Heading into this Sunday’s Round of 12 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Charlotte Roval, Bubba Wallace needs a few things to go his way in order to stave off elimination.
Wallace is currently three points below the cutline heading into the race following a disappointing finish in last Sunday’s Cup playoff race at Talladega. He trails former champion Brad Keselowski, who is at the cutline, and Tyler Reddick, who is two points off.
Behind Wallace is Ross Chastain (-10) and two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch (-26).
Wallace finished 23rd last Sunday, which didn’t do much to help his cause.
“Not the day that we needed,” he told reporters. “We put ourselves behind working on a plan, which plans are great with your teammates, but I felt like it hurt us to start. We got buried in track position and you had to fight and claw your way back up to the top and it took us three stages to get there and then we gave it away on the last pit stop. Not what we needed.
“Obviously, we had this one circled as a good weekend for us but just didn’t execute.”
In terms of how he’s thinking about Rovel and the potential for elimination, Wallace is just trying to treat it like any other race.
“Just another racetrack,” said Wallace, who hasn’t always done well on road courses.
He’ll have to try to figure it out on Sunday if he wants to stay in the hunt for a championship.
