Bubba Wallace remains a work in progress.
He is the first one to own up to the fact that he is an unfinished product, both behind the wheel and away from the race track, but Sunday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a snapshot of everything the 23XI Racing braintrust believes in.
That unfinished product can now add a PPG Trophy for winning the Brickyard 400 to its foundation.
Part of that work in progress is an unorthodox approach that is politely described as self-deprecating. Less politely, it’s self-flagellation. Translated: He is really hard on himself in ways that only he can articulate when discussing his final two restarts or the green flag run before that.
“I’ll say those last 20 laps there were the ups and downs of telling myself, ‘You’re not going to be able to do it’ and I hate that I’m that way,” Wallace said. “I push myself to be the absolute best. When the caution came out, my spotter — love him to death — he said, ‘The 12 got clear of the pack, keep making pace.’ I said, ‘Okay, so it’s going to be me and Blaney here.’
“Caution comes out and Blaney is nowhere to be found, and it’s the 5. I’m like, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ Once I saw that it was (Kyle) Larson, I knew I would have to roll the sleeves up. He won here last year and he’s arguably the best in the field. I have no problem saying that. I respect the hell out of what he does, how he drives. He pushes us all to be that good.
“So to beat the best, we had to be the best today. We were able to come out on top.”
Wallace told himself that he was going to fail. As if it wasn’t negative enough having a large percentage of the NASCAR fanbase perpetually telling him that he was going to fail, Wallace drug himself down and he often treats himself that way too.
Why? Is that not counterproductive?
“I don’t know, man,” Wallace said. “I wish I had the answer to that. I think that’s my biggest downfall. We’re all human, and we’re all super hard on ourselves. You guys know how hard I am on myself.
“At the same time, I was combatting it and I’m like, ‘Fucking right, we can do this.’ It was kind of like the angel and devil on your shoulder. It wasn’t all negative. But to even have that thought, it’s like, ‘Man, come on, focus.’
Wallace said that internal monologue does go away on the restarts, where there is the most to be gained and lost, but he is always combatting himself in between those most decisive moments.
“Yeah, just still working out those kinks and growing as a person,” Wallace said. “It’s just really cool to be sitting here in front of you guys (in the media) so I appreciate it.”
There has been growth from Wallace, and that comes not only from himself, but everyone in his orbit. Over the past year, Wallace has become a father but even before that, while preparing for that, this is a man who has become more at peace with the world around him.
Again, that doesn’t mean Wallace isn’t still hard on himself and isn’t prone to moments he wish he could have back. As Hamlin puts it, The Bubba Wallace Experience isn’t so turbulent these days.
“His peaks and valleys … he shallowed that up,” Hamlin said. “His valleys weren’t as low. I think it seemed like on the bad days he was able to compartmentalize that and then think about the positives versus everything sucks all the time. That’s a tough way to live.
“We’re in a business where if you can win five percent of the time, you’re a Hall of Famer. You’re going to lose. This is a losing business, and you have to find happiness in some other way other than actually winning.”
That is a lesson Hamlin learned from Mike Ford, one of his earliest crew chiefs, and the three-time Daytona 500 winner called it ‘the best advice I’ve ever been given.’ It’s also something he has had to relay to Wallace frequently in the moments where the success hasn’t been as prevalent.
“It’s something that certainly needed to be told to Bubba that you’ve got to find these little goals that you feel good about because it’s tough out there,” Hamlin said. “We’re going to give you everything we can for you to go out there and compete. I’m going to give you the same car I’ve got week in and week out, but it’s up to you to put in the work and it’s up to you to want it, and then let your abilities go from there.
“It just seems over the last 12 months the performance is definitely better.”
It had been 100 races since Wallace last won, and despite all the maturity and personal gains, he still found himself trying to break through and not live his professional life on that playoff bubble. But it’s not exactly like teammate Tyler Reddick was drastically outperforming him this year and now Wallace actually beat him to victory lane this season.
As satisfying as winning the Brickyard 400 is, Wallace has defaulted back to the five percent rule that Hamlin imparted on him, that Ford imparted upon him first.
Who is Bubba Wallace now different from before a year ago?
“A guy with a beautiful wife, a beautiful son, and just fortunate enough to be driving race cars,” Wallace said. “Putting family first, that’s all that matters. Makes things easier. It gives you something to kind of focus onto. The racing stuff is kind of secondary now, and you have to go through a mental shift to say that, especially for me.
