NASCAR: ‘Raining’ winner Bubba Wallace returns to Talladega

Bubba Wallace is set to return to the venue where he secured his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory in a rain-shortened race last October.

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace has never crossed the finish line and taken the checkered flag as a NASCAR Cup Series race winner.

But the driver of Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s #23 Toyota is indisputably a race winner after the series’ most recent trip to Talladega Superspeedway early last October.

Rain caused the initially scheduled 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama to be postponed from Sunday, October 3 to Monday, October 4, and rain was also in the forecast for the latter.

But the race became official after reaching the halfway point following lap 94.

Shortly thereafter, a multi-car wreck on the backstretch on lap 99 led to a caution flag period, with more rain looming. But the race got restarted on lap 104 and ran green for 13 laps before another multi-car wreck. Wallace found himself in the lead when the caution flag flew, and the rain started to fall.

The rain picked up, and with no sign of letting up, it did not take long for NASCAR to call the race after lap 117. Wallace was essentially told he was the race winner, netting him the first win of his Cup Series career in his 143rd start.

There are no two ways around the fact that Wallace is a Cup Series race winner.

But we’ve all heard the noise since then, whether it be that Wallace still hasn’t won a “real” race or that he needs to win a full race to “prove himself”. Some even joked that “look, it’s raining!” when he took the lead late in February’s season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

And make no mistake about it; while nothing will change the fact that he has his first Cup Series win under his belt, Wallace also hears the noise. And there’s no doubt that winning a full race would go a long way in silencing the doubters — or, at the very least, forcing them to find something else to complain about.

The 28-year-old Mobile, Alabama native has proven to be a regular contender in superspeedway races, and that should make him a threat this weekend as he returns to Talladega Superspeedway as the reigning — or “raining” — winner.

He won his first stage at Talladega Superspeedway last April before going on to finish in second place at Daytona International Speedway in August, just over a month before his rain shortened win.

He finished in second place in this year’s Daytona 500, missing out on the win by just 0.036 seconds behind Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric. It was his second runner-up finish in the Daytona 500, his third second place finish at the track, and his fourth top five finish there.

And in the quasi-superspeedway race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he ran second behind race winner William Byron until a multi-car wreck coming to the checkered flag left him in 13th place.

But Wallace is still seeking that true victory feeling, that feeling of crossing the finish line ahead of the pack with the checkered flag in the hand of the flagger.

The GEICO 500 is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, April 24. Start your free trial of FuboTV and don’t miss any of the action!