How did Bubba Wallace Jr. perform at NASCAR GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway?

Bubba Wallace waits on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Bubba Wallace waits on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR marked its 10th event of the 2022 season over the weekend and Bubba Wallace Jr. also made his 10th start of his second season with the 23XI Racing team.

In October 2021, Bubba Wallace Jr. surprised his fans after he collected his first career win at Talladega, bringing the first win to the newly founded 23XI team. Many of his fans expect the same dominance he exhibited last year in this year’s GEICO 500.

Well, fans' predictions and oddsmakers were not that far from the truth. Wallace Jr. started showing signs of taking the win during the qualifying race. He proceeded to the second round of the qualifying race, but ended up taking the ninth pole.

Taking the green flag at pole nine brought hope to his fans that he was going to earn his first win of the season and second of his Cup Series career.

Wallace Jr., driving the Toyota Camry TRD, really pulled an impressive performance on stage one. He drove his No.23 Toyota from pole nine all the way to the top five.

During the final lap of stage one, Wallace Jr. fought hard to take the lead. He managed to beat Larson on stage one, taking his first stage win of the season.

Talladega Superspeedway went on Twitter and posted Bubba Wallace Jr. as the stage one winner.

Bubba Wallace Jr. was involved in a wreck in the second stage at Talladega Superspeedway

The second stage wreck began with Joey Logano, who ended up kissing the wall. Bubba Wallace Jr. had given him a push, but Wallace Jr. later claimed he barely made contact.

On Twitter, Bob Pockrass highlighted the drivers that were involved in the wreck.

Bubba Wallace Jr. had lost his momentum and was nowhere to be seen in the top ten of stage two as Byron ended up taking the stage two win. Wallace Jr.'s teammate Kurt Busch sealed the top ten in stage two.

23XI Racing on Twitter updated Kurt Busch's top 10 finish.

In stage three, he tried his best and ended up taking the lead with 37 laps remaining. With 28 laps left, Wallace Jr. decided to pit. The pit stop somehow eliminated him from the winning stage and he ended up taking a 17th place finish.

The season has been harsh for him so a top 20 finish isn’t bad. With only 26 races remaining until the end of the season, Wallace Jr. will need to work extra hard.

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Edited by Adam Dickson
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