Bubba Wallace came out of the No. 23 vehicle Sunday, pumped his hands, found his family, and relished every bit of his historic Brickyard 400 triumph.
He earned every minute of it.
Wallace, 31, overcame an 18-minute rain delay, two tense overtimes, concerns about running out of fuel late, and the hard-charging defending race champion, Kyle Larson, on back-to-back restarts to become the first Black driver to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval. No Black driver has ever won the Indianapolis 500, and Formula One races on the track’s road course.
“This one’s cool,” Bubba Wallace added. “Coming off Turn 4, I knew I was going to make it — unless we ran out of gas.” I was shocked I didn’t cry like a baby.”
Bubba Wallace’s third career NASCAR Cup triumph marked his first victory in the series’ four crown jewel events, which also include the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and Southern 500. It also ended a 100-race winless drought dating back to 2022 at Kansas, securing a playoff spot. His lone other victory came at Talladega in 2021.
The final gap was 0.222 seconds, but it was insignificant in comparison to the anxiety he felt.
Larson reduced a 5.057-second deficit with 14 circuits to roughly three seconds with six laps remaining as the yellow flag came out due to rain. The cars then came to a halt in the pit lane with four laps remaining, prompting Wallace to reconsider and rethink his restart strategy.
“The whole time, I’m wondering, where are we going? “Are we not?” He said. “I will admit that I leaned more toward ‘I know we’re going to go back racing. Be ready. “Don’t become complacent here.”
Bubba Wallace made certain of it.
He passed Larson at the second turn on the first restart, but a crash behind him forced a second overtime, forcing his crew to recalculate whether they had enough fuel to finish the race or if he needed to yield the lead and refuel.
Bubba Wallace saw no choice.
“The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Here we go again,'” stated the gentleman. “But then I said, ‘I want to win this outright. I want to go racing again. Here we are.”
He beat Larson off the restart again and surged away, preventing Larson from becoming the race’s fourth consecutive winner.
Bubba Wallace Wins Brickyard 400, Makes History at Indy
The triumph also relieved Wallace’s aggravation from Saturday, when he spent the majority of the qualifying session on the provisional pole only to have Chase Briscoe take the No. 1 starting position with one of the final runs of the session.
On Sunday, he ensured that there would be no recurrence, giving a boost to the 23XI Racing team, which is co-owned by basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and last week’s race winner Denny Hamlin, as it continues to battle NASCAR in court over charter status.
“Those last 20 laps there were ups and downs, and I was telling myself ‘You won’t be able to accomplish it,'” Bubba Wallace said.” “Once I saw it was Larson, I knew he had won here last year and is arguably the best in the field.” To defeat the best, we have to be the best today.”
The other major event, the In-Season Challenge, went to Ty Gibbs, who had a better car than Ty Dillon in qualifying and on race day. Gibbs finished 21st in the inaugural March Madness-style single-elimination tournament and took home the $1 million prize.
Dillon, who entered the championship round as the 32nd and last driver, finished 28th.
“They brought me money guns, and they jammed, so I decided to take all the money and throw it to the fans, and they were all wrestling and fighting over it,” Gibbs claimed, adding that he also received a title belt and ring. “But it’s cool.” It’s an exciting opportunity.
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