NASCAR at Darlington Aug. - Sept. 2024: Bubba Wallace pole winner

and that's a driver of the number 23 Bubba Wallace Bubba um obviously coming coming into this weekend uh need to make up some ground check the first box with this pole win talk about how much confidence this gives you going into tomorrow night yeah um it's like I told Lee I think you know you looked at um us coming in and you know being on the ball 21 points out ton of pressure right well I think the pressure just switched so we're uh we're not here to mess around I I showed up with uh a more open and calm demeanor more free and relaxing demeanor but at the same time I don't want to be messed with um so it's it's a fine balance you got to walk so just uh appreciate the team you know we we unloaded we we we we did some changes um to the car like in the spring race and and it just wouldn't give me the right read going into quity qualifying so I told booty hey I need to be this to have a good qualifying lap and here we are so um just everybody on the 23 car everybody back at air speed both cars you're showing up with speed at at at Darlington for the southern 500 is is super cool I've I've been close here um I think once or twice in qualifying so to finally pull it out it's like finally we got it so um with all that being said you know the elephant in the room tomorrow is a whole different day um and I'm excited to uh to see what what tomorrow offers okay if you have a question for Bubba reg we'll get your mic start here to Holly and then go to Kelly yep Hol cane with the nasar wire service you you kind of just mentioned this but what kind of confidence does that give you that this was the first box you needed to tick and you you did it and and looking ahead I mean this has got to be exactly as you said how you wanted to start the weekend but saying and doing it are two different things and you did it yeah for sure uh to be honest with you I was pretty pissed off after practice and not being on the top that's I set the expectations pretty high and I was like we were sixth I was like God Almighty all right I wanted to make a statement and I didn't do that so I had to had to make that up and qualifying so uh you know it's it's it's good to be where we're at it's it's it's so hard at this level right um 17 on a qualified he's top 10 um but there's no free lunch you know it's that's one of boy's many saying one of his favorites you know every change you make or everything you do there's no free lunch there's nothing guaranteed on the other side so um I said that I said this couple weeks ago I after Richmond you know it's going to be a dog fight uh to the very end and I think that's what that's what makes us drivers all great is we we are excited to show up and compete and put it all on the line for our team our sponsors our our people that are working on these cars and um we get to do that tomorrow here in Darlington so um yeah the confidence is there uh you know I get to get humbled here in the next couple hours going back to race Legend car tonight against kelan so yeah I'll tell him I got a southern 500 poll he doesn't Kelly Kelly crle racer.com Bubba um you've started eighth or better I think now in five of your last six starts here you're working on four straight top 10 is there a feel or or Rhythm here that you feel like you've started to pick up on of uh of what has made you most so successful recently hell no I'm pound it off the fence round one and two just so Happ to work um it's it's this sport is where we're at now is so data driven and um you know Denny talks about that a lot you know how much we dive into data and it took me a while to just get on board with that but knowing how much Vital Information there is inside of all that data now you can get you know a little too much into the weeds and you have to kind of pick and pick and choose but we've we've been really good here in qualifying and we've also given up a really good race car of was trying too hard from what I'm hearing from data and just not getting back to the basics so today um I've determined that Darlington is probably one of the if not the hardest place to qualify um just the way you have to approach practice to qualifying trim it's it's totally different you know for example Kansas the first couple laps in practice you're damn near wide open qualifi fine you're wide open so it's close here you're finessing it in practice and then it's like hey good luck so uh it's all goes back to Jr John Vining uh our analytics group they uh they do a really good job of feeding us the right information to to translate that to On Track Performance I did want to ask so the run or the lap in the first round what was the battle between the head and the throttle pedal there of keeping your foot in it so I'm I'm sitting there and and uh I I remember um coming here a year ago right uh a year ago and we were pretty good in practice and Jr's like hey you need to be deeper on entry and I'm like okay I went out and qualified and I said here's deeper you're 18th or whatever and it's like it's not what I meant so you have to understand and you have to dive into what that actually means and uh we came here in the spring and my car was okay and I I made a move to the bottom and three and four not the bottom but the