“Luck. I don’t know where we stacked up,” Bubba Wallace on finishing as the top Toyota at Indy
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Bubba Wallace
Tyler Reddick dominated the proceedings at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win his second careers cup race. The No:8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver was the fastest car on the track and finished the race where he started, at P1. Team Penske Racing rookie Austin Cidrick finished the race at P2 after the original P2 finisher Ross Chastain was demoted to P27 for cutting corners, in turn, one at the final restart.
The race also saw Tyler Reddick’s soon-to-be teammate, if he remains with the team, Bubba Wallace, the No:23 Toyota Camry driver of 23X1 Racing finishing in the Top 5, earning him his career-best finish at Road Course Races. The Indy P5 is the first ever top 10 finish for Wallace on road courses in the cup series since he made his debut.
It wasn’t just the impressive performance that earned him the P4 but also the fact that he was lucky enough to earn 8 spots in the restart after he cut the corners to the grass to avoid a fatal collision. If not for the luck Bubba Wallace wouldn’t have been finishing inside the top 10, but instead would have joined Kurt Busch’s substitute and his teammate Ty Gibbs in the top 20.
Find out what Bubba Wallace had to say about his P5 finish
Bubba Wallace acknowledged that luck had a part to play in his finish at Indy though he had made progress in road courses and ran top 20 all day. He went on to say he had a great car given to him by the team to learn and survive the road course and he is happy for the team, the new sponsor who joined them for the first time for the surprising top-five finish he was able to secure.
“Luck. I don’t know where we stacked up – top-20 all day. I’ve made improvements on road courses, but out there I feel like I’m busting out qualifying laps and it’s just good enough to get that position. I got to figure out where to gain speed. I’ve got a great team behind me. Everybody at 23XI, I appreciate it. They gave me a decent car – a decent car to go out and learn with and survive. A good day for Embrace – in their first race for us with our Toyota Camry TRD. It was a good day. Good day to come out of Indy with a surprising top-five,” Bubba Wallace said.
Talking about the brickyard he went on to say that it is a really cool place and pointed out that he has been competitive in the track with his top 10 finishes at the oval tracks. He added that he is thankful to his crew and crew chief Bootie Baker to entrust him with a car that helped him to learn and survive and produce a good finish at the end.
“It’s a really cool place. In the last couple of races on the oval, we were top-10, so it’s good to come back and be competitive somewhat today. I still have to do a lot of learning on these road courses but surviving and staying in the game. Crew chief (Bootie Barker), crew, everyone at 23XI kept us in the game to have a finish like this, so it’s good,” Bubba Wallace added.
Bubba Wallace went on to explain how he gained six places in the restart saying, he just closed his eyes and picked up four or five to get there as he is getting better at road courses slowly. He added that though he is frustrated with himself is happy about the fact that he has luck with him finally and acknowledged that he has a lot of work to do to get better.
“It wasn’t pretty. I closed my eyes on the last one and I picked off four or five guys and the next thing you know, we were sixth. It just so happened to work out. I’m getting better slowly and slowly at these things. I want to be the best at these things, and I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m frustrated with myself, but happy with the luck finally changing around,” said Bubba Wallace.
He went on to say that he got four races left this season to make it to the playoff and pointed out that he is proud of everyone around him for what they have done together so far. The No:23 driver concluded by saying that he got the Michigan cup race coming up next Sunday which has been one of his best tracks over the years and is getting himself ready to survive Richmond and Daytona and Watkins Glen after that.
“It seems like we’ve been beaten down so much over this year. We’ve got four races to go to continue to climb. I’m proud of this team. I’m proud of everyone on this Embrace Toyota Camry TRD. Just have to keep going. We’ve got Michigan coming up. I’m really strong there so I’m looking forward to that. Richmond and Daytona and Watkins Glen – have to survive there,” added Bubba Wallace.
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Justin P Joy
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