On Sunday (Sept. 11), the NASCAR Cup Series found itself racing at Kansas Speedway.
In case you need a reminder about geography, the 1.5-mile racetrack in Kansas City is located 755 miles northwest of Talladega Superspeedway and 1,287 miles away from Daytona International Speedway.
There was no pack racing to be found.
Sunday’s race, the second of the playoffs, was also run under a blue sky.
If you were looking for storm clouds to once again rain on Bubba Wallace‘s winning narrative, you missed them by 24 hours.
Sorry.
Over the race’s final 67 laps, there were no cautions, no restarts, no precipitation of any kind. There were no potential shenanigans someone could use to handicap any winner of the Hollywood Casino 400, let alone the driver of 23XI Racing’s No. 45 Toyota.
Sixty-seven laps after he straight up passed Alex Bowman for the lead under green and 43 laps after he cycled back to the No. 1 spot following green flag pit stops, Wallace won his second career NASCAR Cup Series race.
“What are they going to say now!?” Wallace yelled over his team radio upon crossing the finish line, officially earning win No. 2. He was addressing the vocal minority of folks who insisted an asterisk should be placed next to win No. 1.
Why? It happened at a superspeedway and it rained. These were people who likely didn’t give a damn when Chris Buescher, Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Brandon Brown — and Noah Gragson on Saturday — got wins in similar fashion.
“Keep talking s–t!” Wallace added as his victory celebration got underway, later telling NBC Sports, “Thanks for the opportunity, and thankful to shut the hell up a lot of people.”
— Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) September 11, 2022
Wallace’s crew chief, Bootie Barker, added his own two cents later.
“I feel very happy for (Wallace) in the fact that we took it to (them),” Barker said. “What can you throw rocks at us about this time?”
Wallace’s win didn’t materialize out of nowhere.
Since the Cup Series’ one off week in June, he has totaled 10 top-15 finishes in 12 races, including five top 10s. Four of those top 10s came in consecutive races — a career best and a feat no other driver accomplished in the same stretch — and were capped off by Wallace’s first career Cup pole at Michigan International Speedway, which preceded an emotional runner-up performance.
Coming out of Kansas, Wallace has the best average finish over the last 10…
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