“I remember when Amanda and I first started dating. I was like, ‘Hey, racing is everything,’ right? I knew I made a mistake saying that. It took me all these years to realize, like, this isn’t always going to be here, so I think it’s better to enjoy the moments like this, but nothing can overcome the joy, the times that you have with your family at home in a private setting. Then you just so happen to be a race car driver on Sundays.
“That’s kind of how I look at it. I’m enjoying life. I enjoy being here at the racetrack with all you guys … I say it about once a year to myself. I have a really cool fucking job. It’s not even a job. A cool hobby. You guys are all living it with me, so it’s cool. Thank you.”
And it seems like people are starting to come around on this version of Bubba Wallace too.
Sure, there will be a certain subset of the audience that will continue to boo this man until their final breath. It is part and parcel to their identity. A previous version of Wallace would have been fixated on them too.
Instead, Wallace was just grateful for the cheers he got and all the congratulations from his peers, including Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman, two ‘buddies’ that had some public run-ins with him in recent years.
“Yeah, I guess I’m not too big of an asshole,” Wallace said. “I’ve got a couple buddies out there, so that was nice. I appreciate all the respect.
“That’s the thing over eight years in Cup, you race with a lot of these guys week in and week out. You build up the repertoire and respect for one another. You have good times, and you have bad times. Bowman came up, and I doored him. I hope I don’t get a penalty for that. Hopefully the seat belts were tight.
“But I appreciate that.”
And it seems the appreciation is starting to be shared on the other side of the catchfence too.
In Season Challenge Champion
Ty Gibbs does not get to keep the entirety of the one-million-dollar bonus for winning the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge but whatever he doesn’t keep is going to be offset by an All Elite Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship replica and a gold ring.
That’s not nothing in terms of value.
“It’s super cool,” Gibbs said during his own post-race press conference. “Super nice pieces of stuff. The belt is nice too. Super cool to have it. I really like it. I’ll wear it around for the rest of the day. It’s kind of heavy. It’s legit. It’s a legit one.”
It goes for upward of $1000 at retail value.
Even though the award was posited as a one-million-dollar prize to the winner, it contractually must go to the team and then the driver and team owner sort out how that is split. In this case, the team owner for TY Gibbs is grandfather Coach Joe Gibbs.
What is his cut?
“I have no clue,” he said with a laugh. “We’ll see.”
The In-Season Challenge took place over the past five races, the ones that aired on TNT Sports, and was decided over a series of one-versus-one match races within the overall races. After the initial seeding, drivers advanced based on beating the driver they were paired against.
It came down to Ty Dillon’s ultimate underdog run ending up seven spots short to Gibbs by the end of the race.
Dillon faced an uphill battle regardless but it was made even more challenging when he was collected in an incident on Lap 56 that began with Josh Berry missing a shift and stacking up those behind him. The damage to his Kaulig Racing No. 10 inhibited the power Dillon could use down the long straightaways and he finished 28th and three laps down.
“Disappointing, obviously, but things like that happen,” Dillon said.” You can’t predict everything. I think that’s what’s been so cool about this In-Season Challenge for everybody. I just hate that we didn’t get to give him a run for it there. I don’t think they would say as a team they had their best day either. And I think if all things are equal (and) we don’t knock the nose off on that restart, [we’re] probably sitting in a good position, put a lot of pressure on him and race him out pretty solid.”
Dillon has enjoyed the perks of this run, a spotlight that a team 30th in the standings would not otherwise have enjoyed, and gave something for his team to rally behind over the past month.
“It’s painful right now that we didn’t win the whole thing,” Dillon said. “But it definitely doesn’t overshadow how much this whole run has meant for us and our team, our sponsors. We’re grateful, man. It’s a good boost of energy.
“Hopefully we’ll finish out the year strong because of it. I believe in our team and what the future holds. So today was tough, but you know, this run has been really great and I appreciate it.”
Gibbs is still racing for a playoff spot and that has been his primary focus this past month but started to coming around making this a priority the past two weeks.
“It’s super cool,” Gibbs said. “I didn’t really focus on it for the first three weeks, I would say. Our goal, of course, is to go in and do the best we can. The last week and this week is kind of where I started to pick it up, okay, well, if we beat these guys, we can go win a million dollars.
“It’s a really cool deal that they put on, and hopefully they keep doing it.”
Gibbs offered Dillon a kind gesture after the race too.
“Our sponsor Saia challenged Ty Dillon’s sponsor whoever loses gets $10,000 for Toys for Tots,” Gibbs said. “I want to put another 10 on top of that. Wherever Ty wants it to go will be his choice. Super cool to be in this position and very blessed.”
