NASCAR CUP SERIES: FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400

August 7, 2022

Bubba Wallace

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Bubba Wallace finishes second. I saw you take a moment in the car here when you pulled up and just collecting your thoughts. What was going through your mind here as you pulled up and sat in the car?

BUBBA WALLACE: Just replaying everything I could have done. Took the top there on the restart. Thought I could hang with the 4, and just got to racing the 5 and the 22. And 22 did a good job of getting another Ford contract, helping a Ford win.

Just all in all an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wished we could have got Toyota in the victory lane. Wish we got McDonald's back in victory lane. She was fast all week, man. Just I'll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.

Q. I know you put a lot of pressure on yourself. You're obviously disappointed here. You said you would have done something different on that restart. What exactly move-wise would you have done different?

BUBBA WALLACE: Got clear of the 5 sooner. He was doing his part putting it on my quarter there, keeping me tight. And just the side-by-side here allows the 4 to get away. Could have taken the top, pushed the 4, and then I could have been the 5 in that scenario, right? Just hate it. Hate it for our team. It sucks.

Q. I saw Bootie Barker come up and talk to you, your crew chief, Denny Hamlin, your co-owner, what did they say to you?

BUBBA WALLACE: Just great job all weekend. It is a hell of a job for our team. There's a lot of positives in this, but I'm a person that looks at the negatives more than the positives. I need to change that, but I want to win so bad, and this was the best opportunity.

Q. You can tell Bubba really wanted this one.