Talladega proves pivotal for Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, more

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Bubba Wallace sat on his pit box and waited for the word. He didn’t do a rain dance, and as it poured, he could hear fans behind pit road yelling for NASCAR to call the race official and declare him the winner. He refused to think he would win.

But after a delay of about 40 minutes, in which NASCAR started drying the track until a heavier downpour, Wallace was declared the winner Monday, with 117 laps complete (and 71 laps remaining in the scheduled distance) in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

"Going from 'we're going to go back to racing' to 'no, we're not, we're winners' was like a roller coaster for sure," Wallace said.

It was the first win for Wallace in 143 Cup starts. It was the first win for first-year team 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and driver Denny Hamlin, in its 31st race. It was the first win for crew chief Bootie Barker, who was working his 484th race in that role.

But this was a victory bigger than that, as Wallace is the only Black driver in the Cup Series and only the second Black driver to win in series history.

"It obviously brings a lot of emotion, a lot of joy to my family, fans, friends," Wallace said. "It's pretty damn cool, just got to be a winner in the Cup Series."

Here are three takeaways from Talladega:

Wallace Looks For More

It has been a somewhat frustrating year for Wallace, whose goal was to make the playoffs in the first year of 23XI Racing and who instead sits 21st in the standings, even with the victory Monday. Wallace is in his fourth full-time Cup season, having driven the previous three for Richard Petty Motorsports.

"I just want to go out and compete and win races and be here talking to you like this [afterward]," Wallace said. "What allows me to do that is just focusing on the task at hand, which is the race. That's how I continue to kind of go about it.

"We'll talk about it postrace, but leading up to it and in the moment, I'm just going out to win races and put on the best show I can to show."

Wallace believes there could be more performances like this in the future, especially at the tracks of Daytona and Talladega, where a driver needs help from others in the aerodynamic draft. Wallace was 22nd about 10 laps before he took the lead.

"This definitely gives some credibility to my name," Wallace said. "I don't know what was on my back bumper the first three years in the Cup Series.

"Everyone was leaving [me in the] 43 out to dry. I'd be going to the front. Next thing you know, we'd go to the back because everybody left us hanging. Whatever that message was, encrypted code on the back, it's gone because we had some help."

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Second, Third Not Sour

Sometimes when NASCAR makes a decision to call a race, the drivers who nearly win are frustrated. But that wasn’t the case Monday with Brad Keselowski (second) and Joey Logano (third). 

The caution was initially thrown not for rain but for an accident that occurred just prior to the rain.

As the rain continued to fall about 20 minutes after NASCAR called the race, Keselowski and Logano didn’t want to wait and see if NASCAR could run additional laps if the track dried quickly and if there were still some sunlight. 

"I think they should have called it. I don’t think there was any question on that one," Keselowski said. "This wasn’t going to happen. ... I’m happy for Bubba to get the win. We were right there and needed just another lap or two. The wreck and the rain kept that from happening."

Logano thought he had finished second ahead of Keselowski, but NASCAR ruled that he was third.

"It’s pouring. What are we going to do?" he said. "You’re going to have a couple of hours at least of drying the track if it stops raining now. We’re good. 

"Everyone has been here long enough. I think everyone would be saying, ‘That’s fair.’"

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Larson Not Comfortable

Hamlin is the only driver who has advanced to the next round, with the other seven spots to be determined Sunday on the Charlotte road course, where the playoff field gets cut from 12 to eight.

Even Kyle Larson, who was involved in an early crash and saw his cushion go from 57 points on the cutoff to 22, doesn’t feel safe, even though he is second in the standings. He has too many memories of limping across the finish line of the race and barely advancing in 2018.

"Not too comforting, but hopefully go there and have a good day and get some stage points and get on to the next round," Larson said.

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!