Bubba Wallace reaches career-high numbers with top-10 at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The strong short track results continue to trickle in for Bubba Wallace, wheeling the No. 23 car to a third-place finish at Bristol. 

Wallace was by far the strongest non-playoff driver in the field of Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race. He was the only non-playoff driver to earn stage points, finishing 10th in the first stage and sixth in the second stage.

Wallace started the final stage in fifth and moved up to third before falling back to seventh during the lone caution in the stage on lap 330. He moved back up to the third when the race went green eight laps later but fell back to seventh again.

Then, Wallace began his ascent with 50 to go. He moved to fifth with 31 to go and then fourth with around 10 to go. Finally, he wrapped up third with two to go.

The third-place result now gives puts Wallace at 11 Top-10 finishes in 2024, including six top-fives. Those are all career-high marks for him but he still hasn’t gone to victory lane this season.

The No. 23 team has quietly been one of the stronger teams at short tracks in 2024. Bubba Wallace finished fourth both at Martinsville in the spring and at Richmond in the summer. He qualified and ran just as well at any other short track but hadn’t finished higher than 13th.

Things had cooled off for Wallace since the regular-season finale at Darlington where he entered with four Top-10 finishes in five races. The disappointing runs at Atlanta and Watkins Glen now appear to behind them with some good tracks ahead.

Kansas and Talladega are next and they are the sites of his two Cup Series victories. He’ll hope for better results than 36th at Talladega and 17th at Kansas earlier this season.

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12 begins with the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway. The green flag is set to fly next Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).