INDIANAPOLIS — Bubba Wallace was drained and subdued, his body running as close to empty as his fuel tank had been in the waning moments of the Brickyard 400.
But halfway through the winner’s news conference on the fourth floor of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway media center, Wallace suddenly perked up.
“Does anybody know where the goalposts got moved to now?” Wallace said. “Anybody? They get moved yet?”
Wallace was referring to his legion of detractors who love to constantly chide him when he loses (like the social media accounts that track how long it’s been since he won a race) and poke holes in his accomplishments when he wins.
His first career Cup Series victory, at Talladega Superspeedway? A rain-shortened superspeedway race. Anyone can win one of those.
His second career Cup Series victory, at Kansas Speedway? All car. Kurt Busch won at Kansas earlier that season in the same car number.
His first career playoff appearance in 2023? Couldn’t even win a race to get there. Had to point his way in.
But after Sunday, when Wallace was en route to a victory until a late caution — and then had to hold off the great Kyle Larson on two overtime restarts — what can the Wallace haters possibly say now?
Well, the internet says NASCAR rigged the race for Wallace …
“It’s rigged?” Wallace said. “Oh, of course!”
Never mind that NASCAR officials, embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with 23XI Racing, are probably among the last people who wanted to see a 23XI car win a crown jewel NASCAR race. But at this point, nonsensical conspiracy theories are about all that are left.
Drivers typically don’t just win the prestigious Brickyard 400 straight up unless they are one of the truly elite stock car racers on the planet. That Wallace saw his 4.5-second lead erased with six laps to go, only to then twice fend off Larson on his outside and William Byron and Denny Hamlin close behind, was easily the biggest statement of Wallace’s career.
You can say Wallace hasn’t won enough. You can say he’s lived on the playoff bubble far too often compared to his teammate, Tyler Reddick. But without reaching into the depths of human stupidity, you can’t say he didn’t earn his title as the winner of a NASCAR major.
And yeah, that’s surprising in a way. Count us among those who didn’t see this coming, who thought Wallace was more likely to cough up his chances on one of the late restarts than to execute them flawlessly. When the rain-induced caution flag came out, how many of us figured, “Ah, now Larson will win this for sure,” because Wallace simply hasn’t been in these situations very often.
Heck, Wallace spent the last 20 laps telling himself he couldn’t do it, either — the true sign of a driver who hasn’t had enough success to ward off those intrusive thoughts with confidence. Except … he did do it. And now he’s won his way into the playoffs for the first time in his career, no longer sweating out the points bubble that became such familiar and uncomfortable territory.
In reality, the goal posts have probably been moved to “he can’t make a deep playoff run.” And if he does, what then?
The truth is, some will never be satisfied with anything Wallace does or says. That’s because they don’t want Wallace to be in NASCAR in the first place.
Except on Sunday, he was in the first place. Now, for those who insist on twisting themselves into finding reasons he’s no good, it’s back to the drawing board.
Playoff points
Wallace’s win changed the outlook of the playoff bubble, with Ryan Preece now trailing RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher by 42 points for the final spot with four races remaining (Iowa, Watkins Glen, Richmond and Daytona).
The three open playoff spots are held by Tyler Reddick (+138), Alex Bowman (+63) and Buescher. So on the surface, you would think maybe it’s not much of a battle at the moment.
But don’t be fooled: There’s likely to be at least one more race winner, which would move the cutline and create a head-to-head battle between Bowman and Buescher (with only 21 points between them right now). Two more winners would essentially knock out all of the bubble drivers except for Reddick — and three more would send Reddick packing without a victory.
We’ll count Daytona as a 70-30 chance for a new winner, so then it comes down to the other three races. Personally, it’s hard to imagine an upset anywhere else (even though Austin Dillon won Richmond last year after he wrecked two drivers out of the way on the last lap) because short tracks favor the strong teams and Shane van Gisbergen will be the heavy road course favorite.
But if there is a surprise winner somewhere like Iowa or Watkins Glen in the next two weeks, Reddick will suddenly be very, very nervous. And in the wildest, most unrealistic of scenarios, four new winners in the next four races could knock out the lowest one-race winner in the standings (currently Josh Berry).