Bubba Wallace's Winless Streak Mounts As He Clings To Playoff Spot

Bubba Wallace didn’t make the playoffs last year and sits on the brink again this year with eight races left in the regular season.

Bubba Wallace waves to the fans prior to the running of the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400

He can look at his precarious position. He's 23 points ahead of Ryan Preece for the final playoff spot on points with a good possibility that other drivers could win, decreasing the number of drivers who make it on points. This could happen in two ways:

— In 18 races, he has failed to finish six of them. That would tell a driver that this wouldn’t be his year, that the racing gods have decided that this would be the year the driver would end up in wrecks.

— Or despite those lack of finishes, it is a little bit remarkable that he actually still sits above the playoff cutline. No other driver above the cutline has more than three DNFs, except for Ryan Blaney, who also has six.

Predictably, Wallace has endured a rollercoaster of a season when it comes to his finishes. He has six top 10s, then six finishes of 28th or worse.

After three consecutive weeks of wrecking out of races, Wallace appeared to have gotten his season back on track with a sixth at Nashville, a fourth at Michigan and a respectable 12th at Mexico City.

But a brake failure at Pocono resulted in a 36th-place finish and then damage from an early wreck at Atlanta relegated him to 22nd.

Wallace has tried to put on a good face. 

Bubba Wallace looks on during pre-race ceremonies prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Viva Mexico 250 

He has been racing legends cars (small cars that are often used to teach pre-teens and early teens how to race) in a masters division during the week. A new father as of last fall, having a son probably helps take his