Weeks After Public Fallout With Bubba Wallace, Kyle Petty Admits Defeat to Michael Jordan?s Star: ?I Was Totally Wrong?

Unlike what would have ideally been the case, the talk of the town in NASCAR circles after the Bristol race wasn’t Denny Hamlin, but rather his prot?g?, Bubba Wallace. While Hamlin was the one cutting through the competition like a hot knife through butter at Bristol, it’s the star driver of Michael Jordan?Bubba Wallace?who stole the spotlight this weekend.

Against all odds and racking up the essential points to step into the elite top-12, Bubba Wallace didn’t just win over fans but also made many critics, including Kyle Petty, swallow their words.

The tables have turned for NASCAR analyst Kyle Petty

Tensions between the two NASCAR aces flared during the final regular-season race when a wound-up Bubba Wallace opted out of pre-race interviews, a move that didn’t sit well with the iconic Kyle Petty. The result? Petty slapped the label “mentally fragile” on Wallace.

Fast forward to Petty’s playoff predictions, and he was quick to count out both Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. based on recent performance metrics. Yet, as fate would have it, none of his forecasts hit the mark. In a candid moment captured in a recent NASCAR video, Petty humbly donned the hat of contrition, confessing, “I have to admit that the four guys that I had out of the playoffs not making it, all of them made it. I was totally wrong 100%. I didn?t even get one of them right. And that tells you how competitive the playoffs are.”

Petty didn’t stop there. He tipped his hat to the astute strategies and plays of Team Wallace, highlighting, “Bubba Wallace make to the playoff; great call by Bootie Barker; great drive by Bubba Wallace. They did it in the first segment of the race. They scored 8 bonus points. He got in by four. That?s all he needed the rest of the day was to just run a solid race.”

While Petty sidestepped his earlier “mentally fragile” jibe, one might speculate that he’s realized that nerves can coexist with solid driving prowess. After all, when someone like Bubba Wallace has stalwarts like Denny Hamlin and the basketball titan Michael Jordan in his corner, imparting their pearls of wisdom, it’s easier to steer through the rough patches with panache.

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Denny Hamlin passes the torch of knowledge to the star of Michael Jordan for the next playoff stages

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As the Bristol face-off loomed, Bubba Wallace was walking a tightrope, trailing 17 points from the top-12 threshold. But having now leaped over that hurdle, even his boss, Denny Hamlin exudes confidence that, with continued consistency, the star of Michael Jordan, Bubba Wallace, can dig deeper into the playoffs.

In his recent podcast, Hamlin doled out golden nuggets of advice for Wallace to climb the ranks to the top 8 and beyond. He mused, “The round of 12 will be no different than the round of 16. There will still be guys that stub their toe, that have bad days. And if you can out together… He is at such a point, he is going to need to finish top-15 every week and finish top-10 in next two out of the three. He?s probably going to have to get 30 stage points during this round to make it, which is all feasible.”

While it remains to be seen if Hamlin’s sage counsel proves golden for Wallace, one thing’s for certain: with Texas?not traditionally Wallace’s strongest suit?on the horizon, he’ll need to pull out all the stops to secure a solid finish and stay in the safe harbor.

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