denike before qualifying: 'I don't completely know what I have in the car.' 'This is superstar qualifying,' Denike told Wallace. 'This is what we show up to do.' Wallace qualified second. He would be a contender in Sunday's race. Quieting the doubts Wallace was strong all race. He had the best average running position (4.93) of any driver Sunday and led 30 laps. Denike's strategy kept Wallace toward the front and gave him a shot to win. That forced others to react. When the third stage began 55 laps from the scheduled end, leader Kyle Larson was told not to save fuel. Crew chief Cliff Daniels wanted Larson to build a gap between he and Wallace, who was running sixth after the restart but had had pitted later than Larson and many others ahead. That meant Wallace needed less time for his final pit stop because he didn't require as much fuel as others. Wallace moved to the lead at Lap 143 as others pitted in what became a 168-lap race after the two overtimes. Although he led, thoughts of losing struck him. Why would he think that? 'I wish I had the answer to that,' Wallace said. 'I think that's my biggest downfall. We're all human, and we're all super hard on ourselves.' He found a way to counter those negative thoughts. 'I'm like, (expletive) right, we can do this,' Wallace said. 'It was kind of like the angel and devil on your shoulder. It wasn't all negative. But to even have that thought, it's like, 'Man, come on, focus.'' Dueling a champion Wallace led when rain in Turn 1 stopped the race four laps from the scheduled distance. Most of the track didn't get wet but Turn 1 had enough rain it took NASCAR stopped the race fro 18 minutes to dry that part of the speedway. When the race resumed, Wallace had Larson aligned next to him on the front row. Wallace and Larson ran side by side into Turn 1 on the restart before Wallace pulled ahead at the exit of Turn 2. 'He was first gear on both (of the overtime restarts),' Larson said, 'but the first one, he was just a little bit faster paced for the restart zone. I stayed second gear and he got a launch and I was able to just kind of barely hang on his right rear quarter and then drag him back and kind of pull my momentum.' But it wasn't enough to get by Wallace. A crash on the backstretch gave Larson another chance with a second overtime restart. Wallace had to outduel Larson — who won this race last year — on another restart to have a chance to win. On the second restart, Wallace took the lead easily by Turn 2 on Larson. The difference was a tactical change Wallace made on his restart that Larson could not counter. 'He brought the pace down so slow I had to be in first gear as well (as Wallace) and just kind of launched with him,' Larson said. 'So I had no momentum that time.' As Wallace race to the finish line, there were no negative thoughts. He credits reading 'The Daily Stoic,' a book that states is designed to help make people happier, along with better parents and professionals. 'It just kind of got me in the philosophical mindset today, trying to understand things from a different perspective,' Wallace said. 'Walking out of the motorhome, I felt different. Walking into the drivers meeting and finding a seat by myself, pulling up my phone and looking at my race notes of what to do, what to expect. Doug (Boles) has been a huge supporter of mine, and I appreciate that. 'So when he was speaking, he mentioned a caveat (about the victories by Earnhardt, Stewart and Busch at this track), and I thought it was interesting. He said, This could be the start of becoming a legend. … I don't think I'm a legend by any means. I've got a lot of work to do, but it all starts with days like today.' Hear from Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Bubba Wallace becomes the first Black driver to win a major race on Indianapolis' oval
