Bubba Wallace finished 2nd in San Diego despite going 2 laps down, yet he was left frustrated with the result.

While Wallace sees this race as another missed opportunity, his team owner, Denny Hamlin, has offered him a different approach to viewing such races. 

Hamlin was asked about Wallace’s frustration at finishing 2nd in 23XI’s first-ever 1-2 finish with their 2027 full-time driver Corey Heim taking his first Cup win in 13 starts. Hamlin was alongside the 23XI Toyota’s winning crew chief, Bootie Barker.

In the post-race press conference interview, Hamlin said, “If I could sprinkle magic fairy dust on Bubba Wallace, it would br to be more happy on days you should be happy. You didn’t get a win, but I mean, daggone, you would take 2nd before this race started.”

Hamlin also said that he was a witness to the efforts that Wallace was putting in with the simulator to understand a track that nobody had ever raced at before, and that Wallace should be proud of what he was able to do. The 11 JGR driver also added an interesting perspective for Wallace to consider.

He said, “Nobody’s race goes exactly as planned, and it’s how you respond to it that’s going to dictate your results, and so not giving up, and battling and coming home with a 2nd place finish is something that, giving us our first  1-2 finish as a team, that’s something that we’re very, very proud of and certainly he should be proud of himself and the strides that he’s taken on road courses."

While Hamlin had his perspective, the 23 Toyota driver for 23XI was sitting on opposite ends of the pole. 

Wallace Left With Mixed Emotions From San Diego

While Wallace was left disappointed with his own race, he revealed that he was extremely happy for Corey Heim and his former crew chief, Bootie Baker, for getting the win while he spoke to media personnel post-race.

On a video of Wallace’s interaction posted on X by Frontstretch, Wallace was asked about his thoughts on the penalty, and he said, “Go figure. Drive your a** off on a track that you have no idea what you’re doing, drive up to the lead, and have it all taken away from you. Pit crew is one of the best on pit road and had a mistake, we all make mistakes, unfortunate that it cost us.”

Wallace also said they have a way of assessing his races, he said, “At the end of our weekend, we fill out was it a green race or was it not. He’s another where it’s not. That’s a lot of not green races for us, and by green means nothing went wrong.”

While Wallace was pretty upset, he was also a little relaxed with getting his career best 2nd place finish at a road course, which has been races that are particularly difficult for him. 

Wallace has also helped his fight for a position in the Chase, moving up to 11th with his 2nd top five finish in 3 races. He picked up a handy 35 points to take his total up to 429, just 2 points off JGR’s Chase Briscoe in 10th.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi