NASCAR CUP SERIES: NASCAR ALL-STAR OPEN

May 19, 2024

Bubba Wallace

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Bubba Wallace finishes second here. That means you'll be racing in the All-Star Race. So much time and effort goes into making the All-Star Race. What's it like knowing you're not guaranteed and you had to race hard there to make it?

BUBBA WALLACE: Yeah, well, we seen the rules change, it was like, hey, playoff guys usually made it. So it just made us work extra hard.

Appreciate everybody on this Alltroo Toyota Camry, everybody back at Air Speed. You have to earn every ride of this, so I can't say we deserve to -- I guess we deserve to be in the All-Star, but we've got to go fight for it every once in a while.

We're just lacking a little bit. Definitely different feel than what we had in practice. Got a little bit of time to make minimal changes to make it better, but all in all, we're in the show. Appreciate the 48 and the 4 running clean there. That was fun. That was short track stuff right there.

We were able to squeeze away there and hang on to second. But that's the most stressful spot to be in. You never want to look up in the mirror, and you know how good Josh is on short tracks, so it's like, hey, I kind of did some short track stuff, too, so I think I've got a little bit figured out, but we were able hang on and have a good day so far.

Q. That was like a 100-lap practice for you. Now you get to take all that knowledge into the All-Star Race. What did you learn and what did you tell your teammate Tyler Reddick when he just came up?

BUBBA WALLACE: Yeah, the balance migration was different. It caught both me and him when I told him by surprise. Need to have a debrief with the team, see if we can get the right rear underneath us a little bit more, but nonetheless, I thought the tires -- I don't know how the back of the pack looked, like different from our spot, but I know I was fighting it, so hope there was some passing and hopefully it's a good show for tonight, but we've got to make some changes if we want to win a million dollars.

Q. Last year you finished second. Get one spot better tonight?

BUBBA WALLACE: We came from the back last year, so let's do it again.