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Bubba Wallace Makes A Statement With Cook Out Southern 500 Pole

by Hunter Thomas August 31, 2024 0 comments

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Bubba Wallace made a statement on Saturday at Darlington Raceway when he sat on the pole for the 75^th running of the Cook Out Southern 500.

Wallace enters Sunday 17^th in the standings, only 21 points back from RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher who holds the 16^th and final Playoff transfer spot. Buescher nearly won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway back in May; however, with Wallace’s pole run in the 23XI Racing No. 23 U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry, the momentum is arguably leaning more towards Wallace at the moment.

“Yeah, you look at us coming in and being on the bubble – 21 points out with a ton of pressure and I think the pressure just switched,” Wallace said. “We’re not here to mess around. I showed up with a more open and calmer demeanor – more free and relaxing demeanor, but at the same time I don’t want to be messed with.”

Wallace is certainly no sleeper at Darlington. In fact, Wallace has finished inside of the top-10 in the last four races at the track, Too Tough To Tame. Since moving to 23XI Racing, his average finish at Darlington is 13.8, but that stat also includes a crash, so regardless of being a bubble driver, Wallace is someone who methodically makes his way to the front and is there at the end of the race.

“So, here we had a goal to make sure you run the fence in (turns) three and four and right before qualifying I looked over an email with our analytics stuff and I said, ‘Okay, I got on the gas right here in the spring so I’m going to do that’,” Wallace said.  “It’s a little bit hotter. Track temps up, grip’s not like it is in the spring, and it caught me by surprise. It’s tough. It’s tough to go out – I mean, (Kyle) Larson ran a 43 or 44. I don’t know – it was close. And so, I thought I definitely gave some up especially through (turns) one and two in the second round, but the first round was just perfect.”

In addition to his Darlington stats, Wallace has stepped up his performance lately as well. He has finished inside the top-10 in four of the last five races, and he’s entering the Sunday coming off a sixth-place finish at Daytona, so he survived one of the biggest obstacles yet. That being said though, success is often short lived in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Wallace and his crew chief Bootie Barker understand that. While the team has kicked off the weekend on top, there’s still at least 367 laps to go before reaching the NASCAR Playoffs.

“Everything you do, there’s no free lunch,” Wallace said. “There’s nothing guaranteed on the other side. I’ve said this a couple weeks ago after Richmond, it’s going to be a dog fight to the very end. And I think that’s what makes us drivers all great is we’re excited to show up and compete and put it all on the line for our team, our sponsors, our people that work on these cars.”

No doubt any result short of a Playoff berth would be very discouraging, but Wallace noted that he just wants the team to give it their all. Sunday is the big day, but there were decisions and results that might could’ve imporved the situation prior to Darlington, so all the team can do now is go out and perform to the best of their ability.

“Yeah, anything can happen we’ve seen. Look at last week, right. Anything can happen so we have to run our own race. It makes it a lot easier for us. Having that first pit stall and as long as long as we execute and make the right calls, be great on pit road then — all I want is every single person a part of this team, including myself, is to go to bed tomorrow night saying, ‘We did whatever we could. We did all we could.’ And maybe it was good enough, maybe it wasn’t so that’s the lottery ticket we’ll find out tomorrow after the race.”

The Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will broadcast live on USA at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Christopher Neal/TheFourthTurn.com