Sounds like Bubba Wallace is feeling the heat.
The 29-year-old NASCAR vet has had a rather forgettable start to the 2023 season, finishing 20th at the Daytona 500, 30th at the Pala Casino 400 in California, a 14th place finish in Phoenix, and a 27th place finish in Atlanta.
His lone top-five finish thus far this season was in Vegas at the Pennzoil 400.
Needless to say, it’s been a rough start, considering he’s coming off his best season of his career after winning at Kansas, and finishing 19th in 2022.
And those woes this season continued yesterday at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, when he racked up his third “Did Not Finish (DNF)” of the season after getting into the rear of Kyle Larson on Lap 11, which caused a broken toe link and other mechanical issues to his no. 23 car, ending his day early.
It looks like his brakes went out heading into the turn because he came in WAY hot. Even the guys in the booth seemed stunned at the speed at which Bubba came into the corner:
“Something went wrong… holy smokes.”
“That thing just never slowed down. He jumped out to pass a car under breaking and it was gone after that, I’ve never really seen…”
After he got out of his car, he shared some rather harsh words for himself in an interview with FOX after he was cleared from the infield care center, according to FOX News.
He said:
“Just trying my hardest not to go down this slippery slope of self-doubt right here.
Two weeks in a row of making rookie mistakes six years into Cup? Need to be replaced.”
And that was the end of the conversation.
I guess we’ll have to see if Wallace can move past these mental errors on the track and regroup…
