As things stand, we are deep into the 2023 NASCAR season’s playoffs. Entering the second stage of the game at Texas last weekend, Hendrick Motorsports’ young driver, William Byron, secured his 6th win of the year. In the process, he leapfrogged a driver from the garages of 23XI Racing, who’d been leading much of the race. The No. 23 Toyota driver Bubba Wallace had led a career-high 111 laps at the Motor Speedway when an untimely restart dawned and caused him to make some errors that hurdled his win.

Coming back from the Wild West, racing legend Dale Earnhardt Jr sat down with his co-host Mike Davis on their ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast and discussed the underdog that Wallace was.

The underdog from 23XI Racing that almost made history at Texas

Since the race at Daytona, that decided the playoff’s 16 drivers, Bubba Wallace has always been the least likely to create an impact behind the wheel. But despite his last-breath attempts at moving up the ladder, he has shown the occasional prowess with some good finishes. His race at Texas was one such scenario. Beginning the day amidst middling weather conditions, heat ruled ultimately and the 267-lap race unfolded quietly. Known for its straightforwardness, the Texas track remained silent for the most part. But it had some drama saved up for the final 25.

At the time, Wallace had managed to get ahead of Kyle Larson, who looked set to take the win. But a restart came with just 6 laps to go and shook things up to bring him down the line. Reflecting on the missed opportunity, Dale Jr said to Mike, “Bubba Wallace, in his situation, sort of, a bit of an underdog, in terms of… his lack of stage points, his lack of playoff points and his strategy throughout the race, and whether that was gonna pay off or not.”

However, things changed at Texas, and Dale described it as, “And in the race even, he saved himself up to having an opportunity to win the race late and he’s about to go launch himself into the next round with the win, right?”

A strong mistake that Wallace made upon restarting effectively ended his chances at glory and gave it to William Byron instead. Had he managed to stay in the contest after the restart, he would have gotten his first Texas win, but sadly, that wasn’t likely from there on.

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The Denny Hamlin-Michael Jordan partnership’s star driver is yet to bring them a single win this year. The Texas race was perhaps his best shot at doing so all year. But it just wasn’t meant to be. Wallace was ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and William Byron after beating Kyle Larson when the final restart came. Upon restarting, Wallace decided to choose the outside lane and battle Briscoe. At the same time, Byron got behind Tony Stewart’s driver. With Briscoe going deep into the turn, Wallace was forced to move toward the outside, creating a sweet opening for Byron.

He made the best use of it and leapfrogged the two to take the lead. From there on, there was nothing to be done to catch up to him for Wallace. Had Wallace not chosen the outside, maybe the results would have turned out differently. The driver’s team co-owner Denny Hamlin too had earlier expressed his thoughts on the mistake, saying, “I was thinking under my head in the caution, when I saw Bubba choose the outside of Chase Briscoe, I am like, ‘F*** this is not gonna end well’.”

What comes as a surprise is that Wallace had a bad restart. He has been considered to be a driver who does well on restarts. The bewilderment fell on the driver’s mind too in his post-race interview. He’d said, “The best restarter in the game gives it up on a restart”.

With the loss, he was left with a pole award and stage points. It is not unusual to see races slip away despite putting on strong shows. Nevertheless, the effort that the No. 23 team has put in since his entry into the playoffs has been extremely impressive. He currently has moved up from being 14 points below the cutline to just 2 below. The good news is that the Talladega Super Speedway, where the next race is, is one of the tracks that he has done well in before. Let’s hope he gets a proper shot at redemption at the fastest track!

Read More: Denny Hamlin Reveals William Byron’s Secret Weapon as He Swooped in on His Employee’s Mistake