Bubba Wallace has revealed that he was helped by a surprise name in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta.
Wallace was the favorite to win the race for a good while in the final stage, leading the pack into the overtime and double-overtime restarts only to fall back in the green-white-chequered finish to finish the race eighth.
His 23XI Racing team-mate Tyler Reddick took over at the front and claimed his second win in a row to start the year, salvaging the evening for the organization – which now has the top two drivers in the points standings.
After the race, Wallace revealed that it was O'Reilly Series driver Rajah Caruth who he learned a few things from before climbing into his own car, with some striking similarities between the pair's races.
NASCAR RESULTS: Tyler Reddick takes incredible double overtime win at Altanta
Wallace: Pray for me at COTA
Both ended up leading a significant but not overwhelming number of laps on the day, finishing second in Stage 1 and first in Stage 2 – and with no practice session and qualifying rained out, Wallace had to draw on the experience of others rather than his own pre-race running.
Speaking on pit road after climbing out of the No. 23 car, he said: "Yeah, I’m just pumped that Toyota got in Victory Lane. I have to go back and see. I didn’t think I moved up that much to allow – to put myself up top, top of three. Unfortunate, but man, what a race car we had today.
"You know who I learned a lot from? Was Rajah yesterday. He had a bad fast car, and he finished second at first stage and won the second stage, just like me. And I was like, this car is so fast. Don’t do anything to jeopardize a good finish.
"And I hate that we didn’t get the win, but all in all, appreciate Xfinity. Man, what could have been. Go on to COTA, and pray for me there. We’ll have some fun."
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