Bubba Wallace in with Chris Buescher Daytona win, let the house hunting begin!
DAYTONA BEACH — Bubba Wallace left himself with two options Saturday — win or hope and pray.
The first didn’t materialize as he finished 12th at the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the last race of the Cup Series regular season, at Daytona International Speedway. However, the second option did.
Chris Buescher captured his third victory in the last five races, cementing Wallace as the final playoff entrant and giving him his first career postseason berth.
“I’m just relieved,” he said. “I apologized to my wife all week. I haven’t been myself. I’ve been stressing.
"Sorry, babe. I was focused, just trying to get us in and pay for that house you want."
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Wallace put himself in good position to earn his first playoff appearance, and put a down payment on that mortgage, coming into Saturday’s race. But to clinch it, he needed a victory by Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, himself or a repeat winner.
With Buescher, he got it.
“Shout to Chris Buescher,” Wallace said. “I’ll finally let our Dover beef go. Congrats on the win. We are settled. Good job.”
Buescher took a moment to acknowledge Wallace after the race, too. Once upon a time, the two were teammates in the Xfinity Series.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together, raced around each other a lot and we’ve been on different paths for a little while,” Buescher said. “(Making the playoffs) is hard to do, and we know that because we’ve been trying for a lot of years. Congratulations to them.”
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This was a long time coming for Wallace, the 29-year-old lightning rod. Last season, he placed 19th in the point standings, which was his previous career best.
He held the final spot over Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez ahead of the 400. Gibbs lost control and sparked a massive crash toward the end of Stage 2, sending him home early. Suarez ended up 20th.
Wallace, driving the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, started fourth. He closed Stage 1 in sixth and Stage 2 in 11th, surviving the Gibbs wreck.
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Team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin greeted Wallace and offered their congratulations on pit road afterward.
“We’ve seen a really big shift for Bubba getting better,” Hamlin said. “He’s stepping up, and I look forward to seeing what he does.”
So where does this moment rank for Wallace since he debuted in 2017?
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“On my Mt. Rushmore,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of things on my Mt. Rushmore. I got two faces with my two wins (one in 2021, one in 2022). I’ll put this as the third face up there. It’s pretty special. Just relieved. I don’t have much emotion, just relieved, drained mentally. Glad we’ve got the day off tomorrow, because I’ll be hurting on Monday.”
Hurtin’ or not, his 2023 season hopes are still alive. The postseason kicks off Sept. 3 with the Southern 500 at Darlington.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Coke Zero Sugar 400: Bubba Wallace clinches 1st NASCAR playoff berth
