Bubba Wallace was in prime position to win his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday in Atlanta. The driver of the No. 23 was in command as the field took the green flag for an overtime restart.
Sitting behind Wallace on the inside line was his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick. Occupying the outside was Carson Hocevar in the No. 77 with Ross Chastain’s No. 1 in toe.
As the field raced off of turn two, Wallace jumped to the high line in attempt to block the run of Hocevar, to which the latter pulled to the inside and made it a three-wide battle with Reddick as the first car occupying the inside line.
The move left Wallace with no drafting help and shuffled him out of the race for the lead. Reddick would go on to win the race, while Wallace had to settle for an eighth-place finish.
Once again, Wallace was in position to win on a drafting track, but left EchoPark Speedway without a trophy.
Bubba Wallace after finishing eighth at EchoPark Speedway: “What could’ve been”
Wallace was in contention to win all day Sunday. The Alabama native led 46 laps, finished runner-up in stage one, and picked up the stage two victory. However, his late-race move proved to have cost him in the end.
As he reflected on the finish with FOX motorsports reporter Josh Sims, Wallace looked at the positives of the race, such as his teammate winning. Yet, he couldn’t overlook what could’ve been.
“I’m just pumped that Toyota still got to victory lane. I need to go back and see. I didn’t think I moved up that much to put myself up top of three. So, unfortunate, but man, what a race car we had today,” Wallace said.
Wallace went on to say he learned a lot from watching Rajah Caruth in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race the day before. Like Wallace, Caruth finished second in stage one and won stage two in the Saturday race.
With such a fast car, Wallace said he didn’t want to risk giving up a solid finish in an attempt to win. Despite that, he couldn’t shake the fact of how close he came to victory.
“I’m like, ‘This car is so fast. Don’t do anything to jeopardize a good finish.’ I hate that we didn’t get the win, but all in all, I appreciate Xfinity. Man, what could’ve been,” Wallace said.
Bubba Wallace enters CoTA second in the Cup Series standings
Despite falling short of a win at EchoPark Speedway, Bubba Wallace is off to a great start in 2026. With a pair of top-1o finishes coupled with two stage wins, Wallace finds himself second in the Cup Series standings behind points leader Reddick.
With his performance on Sunday in Atlanta, Wallace jumped six positions in the standings to be runner-up heading into this weekend’s race at Circuit of the Americas (CoTA). Wallace has five starts at the track with a best finish of 15th in 2024.
Wallace has shown improvement on road courses overall. In the last two road-course races, Wallace posted a 15th-place finish at the Charlotte Roval and an eighth-place effort at Watkins Glen.