Homestead, Florida – It would have been easy to have been frustrated, but Bubba Wallace examined his third place on Sunday at Homestead -Miami Speedway in a different way.
Although he lost his head with 33 laps to do, Wallace was philosophical on Pit Road thereafter.
“Kansas (in 2022), I went up and I took this victory, my last,” said Wallace about his cup victory 85. “I watched Talladega (in April 2023) … When I headed by taking white and blocked (Ryan) Blaney and destroyed. Other than that, I was never in a place to give a race. I could be upset about it, but I have never been in this situation before. ”
Kyle Larson beats Alex Bowman in Homestead for “ one of the coolest victories of my career ”
The Champion of the 2021 Cup series led the last seven laps on the 1.5 mile oval.
The best finish of Wallace’s season also has it in a position where it was never six races in a season. Wallace left Homestead Sunday evening seventh in the points. He was never better than 18th at this time of the season since he moved to full -time cup in 2018.
“One of our big objectives was to spend five races without being a deficit of points, without putting ourselves in a position where we have to change the way we want to work every week,” said team leader Charles Denike, who joined the team before this season.
Wallace has had to rush in recent years because of its slow departures. He only made the playoffs once and only won this place until the final of the regular season in Daytona in 2023.
The new crew chief Bubba Wallace at the start desired in the Nascar Cup season
Here is how a white night led to the search for the new crew chief of Bubba Wallace.
While 20 races remain in the regular season, Wallace’s car has shown speed to expect it to do the playoffs this year. He is one of the two pilots in the first seven at points that were not in the top 10 at that time last year. The other is Alex Bowman, who passed Wallace for the head on Sunday to abandon him with seven laps to go to Kyle Larson.
“I have messed up and Bowman spoiled the same way as me and I gave it (Larson),” said Wallace.
However, Wallace could include with Bowman in a joking way after the race.
“I went to Bowman afterwards and said,” We both sucked “,” said Wallace laughing, telling the moment. “That’s what it is. Everything in a good day. “
Cup results, points after Homestead-Miami Speedway while Kyle Larson won the first 2025 victory
This is the second victory in the 1.5 mile oval for Hendrick Motorsports star.
One of Wallace’s keys this season was the stage points. Wallace scored six Sunday, giving it 61 stage points in its 166 points in total. This represents 36.7% of its total points from stage.
These stage points were precious because an insufficiency of the brakes led to a 29th place in Phoenix, and it was collected in an accident in Las Vegas, which led to a 28th place.
Denike noted that the team had not deliberately went for stage points except during the Americas circuit. There, Denike kept Wallace while others opposed and Wallace won the first step.
The point is that Wallace wins these stage points according to the performance of the car instead of the strategy.
The fact that Wallace was strong all day in Homestead – he ranked second in the average race position at 5.9 – helped to mitigate any frustration not to win.
“We know we can do it,” said Wallace, who led 56 laps on Sunday. “… Today, we had to fight for that. We just fired OK. I said:” Hey, I want clean air. I want a good track position “and my stand team is solid. They brought us up there, gave me a shot and had a good restart. Then, it was the game from there. So, just a very good weekend.”
