Kevin Harvick Exposes the Mistake That Cost Bubba Wallace the Gateway Victory

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway last Sunday witnessed another dominant performance from Toyota drivers, with Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin securing the record 200^th win for his team. A driver that was a significant factor during the race was 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who secured back-to-back top-10 finishes, getting close to R-12 promotion.

Bubba Wallace was comfortable leading the race, when lady luck left him stranded in the start of the final stage. On the restart, he messed up the gear switch, as his Camry got caught in first gear and almost caught a massive wreck. Though he was able to bounce back, the momentum he lost was enough to cost him the victory.

Ex-NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick shared his thoughts on Bubba Wallace and the rest of the Toyota drivers’ performance on Sunday. He believes if not for the gear issue, the 23XI Racing driver would have won the race, considering he had the control of the race. All the TRD cars had enough speed to win the race.

All four Joe Gibbs cars were in the top 10. Bubba Wallace had a chance to win the race. If he doesn’t miss that shift, he had control of the race. I don’t know what happened to the shifter or why it got hung up or whatever the scenario is there. I think when you look at the 23 car (Wallace), really fast, Tyler Reddick ran in the top 10, John Hunter Nemechek was in the top 10. I’m just telling you the Toyotas came to play.

Kevin Harvick said via Happy Hour podcast.

Further talking about the point, the veteran racer highlighted how Toyota has proved they have come to produce a solid run in the playoffs. They seem to have taken a page out of the Team Penske Racing playbook, being clutch once the post-season starts and finally win the Cup title they have desperately fighting for since Kyle Busch’s 2019 triumphs.

Typically, in the past, we’ve seen the Penske cars, the ones that step up going to the playoffs. The JGR, or the Toyotas, were already in a position to be fast, but they seem to be the ones that have stepped up to the plate once the playoffs have started.

Kevin Harvick asserted.

Bubba Wallace and his teammates are racing annoyed according to Kevin Harvick

One of the reasons that makes Bubba Wallace, and his teammate Tyler Reddick playoffs performance special is the noise around the team over the charter lawsuit. They lost the charter team status and is racing as open teams, with a lot of uncertainty over what will happen to the team after 2025 season, with driver having clause in their contracts making the free agents.

According to Kevin Harvick, all these dramata is a major distraction for the drivers, who only signed with the team to race and fight for wins. The veteran pointed out that the two-star drivers are annoyed over them getting dragged into the lawsuit and having the pressure to perform on high level amidst the uncertainty.

It is a distraction. I mean, it’s not the same distraction for Denny Hamlin as it is for Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace because they’re not vested in the ownership of the team and restructuring the league. So, at this point it’s annoying.

Kevin Harvick said.

The comments from the ex-SHR driver shows how special the consistency shown by 23XI Racing as well as his drivers are. It would be interesting to see how everything going to playout for the racers in the coming racers and post-lawsuit era.

Also Read: (Video) Denny Hamlin Boldly Predicts Connor Zilisch Won’t Be the 2025 Xfinity Champion