For the second time this year, Bubba Wallace fell a step short of reaching Victory Lane. The 23XI Racing driver displayed sheer dominance at the EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta on Sunday night to lead 46 laps. But a questionable move in overtime resulted in him losing spots to others and relegated him to an underwhelming eighth place.
Nevertheless, his performance was a showing of the dangerous driver he can be this year. Former driver Kyle Petty spoke about the same on NASCAR: Inside The Race and bet huge on Wallace. He said, “He controlled the race from the start. He lost control there on that one block. On that one block, he lost the plot of the race a little bit.”
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“But if you look at it, it’s as good a race as Bubba has driven maybe since the Brickyard. The Brickyard was a phenomenal race for Bubba Wallace. But that’s the type of races that Bubba can put together, and I believe he will constantly and consistently put together as we go into this year. And we’re going to see him in victory lane multiple times this year.”
Last year, Wallacewon the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to enter his name in the record books. Petty strongly believes that he can repeat such performances this year on a regular basis. Judging from the way he raced at Daytona the earlier weekend, and now at Atlanta, any betting man would stack up the same way Petty has.
Wallace’s reflections on his finish at Atlanta
Wallace was leading the race when the race went into overtime. He moved to the outside lane to try and block drivers who were coming up, but he left too much space on the inside when doing so. This allowed others who were behind him to shoot forward and gain spots on him. Ultimately, his teammate, Tyler Reddick, reached the checkered flag first.
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He said, “I didn’t think I moved up that much to allow — to put myself up top. Unfortunate, but what a race car we had today.” While he regretted not being able to reach Victory Lane, he was still excited that a Toyota did so. He now sits second on the points table, with 85 points. He trails Reddick by 40 points.
The way 23XI Racing has started 2026 is a dream for every other team out there. Wallace and Reddick have ensured that their competitors are already playing catch-up.
The post Kyle Petty Makes Huge Prediction About Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR Season appeared first on The SportsRush.
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