New Hampshire finish leaves Bubba Wallace smiling

LOUDON, N.H. — For once, nothing broke, backfired or needed to be explained by Bubba Wallace and his 23XI Racing team. 

“It’s been hell for me the last month,” he told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon after his third-place finish Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It’s actually been more like two months for Wallace and his team.

But Sunday was a day where things went right. Wallace scored his third top-10 finish of the season and his best result since placing second in the Daytona 500.

“We’ve had a lot of speed all year, and we’ve had cars capable of that,” Wallace said. “It’s finally good to see that come to fruition. That’s what our races can be like if we continue to do that. 

“Just take a page out of this book for everybody on the team to learn from. Myself, I made a lot of mistakes today, especially in the last 20 laps just trying not to lose focus. You’ve got two of the best behind you in (Kevin) Harvick and (Martin) Truex. 

“It’s all about hitting your marks. I can go back and watch and know how to do better. I’m sure we can do better, bringing a better car. We did excellent today, I’m proud of everybody, but you can always get better, right?”

His last top 10 was two months ago at Kansas, but that 10th-place finish was not a highlight for the team. Wallace had one of the faster cars that day but two pit road penalties sent him to back each time. Wallace left the track frustrated, telling NBC Sports that his “pit crew sucks.”

Two weeks later, Wallace’s car suffered minor damage in an incident shortly before the end of the second stage at the Coca-Cola 600. Because Wallace was involved in an incident, he was on the damaged vehicle policy and had three laps to get to minimum speed. The team told him to hang back from the