How advice from an IndyCar driver set NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace up for road course success

Fewer than 48 hours after his 12th-place finish at Watkins Glen International, Bubba Wallace had already turned his attention to Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale at Daytona.

But one piece of advice he received prior to last week lingered.

In his post-race remarks, Wallace shouted out IndyCar’s Scott Dixon, saying the six-time IndyCar champion told him to “shut the hell up” with his worries about crashing on the unfamiliar road course and just believe in himself.

Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI Racing, introduced Wallace and Dixon in Indianapolis last July. After Wallace’s 18th-place finish in Indianapolis on Aug. 13, Lauletta connected the two again, and they spoke Sunday morning.

Dixon’s words seemed to help quell Wallace’s fears of crashing in the regular season’s penultimate race and raised his confidence as he prepares for Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona.

“Honestly, that was the first Monday debrief after a road course where I thought my words mattered,” Wallace said. “... I was actually able to debrief on our weekend and talk about our car and where to be better. And that felt like you’d earned a seat at the head table.”

Wallace, who hasn’t won a race this year but boasts four top-five finishes, is currently 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. His strong performance Sunday vaulted him into a good position to qualify for the first Cup Series playoffs of his five-year career. But first: Daytona.

“Everybody’s in a must-win situation,” Wallace said. “When you’re not locked in, it’s a must-win situation. When the last race is Daytona and we’ve seen surprise winners, no one is safe until the race is over with.”

If a driver who hasn’t won this season wins at Daytona — and it’s not Wallace — the 23 car will be out of the mix.

Wallace has two career wins, one of which came last September at Kansas Speedway in the Hollywood Casino 400. While his 2022 campaign included 10 races in which he placed in the top 10, the 23XI Racing driver feels more confident in his team’s consistency this season.

“Our speed has been better than last year,” said Wallace, who finished 19th in last year’s Cup Series standings. “We haven’t had as many breakout races as we had last year. We’ve only had a handful where we thought we could actually win, versus last year, we had a lot of opportunities where we didn’t even know the other side because we made enough mistakes on our own end to tarnish that outlook.”