Through the first five races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, 17 of the 36 full-time drivers had secured at least one top five finish, and although 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace was not one of them, he still found himself in second place in the point standings.
Wallace led the series in stage points with 53, and he also led the series in best worst finish; he was one of three drivers with five top 20 finishes in five races, and he was the only driver who hadn't finished lower than 11th.
But after starting second at Darlington Raceway and running up front early on, he was caught up in an incident involving team co-owner Denny Hamlin and Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones in the second stage, and he was never able to recover.
Bubba Wallace loses best worst finish distinction at Darlington
The driver of the No. 23 Toyota was scored in 34th place out of 37 cars, five laps off the lead lap by the time the 293-lap Goodyear 400 came to an end around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) Darlington, South Carolina oval.
With Team Penske's Austin Cindric finishing fifth, 18 of the 36 drivers (really 35, given Alex Bowman's ongoing medical absence) have now scored at least one top five finish this year, and Wallace is still among those searching for his first.
But Wallace still finds himself in third in the standings, with only Team Penske's Ryan Blaney having moved ahead of him on Sunday with a third place finish.
Wallace was still able to score seven stage points, giving him a series-best 60 through six races, before being involved in the incident, although his average finish took a hit. It dropped from 8.8, which was second best in the series, to 13.0, which only ranks eighth.
Wallace is now 120 points behind teammate Tyler Reddick, winner of four of the season's first six races, for the points lead, but perhaps more notably, he is 25 points behind Blaney for second, whereas only 23 points separate Wallace and the six drivers from fourth to ninth in the standings.
Consistency has been key for Wallace so far in 2026, but as the Goodyear 400 showed, consistency alone cannot be relied upon to cancel out poor results for an extended period of time, especially when that consistency has yet to produce a true top-tier result; any more bad races for Wallace, and he could find himself dropping down the standings by more than just a single spot.
As it stands, he still has a healthy 66-point gap over the playoff cut line, between the 16th and 17th place drivers. Wallace has made the playoffs twice in his career, first on points in 2023 and then via his Brickyard 400 win a year ago.
Reddick is now the driver with the best worst finish of the season, that being his 13th place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He also boasts the series' best average finish, that being 4.2. RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski is the only other driver with six top 20 finishes in six races so far in 2026.
Sunday's Cook Out 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Martinsville Speedway starting at 3:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's seventh race!