Bubba Wallace was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, winning his third career pole in the 23X1 Racing No. 23 Toyota with a 167.146 mph lap and will lead the field to green for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500.
His starting position could prove pivotal as he is currently the first driver below the cutoff for the series Playoffs.
“Looking at us coming in, being on the bubble, 21 points out, a ton of pressure, well I think the pressure just switched,” Wallace said after qualifying. “We’re not here to mess around. I showed up with a more open and calm demeanor, free and relaxing demeanor, but at the same time, I don’t want to be messed with. So it’s a fine balance you have to walk.
“We’ve been really good here in qualifying and we’ve also given up a really good race car trying too hard from what I’m hearing from data and just not getting back to the basics. So today, I’ve determined that Darlington is probably one of the, if not the hardest places to qualify. Just the way you have to approach practice to the qualifying trim, it’s totally different.”
Wallace is currently in 17th, one spot below the 16-driver cutoff for the Playoffs. His strategy in preparing for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 is to focus on every aspect of the process, as he explains below.
“Anything can happen so we have to run our own race,” he said. “It makes it a lot easier for us. Having that first pit stall and as long as long as we execute and make the right calls, be great on pit road then — all I want is every single person a part of this team, including myself, is to go to bed tomorrow night saying, ‘We did whatever we could. We did all we could.’ And maybe it was good enough, maybe it wasn’t so that’s the lottery ticket we’ll find out tomorrow after the race.”
Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar (167.010 mph) was second quickest, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (166.270 mph) and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (167.015 mph). Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. (166.236 mph) completed the top five drivers in the qualifying session.
Tyler Reddick (167.004 mph), Ryan Blaney (166.040 mph), William Byron (166.540 mph), Christopher Bell (165.743 mph) and Chris Buescher (165.855 mph) completed the top 10.
Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway is set for Sunday at 6 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on USA with radio coverage provided by MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
