Long: Stress of making playoffs mutes Bubba Wallace's celebration

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Everyone else was bouncing, including co-owner Michael Jordan. But Bubba Wallace, who doesn’t hide his feelings, showed little emotion after making the Cup playoffs for the first time.

As Wallace calmly unbuckled his helmet, he stopped. The weight of making the playoffs in his sixth attempt seized him. He pressed his palms against the door of his No. 23 Toyota and bowed his head. Wallace stood motionless for nearly 10 seconds before he straightened and resumed loosening his helmet strap.

After removing his helmet and head sock, Wallace wiped his face with his hands and rested them on his hips. He looked up at the stands and exhaled.

“I’m just mentally exhausted,” Wallace said.

That Wallace displayed little emotion — other than relief — shows how draining the last few weeks have been on the 23XI Racing driver.

Just to get to the regular-season finale at Daytona, he had to pass through a gauntlet of obstacles, including a pair of road course events the past two weeks.

Getting through those races was nothing compared to what he faced this week.

“This week was probably the hardest week I’ve had in a long time, just trying to stay hyper-focused,” Wallace said. “Stressed out to the max and waking up at 2:30 in the morning.”

Wallace, who did scream on the radio at the finish, admitted on pit road that he was “kind of pissed I’m not super excited, but at the same time I was throwing myself to the ringer mentally.”

The scene was much different five years ago when he finished second in his first Daytona 500 and became the highest finishing Black driver in the event’s history. His mother embraced him during the press conference and told him: “I’m so proud of you.”

“You’re acting like we just won the race,”

“We did. We did. We did win that race.”

After hugging his sister, Wallace broke down crying while trying to collect his thoughts.

The emotions were different after finishing second in the 2022 Daytona 500. He hung his head on pit road after finishing 36-thousandts of a second behind winner Austin Cindric that day.

“2018 was awesome. 2022 was not awesome,” Wallace said after that race. “I didn’t have a fighting chance the first time in 2018. This one being that close, it’s like a gut punch.”

Wallace’s journey to reach the playoffs has been fraught with high expectations that weren’t always fulfilled. Sometimes it was him. Sometimes it was the pit crew. Other times it was the team. Such matters kept the 29-year-old Wallace from winning this season and put him in a spot where his playoff fate wasn’t all in his control.

The pressure had been mounting.

Before the race on the Indianapolis road course two weeks ago, Wallace acknowledged the weight he put on himself to make the playoffs.

“I think it’s embarrassing if we don’t make the playoffs, for sure,” Wallace said earlier this month. “It will be my contract year next year, so, I think, if we don’t make the playoffs, then I might be out. But that’s just me being hard on myself.”

The next day, he lost 32 points to Daniel Suarez. Wallace’s lead on Suarez dropped to 28 points with two races left in the regular season. Heading to Watkins Glen, another road course, it seemed likely that Suarez could close the gap because of Wallace’s struggles at such venues.

Emboldened by a phone conversation with six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon a few hours before last week’s race at Watkins Glen, Wallace finished 12th — his best result on a road course this year. That gave him a 32-point lead on Ty Gibbs entering Daytona.

“Watkins Glen was a man-up moment,” crew chief Bootie Barker said of Wallace’s performance. “It was great.”

Highlights: NASCAR Cup Series at DaytonaWatch highlights from the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the regular season finale for 2023 ahead of the playoffs.

That effort also meant that Wallace was not likely to lose the final playoff spot on points. If he lost it, it would have to be from one of 17 drivers winning at Daytona for the first time this season.

Gibbs saw his playoffs hopes end Saturday night while racing at the front. Contact from by teammate Christopher Bell sent Gibbs into Ryan Blaney’s car, triggering a 12-car crash on the final lap of the second stage.

With Gibbs out, the only way Wallace would fail to make the playoffs was if there was a new winner. Among those in that category was former Cup champion Chase Elliott.

Ryan Preece’s violent tumble in Turn 3 sent the race into overtime and gave Elliott the chance he needed.

Kevin Harvick led and Chris Buescher was second. Elliott restarted third behind Harvick on the inside line. Elliott had teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron behind him.

But they couldn’t push him to the front.

“I feel like we had an OK chance there, but Brad (Keselowski) and (Chris Buescher) just worked so well together there and they were able to stay locked-on,” Elliott said. “… Unfortunately I just couldn’t get to Kevin and stay there like that and just make the bottom lane work. I kind of bottled it up there and just couldn’t get enough momentum going forward.”

While Elliott couldn’t mount a challenge, Buescher and Keselowski got by Harvick for the lead.

“When I saw them up front, I was like, ‘Come on! Make sure it happens. Don’t let anybody else win,” Wallace said.

Buescher went on to win for the third time in the last five races, meaning Wallace would make the playoffs.

“He went through the toughest test,” co-owner Denny Hamlin said of Wallace. “The toughest test is you’ve got two road courses that (he’s) not at the top at and he’s got a superspeedway where he’s got a lead (on the final playoff spot) and he’s got to find a way to hold it.”

Hamlin said making the playoffs was “the only goal” for Wallace’s team this season

“Now it’s up to them,” Hamlin said of what comes next.

What can they do?

Shortly after Wallace made his comment at Indianapolis about how rough it would be if he didn’t make the playoffs, he noted how things could be if he got in the postseason.

“If we give ourselves a chance, then we have a shot at doing something really great,” he said.

While Saturday night’s race wasn’t great for Wallace, the result was.

That’s what Jordan was looking for when he partnered with Hamlin to form 23XI Racing for the 2021 season.

“My biggest conversation to Denny was, ‘Look, I don’t want to get in there just to go around the races and just go around and around and around and finish up 18th, 19th, 20th, 30th,” Jordan told NBC Sports and Fox Sports in September 2020. “I want to win. I want to be put in a position for the best chance for us to win. That’s my competitive nature.”

Jordan celebrated with a hearty congratulations to Hamlin and by hugging Wallace twice on riot road.

“I’m happy for him,” Jordan told NBC Sports.

Now it’s on to the playoffs for Wallace.

“Luckily, we have Sunday off,” he said. “But Monday is right back to work.”