Bubba Wallace looks to continue superspeedway run at Talladega

Bubba Wallace can join an elite group of drivers this weekend, and if he does, he likely will use an unconventional strategy to do so.

Wallace comes to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend as the track’s most recent Cup winner, scoring his first career series win in last year’s playoff race.

A runner-up finish at Daytona preceded that Talladega win and a runner-up finish in this year’s Daytona 500 followed it. Sunday, Wallace goes for his fourth consecutive top-two finish at a superspeedway race at Daytona and Talladega.

Only four drivers have accomplished that feat. Three are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame: Cale Yarborough (who did it twice), Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt. One other to reach that milestone was Ernie Irvan. Jarrett was the last to do so, completing his mark in the 2000 Daytona 500.

To score such results, it would seem that a driver would spend much of the race at or near the front. That hasn’t been the case with Wallace. 

By design.

While Wallace had solid results at Daytona and Talladega shortly after moving to Cup — he finished second in the 2018 Daytona 500 — he admits that he still needed to make better decisions in those races.

“We had speed the rest of the races, and I would make dumb moves and take us out of contention or just be caught up in somebody else’s mess,” he said. “So I just kind of took it as, ‘Hey we fight like hell at the beginning. Wherever we start, if we can get to the lead, get there. If we lose it, we lose it, it’s fine. 

“We don’t need to be in the eye of the storm to get our spots back because it’s not worth it. We’d like to get stage points, but at the end of the day, getting a race win is the most important thing for us.”

It worked last year at Talladega. 

He took his time to