Bubba Wallace nets first Top-5 for 23XI Racing

Bubba Wallace’s fifth-place showing in the Explore The Pocono Mountains 350 resulted in his highest finish of the 2021 Cup Series season and the best finish for first-year team 23XI Racing.

Wallace, who started seventh at Pocono Raceway Sunday, led three laps and netted six stage points.

“Just happy with how the weekend went,” Wallace said. “Smooth sailing for the most part today.”

The finish was Wallace’s fourth career Top-5 finish and his tenth career Top-10 showing in NASCAR’s premier series.

Prior to the Pocono race weekend, Wallace’s highest finish this season was 11th at Dover in May.

With seven races left before the start of the NASCAR Playoffs, Wallace is 54 points behind the playoff cutline (14th-place Kurt Busch).

Wallace’s fifth-place finish jumped the driver three spots in points to 19th overall.

“We wanted the Playoffs when we started the season,” Wallace said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We know that we are in a hole, but it’s finishes like that, that we have to capitalize on the speed in our cars. T

“Today shows what we can do. We’ve got to keep up the momentum.”