INDIANAPOLIS — Bubba Wallace climbed out of the No. 23 car Sunday, pumped his fists, found his family and savored every precious moment of a historic Brickyard 400 victory. He deserved every minute of it. The 31-year-old Wallace overcame a tenuous 18-minute rain delay, two tantalizing overtimes, fears about running out of fuel late and the hard-charging defending race champ, Kyle Larson, on back-to-back restarts to become the first Black driver to win a major race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval. No Black driver has won the Indianapolis 500, and Formula 1 raced on the track's road course. 'This one's really cool,' Wallace said. 'Coming off Turn 4, I knew I was going to get there — unless we ran out of gas. I was surprised I wasn't crying like a little baby.' His third career NASCAR Cup victory delivered Wallace's first victory in the series' four crown jewel events, the others being the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. It also snapped a 100-race winless streak that dated to 2022 at Kansas and locked up a playoff spot. His only other win came at Talladega in 2021. The final gap was 0.222 seconds, but that was no measure of the consternation he faced. Larson cut a 5.057-second deficit with 14 laps to go to about three seconds with six laps left as the yellow flag came out for the rain. The cars then rolled to a stop on pit lane with four laps remaining, forcing Wallace to think and rethink his restart strategy. 'The whole time I'm thinking are we going? Are we not?' he said. 'I will say I leaned more towards 'I know we're going to go back racing. Be ready. Don't get complacent here.' Wallace made sure of it. He beat Larson through the second turn on the first restart only to have a crash behind him force a second overtime, forcing his crew to recalculate whether they had enough fuel to finish the race or whether he needed to surrender the lead and refuel. In Wallace's mind, there was no choice. 'The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Here we go again,'' he said. 'But then I said, `I want to win this straight up. I want to go back racing.' Here we are.' He beat Larson off the restart again and pulled away, preventing Larson from becoming the race's fourth back-to-back winner. The victory also alleviated the frustration Wallace felt Saturday when he spent most of the qualifying session on the provisional pole only to see Chase Briscoe claim the No. 1 starting spot with one of the last runs in the session. On Sunday, he made sure there was no repeat, providing an added boost to the 23XI Racing team co-owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and last week's race winner, Denny Hamlin, as it continues to battle NASCAR in court over its charter status. 'Those last 20 laps there were ups and downs and I was telling myself 'You won't be able to do it,'' Wallace said. 'Once I'd seen it was Larson, I knew he won here last year and he's arguably the best in the field. So to beat the best, we had to be the best today.' The other big race — the In-Season Challenge — went to Ty Gibbs, who had a better car than Ty Dillon in qualifying and on race day. Gibbs finished 21st o win the inaugural March Madness-like single-elimination tournament and collect the $1 million prize. Dillon, a surprise championship round entrant after making the field as the 32nd and final driver, finished 28th. 'They brought me money guns and they jammed so I decided to take all the money and throwing it to the fans and they were all wrestling and fighting over it,' said Gibbs, who also received a title belt and a ring. 'But it's super cool. It's a cool opportunity.' At different points, Austin Cindric and three-time Cup champion Joey Logano appeared to be in control of the race, but tire problems took them out of contention. Eric Jones also was knocked out of the race when his right front tire came off between Turns 3 and 4, sending him hard into the outside wall on Lap 91. They weren't the only drivers who made early exits. Ross Chastain was the first out after just 18 laps when a tap from Michael McDowell sent Chastain's car spinning into the third turn wall and caused heavy damage. The others who were out before Lap 100 were Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Cody Ware. Series officials were concerned enough about the threat of rain that they moved up the start time by 10 minutes. Fifteen minutes probably would have eliminated the rain delay. But the threat of rain impacted the race long before the delay. Early in the second stage, some teams informed drivers rain was expected near the midway point and it seemed to increase the aggressiveness earlier in the race than expected. Cookie Monster made it to the track Sunday, too. The beloved Sesame Street character, who served as the Brickyard's grand marshal, attended driver introductions and took a handful of questions before the race and even offered some advice to the drivers. 'Don't stop and ask for directions,' the furry blue character said. Cup drivers will continue their brief Midwestern tour next Sunday when they race at Iowa.
