NASCAR: 3 lessons learned from Bubba Wallace’s first win

Lesson No. 3:  The win counted, and it always will

In most scenarios, fans want to see a race run to its full distance. More importantly, it’s easy to imagine that most drivers want to see their first victory come by crossing the finish line on the last lap.

Even though this wasn’t the case for Bubba Wallace, it shouldn’t discredit his win or consider it non-existent.

Wallace has been a controversial figure when it comes to NASCAR’s fanbase in recent seasons, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that if/when he broke through with his first win, subjective responses from fans would be a factor.

While it doesn’t serve any purpose to highlight the divide, a simple search of Bubba Wallace on any social media platform will echo this.

What shouldn’t be an argument is that Wallace’s win wasn’t “real” or “he didn’t earn it.” If that were the case, the Xfinity Series race just prior to Wallace’s win wouldn’t have counted, when Brandon Brown earned his first career victory due to the race being called early due to darkness.

On the Cup Series side, NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, scored his first victory of the season when the inaugural race at Circuit of the Americas was called early due to rain back in May.

Rain wins are bittersweet instances in the sport, but NASCAR had lost the track even more after it had been declared that the track was lost.

As noted with Brown’s victory in the Xfinity Series, Talladega Superspeedway doesn’t have lights surrounding the track, and between the weather and darkness looming, there wasn’t any logistical window in which NASCAR could have fit the remainder of the race.

The only option was to call it, and just like any other rain-shortened NASCAR win, Wallace’s win was official since he was first on the scoring grid.

Regardless of opinion, Wallace now is a winner in the Cup Series. He made history in more ways than one, and none of it can be taken back, nor will it.