Bubba Wallace has opened up on the most memorable moment from his maiden NASCAR Cup Series win.
The 23XI Racing star took victory in his first season for the team in 2021, earning his first trip to victory lane at the fall race at Talladega that year.
The race itself was far from normal, being pushed back from Sunday to Monday because of rain before, even then, being shortened by 71 of its planned 188 laps due to rain persisting.
In Jeff Gluck's '12 Questions' feature for The Athletic, Wallace likened the last 20 laps of his race to a video game, after crew chief Bootie Barker told him that he could stop saving fuel and start to open up fully to go for the race win.
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Wallace: 'Handcuffs off, go ahead'
"It was crazy," he recalled. "With 20-something laps to go, Bootie said we needed to save fuel to start the run – and then it was just like, 'All right, you’re good, go ahead'.
"We jumped to the top and went to the lead like it was a video game. It was weird. No one really pulled up to block us.
"I had Kurt [Busch] behind me helping, and then I dropped down behind Ricky [Stenhouse Jr.] because I thought the run had died out, and then we fell back and got back up there.
"But I vividly remember that moment – it was like the handcuffs were off, go ahead. We went from like 20th to the lead like it was nothing. Of course, I couldn’t win it in a normal fashion (since it was rain-shortened). Had to be rain delayed and all that. So it’s kind of fitting for me."
Unfortunately, Wallace wasn't so fortunate in the 2026 spring race at the same track last Sunday – running up front until he was turned by an attempted push, sparking the Big One and ending his race more or less on the spot.
To his credit, the 23XI driver took on his share of blame for the incident, saying: “We’ve got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. We’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better being pushed and maybe not have that happen.”
NASCAR Cup Series results from 2026 Talladega spring race
| Pos | Driver (Car No.) | Team (Manufacturer) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carson Hocevar (77) | Spire Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 2 | Chris Buescher (17) | RFK Racing (Ford) |
| 3 | Alex Bowman (48) | Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 4 | Chase Elliott (9) | Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 5 | Zane Smith (38) | Front Row Motorsports (Ford) |
| 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47) | HYAK Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 7 | Ross Chastain (1) | Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 8 | Austin Cindric (2) | Team Penske (Ford) |
| 9 | Noah Gragson (4) | Front Row Motorsports (Ford) |
| 10 | Kyle Busch (8) | Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 11 | Todd Gilliland (34) | Front Row Motorsports (Ford) |
| 12 | Daniel Suarez (7) | Spire Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 13 | Ty Dillon (10) | Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 14 | Tyler Reddick (45) | 23XI Racing (Toyota) |
| 15 | Denny Hamlin (11) | Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) |
| 16 | AJ Allmendinger (16) | Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 17 | Christopher Bell (20) | Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) |
| 18 | Ryan Preece (60) | RFK Racing (Ford) |
| 19 | Austin Dillon (3) | Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 20 | Shane Van Gisbergen (97) | Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 21 | Cody Ware (51) | Rick Ware Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 22 | John Hunter Nemechek (42) | Legacy Motor Club (Toyota) |
| 23 | Erik Jones (43) | Legacy Motor Club (Toyota) |
| 24 | Daniel Dye (78) | Live Fast Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 25 | Riley Herbst (35) | 23XI Racing (Toyota) |
| 26 | Connor Zilisch (88) | Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 27 | Jesse Love (33) | Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet) |
| 28 | Chad Finchum (66) | Garage 66 (Ford) |
| 29 | Chase Briscoe (19) | Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) |
| 30 | Joey Gase (44) | NY Racing Team (Chevrolet) |
| 31 | Brad Keselowski (6) | RFK Racing (Ford) |
| 32 | Michael McDowell (71) | Spire Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 33 | Josh Berry (21) | Wood Brothers Racing (Ford) |
| 34 | Ty Gibbs (54) | Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) |
| 35 | William Byron (24) | Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
| 36 | Bubba Wallace (23) | 23XI Racing (Toyota) |
| 37 | Ryan Blaney (12) | Team Penske (Ford) |
| 38 | Cole Custer (41) | Haas Factory Team (Chevrolet) |
| 39 | Joey Logano (22) | Team Penske (Ford) |
| 40 | Kyle Larson (5) | Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) |
NASCAR RESULTS: Carson Hocevar takes epic first Cup Series victory at Talladega