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
Bubba Wallace becomes first Black driver to win a major race at Indianapolis' oval with Brickyard 400 victory
INDIANAPOLIS — Bubba Wallace climbed out of the No. 23 car Sunday, pumped his fists, found his family and savored every precious moment of a historic Brickyard 400 victory. He deserved every minute of it. The 31-year-old Wallace overcame a tenuous 18-minute rain delay, two tantalizing overtimes, fears about running out of fuel late and the hard-charging defending race champ, Kyle Larson, on back-to-back restarts to become the first Black driver to win a major race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval. No Black driver has won the Indianapolis 500, and Formula 1 raced on the track's road course. 'This one's really cool,' Wallace said. 'Coming off Turn 4, I knew I was going to get there — unless we ran out of gas. I was surprised I wasn't crying like a little baby.' His third career NASCAR Cup victory delivered Wallace's first victory in the series' four crown jewel events, the others being the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. It also snapped a 100-race winless streak that dated to 2022 at Kansas and locked up a playoff spot. His only other win came at Talladega in 2021. The final gap was 0.222 seconds, but that was no measure of the consternation he faced. Larson cut a 5.057-second deficit with 14 laps to go to about three seconds with six laps left as the yellow flag came out for the rain. The cars then rolled to a stop on pit lane with four laps remaining, forcing Wallace to think and rethink his restart strategy. 'The whole time I'm thinking are we going? Are we not?' he said. 'I will say I leaned more towards 'I know we're going to go back racing. Be ready. Don't get complacent here.' Wallace made sure of it. He beat Larson through the second turn on the first restart only to have a crash behind him force a second overtime, forcing his crew to recalculate whether they had enough fuel to finish the race or whether he needed to surrender the lead and refuel. In Wallace's mind, there was no choice. 'The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Here we go again,'' he said. 'But then I said, `I want to win this straight up. I want to go back racing.' Here we are.' He beat Larson off the restart again and pulled away, preventing Larson from becoming the race's fourth back-to-back winner. The victory also alleviated the frustration Wallace felt Saturday when he spent most of the qualifying session on the provisional pole only to see Chase Briscoe claim the No. 1 starting spot with one of the last runs in the session. On Sunday, he made sure there was no repeat, providing an added boost to the 23XI Racing team co-owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and last week's race winner, Denny Hamlin, as it continues to battle NASCAR in court over its charter status. 'Those last 20 laps there were ups and downs and I was telling myself 'You won't be able to do it,'' Wallace said. 'Once I'd seen it was Larson, I knew he won here last year and he's arguably the best in the field. So to beat the best, we had to be the best today.' The other big race — the In-Season Challenge — went to Ty Gibbs, who had a better car than Ty Dillon in qualifying and on race day. Gibbs finished 21st o win the inaugural March Madness-like single-elimination tournament and collect the $1 million prize. Dillon, a surprise championship round entrant after making the field as the 32nd and final driver, finished 28th. 'They brought me money guns and they jammed so I decided to take all the money and throwing it to the fans and they were all wrestling and fighting over it,' said Gibbs, who also received a title belt and a ring. 'But it's super cool. It's a cool opportunity.' Tire troubles At different points, Austin Cindric and three-time Cup champion Joey Logano appeared to be in control of the race, but tire problems took them out of contention. Eric Jones also was knocked out of the race when his right front tire came off between Turns 3 and 4, sending him hard into the outside wall on Lap 91. They weren't the only drivers who made early exits. Ross Chastain was the first out after just 18 laps when a tap from Michael McDowell sent Chastain's car spinning into the third turn wall and caused heavy damage. The others who were out before Lap 100 were Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Cody Ware. Weathering the storm Series officials were concerned enough about the threat of rain that they moved up the start time by 10 minutes. Fifteen minutes probably would have eliminated the rain delay. But the threat of rain impacted the race long before the delay. Early in the second stage, some teams informed drivers rain was expected near the midway point and it seemed to increase the aggressiveness earlier in the race than expected. Monster advice Cookie Monster made it to the track Sunday, too. The beloved Sesame Street character, who served as the Brickyard's grand marshal, attended driver introductions and took a handful of questions before the race and even offered some advice to the drivers. 'Don't stop and ask for directions,' the furry blue character said. Up next