middle and that gave up our poll time so here we had a goal of make sure you run the fence in three and four and I looked up right before I qualified I looked at an email from our our analytics stuff and I said okay I got on the gas right here um in the spring so I'mma do that it's a little bit hotter little bit hotter track temp's up grip's not like it is in the spring and it caught me by surprise so um it's uh it's tough it's tough to to go out I mean Larson ran up 43 44 I don't know it was close right um and so I thought I definitely gave some up uh especially they're one and two on the second round um but the first round was just perfect Bob Bob pakas Fox Sports with you starting first and busher starting 10th does that give you any thought of okay there is a chance to gain enough stage points to make it a battle on points I mean yeah Anything Can Happen uh we've seen look at last week right U anything can happen so um we we have to run our own race it makes it a lot easier for us uh having that first pit stall um you know as long as we execute and and make the right calls you know do great on Pit Road then you know all all I want is every single person part of this team including myself is to go to bed tomorrow night saying we did whatever we could we did all we could and maybe it was good enough maybe it wasn't so that's a that's a lottery ticket we'll find out tomorrow after the race and is racing a Legends car part of doing all that you can or is that just to try to avoid distraction and just clear your head hell I got my ass kicked you were there Bob it bad I didn't need you to confirm that but um no I've I've I've Loved raceing Legend cars um I haven't been in one in over 5 years and it's totally different now and it's more frustrating U of not being able to jump back into it and being as competitive and successful as I was um but on the other side of that you know I'm a competitor I'll make anything a competition right I bet I can write a better article than you so you know it's it's just a competition thing don't take that it's kind of a joke I know I can't but I'm going make it competition um but it's just that that side of it is competing and and having fun with it all and and you know being around the kids there and you know funny we were talking about qualifying in the legend car and I said y'all ain't got nothing on qualifying Darlington and I was giving them just a little flavor of you know the difference between groups and what you have to do in the car and I'm glad I told him somewhat of the truth cuz it ended up working out today but just just going over there to race Legend cars to have fun clar when's our riding competition going to happen whenever our photo okay fair notice how he didn't say driving because he's already lost on that one you never know Claire beang watch it like to race kelen Harvick and coached by his dad and can you also talk about how good he is or what you see in him yeah you know he's competitive he's fast he's he's a sponge he he um he's a he's a cool little kid all the kids over there with Joe Ryan uh he's got a good group of of kids driving for him and you know me popping over there as the Elder Statesman I'm I'm telling them all what not to do cuz I've been in their shoes and uh every single one of them is competitive uh you got kits Miller over there uh it's uh it's cool to see you know and as much as it sucks running fourth and fifth to your teammates like that it's it's it's cool to see like it's cool to go back to uh being in those in that position when I was just a kid and figuring out like Darlington feels like D or um Florence feels like Daytona to them you know I remember showing up to the tracks in a legend car and you're like this is way too big right the speed just gets faster and faster but uh Keen does a great job obviously the Harvick family Kevin and Delena being there Piper's there as well um it's uh it's really really cool so excited to uh go over there tonight um and like I said earlier be humbled very quick hopefully we got it we got it dialed in so uh we'll see all in all having fun thank you any final questions for Bubba we'll end over here Chris Chris Weaver Fox8 High Point Bubba uh talking about going and racing other places like Florence well you're going to start next season at Bowman gry a place where you've run in the K&N series a couple of times I think you finished Sixth and second there when you think about that and and you think back on those exper that experience at Bowman gry and how those races went what do you expect on February the 2nd at bman gy Stadium when y'all show up well hopefully that's for The Clash right yeah that was obvious when they said they purchased a few months ago everybody knew that I don't know why they wait waited on announcing that um but man driver intros for bub Wallace is going to be incredible there I can't [Applause] wait passionate crowd there so it'll be fun uh it'll be it be wild I'm glad we're not flying out four hours out west coast you know um somehow some way they're going to count that as an off weekend because we're only in Winston Salem so we'll see congratulations Bubba good luck tomorrow I appreciate it Toyota Air Force air speed all that yep [Music] thanks all right there's the Checker CL great job driver