By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Sunday wasn’t a win for Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., but it was a day of joy for Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 team.
Following a 25-race 2019 season without a top-10 finish, Wallace held off top equipment to score a third-place finish in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The result was his first top five since the 2018 Daytona 500 and his fourth top 10 in 66 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts. More than anything, it was a confidence boost for the struggling mid-pack organization.
“We can do it. It’s just a matter of the last star that we’ve been missing,” Wallace said. “We run good and then not get the finish we deserve. This one was that fifth star flashing solid from the time we unloaded to the time the checkered flag. If we can have runs like that, we can generate more funding and resources and get our cars better.”
Busting through the middle of the playoff drivers, Wallace held off friend Ryan Blaney to compete the podium spots after 400 miles.
Though unexpected by most, Wallace had a memory from his racing past when he restarted third behind Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano with nine laps to go.
“Nine years ago, we won at Lee Speedway when I restarted third and Ryan Truex and Eddie MacDonald were the front row,” he reminisced. “I said under the pace laps that these guys are going to overdrive Turn 1 and I’m going to take the lead. That happened.
“Now, this is a different game plan. This is Joey and Kevin. But I started — these guys are going to go down into… somewhere. And it lined up perfectly! They went into Turn 3 and I was like, ‘Yes!’ And they all made it out and I was like, ‘Dammit. That’s it.’
“I almost game planned another one but not quite.”
Even from opening practice Saturday, Wallace knew the potential was there to have a season-best afternoon.
“I thought we were a top-12 car after practice,” he said. “We qualified 15th. We got up to 10th and was riding 11th for quite a bit. Our balance was close. We just didn’t have the speed in our cars to compete for the win like that.
“All-in-all, a hell of a week. Looking at the guys we race around every week, I don’t even see them on the pylon. It’s a win-win, I’ll take it.”
Leaving Indy 27th in driver points and no playoff spot, improvement is still on the hit list for driver No. 43.
“There is still stuff you won’t know,” he said of the struggles. “All we continue to do is climb up that Mt. Everest hill. We keep knocking another block off and another step off and putting great runs together.
“My mom told me yesterday, she said, ‘When you win, tell them haters to kiss those bricks.’ Kiss my bricks.”