Bubba Wallace looks to have winning feeling again at Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Five years ago, Bubba Wallace waited for phone calls to race.

Today, he’ll lead the Cup field to the green flag at Michigan International Speedway (3 p.m. ET on USA Network). Four races remain in the regular season and Wallace needs a win to make the playoffs.

But this 2-mile track has the chance to provide another special memory for Wallace — just as it did five years ago.

Wallace’s 2017 season was short-circuited by lack of sponsorship in the Xfinity Series, leading Roush Fenway Racing to park his team after 12 races. 

Wallace did run four Cup races for an injured Aric Almirola. When Almirola returned to the No. 43 ride, Wallace again was left to look for a ride.

He got the chance to drive in the Truck race at Michigan in August 2017. Wallace led the final 11 laps to win that race, which saw Christopher Bell finish second and Kyle Busch place third. 

Wallace calls that Truck race “one of the biggest races in my career.” The victory was his first NASCAR national series win since 2014 and showed him “that I still got it.”

He needed that after wondering where his career was headed.

“When they pull the plug (on your team) and you’re sitting on the couch and you’re reevaluating life, and then you get one opportunity to come out and capitalize on it and you do that, it’s emotional for sure.”

Wallace, in his second season with 23XI Racing, enters today’s Cup race having scored a top 10 in each of the last three races. With Chase Elliott’s top-10 streak ending at six last weekend, Wallace owns the longest active top-10 streak in the series. 

While that seems minor, it’s significant for a team that has had pit road miscues, a strategy mistake in the Coca-Cola 600 and failed to finish five races this year.

Ther