Bubba Wallace claimed a strong eighth-place result in the 2026 South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 4, after being within striking distance of achieving his first elusive victory of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series season.
The 2025 Brickyard 400 champion from Mobile, Alabama, qualified in ninth place for Sunday’s main event and executed a consistent run within the top-10 mark throughout the first stage period that lasted for 80 laps, in which he wheeled his No. 23 Robinhood Toyota Camry XSE entry to a seventh-place result and notch four critical stage points. During the first stage’s break period, however, Wallace leapt five spots up to second place as he exited behind Chase Briscoe on pit road, but was sent to the tail end of the field due to an equipment interference that was caused by Wallace’s pit crew. The interference was for a wheel that rolled from Wallace’s pit stall to Austin Dillon’s pit stall and caused one of Dillon’s crew members to jump to dodge the wheel.
Mired within the top-30 mark when the second stage period commenced on Lap 87, Wallace managed to carve his way back into the top-10 mark on Lap 101. Following a cycle of green flag pit stops, Wallace continued his steady march back to the front and steer his way up to fifth place when the second stage period concluded on Lap 165. By then, he notched six additional stage points. Restarting in fifth place for the final stage period with 96 laps remaining, Wallace began to flex his muscles and contend for the victory. After mixing it up with the competition and fellow Chase contenders within the top-five mark in the early stages of the final stage period, Wallace navigated his way into the runner-up spot with 67 laps remaining.
With 51 laps remaining, Wallace tracked the leader, Chase Briscoe, both on and off pit road following their respective pit services as the former was within striking distance of challenging the former through the long runs. By the time both Briscoe and Wallace cycled back up to first and second on the track, the battle for the lead brewed as Wallace started to reel in Briscoe through the turns and straightaways while lapped traffic played a role in briefly stalling Briscoe’s momentum. Despite narrowing the deficit down to a tenth of a second on multiple instances, Wallace was unable to navigate his way around Briscoe. As the laps dwindled, Wallace started to lose tire grip and his momentum amid his late challenges and reels on Briscoe, which allowed Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick to overtake Wallace within the final 10 laps. Wallace would then slowly slip out of the top-five mark and be overtaken by Chasers Austin Cindric, William Byron and Ryan Blaney before he took the checkered flag in eighth place.
With the result, Wallace notched his 15th top-10 result of the 2026 season, which is a career-high stat for the Alabama native in a single Cup season. He also recorded his fourth top-10 result in his 18th start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his fourth top-10 result through the first five Chase events of the 2026 season.
Prior to Las Vegas, Wallace was ranked in 10th place in the 2026 Chase standings and he trailed the points lead by 140 points. Despite retaining his points position, he shaved off three points from his deficit (137). Amid the disappointment in rallying from his early pit road penalty, navigating through humid conditions and falling short of notching his first victory of the 2026 season, Wallace was pleased with the outcome and gave props to his 23XI Racing pit crew that kept the driver of the No. 23 Toyota entry in contention in the closing laps.
“[I] just tried to replay every scenario,” Wallace said on USA Sports. “[Briscoe’s] car was just good enough to keep that buffer out in front of us. I tried to make one last charge at him, catch him sleeping into [Turn] 1 and just didn’t work and got super tight. That ultimately paid a price on our front tires. Fell off pretty hard there, but just that we had that [pit road] penalty. Trying to come from the back. It’s difficult in the Chase. You can’t have any mistakes. Pit crew rebounded, so I do appreciate that. Just a hard fought day. Just wasn’t meant to be.”
Bubba Wallace’s 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship resumes next Sunday, October 11, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, for the Bank of America 400. Wallace holds a single top-five result in 10 prior Cup starts at Charlotte as he strives to remain within striking distance of his first Cup Series championship. The broadcast time of next Sunday’s 2026 Bank of America 400 event is scheduled to commence at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
