{"id":43472,"date":"2023-09-23T16:06:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T21:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=43472"},"modified":"2023-09-23T16:09:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T21:09:03","slug":"wallace-earns-pole-for-autotrader-echopark-automotive-400-at-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/23\/wallace-earns-pole-for-autotrader-echopark-automotive-400-at-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallace earns pole for Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of TMS Media Relations<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 Championship contender Bubba Wallace opened the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 in promising fashion by earning the pole position in Saturday\u2019s qualifying for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on September 23, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wallace, driver of the No. 23 McDonald\u2019s Toyota for 23XI Racing, posted a lap speed of 188.337 miles per hour (28.672 seconds) in the final round of qualifying to earn his first pole position of the season and second of his career. His other pole came last August at Michigan International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Wallace, the final seed in the field of 12 playoff drivers, will lead the 36-car field to the green flag for Sunday\u2019s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 beginning at 2:30 p.m. (TV: USA, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best track position right now, but we know with strategy, everything is going to change and evolve (tomorrow),\u201d Wallace said. \u201cWe are going to get behind at some point, so it is just a matter of making the most of every situation that we are in. Right now, we start on the pole, if we lead all the laps \u2013 some people may pit and cut it. You are going to get behind at some point, so we\u2019ve got to figure out how to get back up there, but you can\u2019t get complacent on the small victories. It takes a lot of them to get to a big victory, but it\u2019s a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace easily topped his previously best starting position at Texas Motor Speedway of 10th, which came in the spring race of 2019, in eight career starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas I expecting it? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cIn qualifying, I tend to try too hard and overthink things. I need to stop that and just go out and do. So that was a good surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on September 23, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wallace, the last driver to qualify in the 10-driver final round of qualifying, edged out Prosper, Texas native Chris Buescher of RFK Racing. Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford, ran a lap of 188.081 mph (28.711), which was .039 of a second shy of Wallace\u2019s pole-winning time. The qualifying run was his best of the season, topping his fourth at Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was definitely encouraging. It stinks to get bumped by the last car at the end like that,\u201d said Buescher. \u201cThat is a bummer. But it is the first part of the weekend. Our Fastenal Mustang had a ton of speed there in qualifying and it is our best qualifying effort of the year so I am really proud of that. I am proud to have both the RFK Fords up here. It is a good start for us at a track that we have been looking forward to for a long time. It is hot and slick and we were still able to put good speed down, so I am happy with that. It is a good start for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the front row, playoff contenders took four of the top five positions overall as Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing will start third and Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing fifth. Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing prevented the playoff driver sweep by qualifying fourth.<\/p>\n

Three other playoff drivers will start among the top 10 as Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing qualified seventh, Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing was 9th and JGR teammate Denny Hamlin was 10th. Hamlin advanced to the final round of qualifying but was forced to abort his qualifying lap.<\/p>\n

That left five playoff drivers outside of the top 10, including three failing to crack the top 15. Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports qualified 11th, Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing was 15th, second-seeded Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing was 16th, top-seeded William Byron of Henrick Motorsports was 18th and Ryan Blaney of Team Penske was 23rd.<\/p>\n

Retiring Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing will start 22nd in his track-record 39th and final Cup appearance at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT: Texas Motor Speedway\u2019s opens the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs with today\u2019s Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 300 (TV: USA, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM), which is currently underway. Playoff contender Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports started from the pole to lead the field to the green.<\/p>\n

Texas Motor Speedway\u2019s always-busy events schedule is well under way. Upcoming events in 2023 include: Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 NASCAR Playoffs weekend (Sept. 23-24), Goodguys\u2019 Summit Racing Lone Start Nationals (Sept. 29-Oct. 1), Speedway Children\u2019s Charities Smoke Show (Oct. 11) and Gordy\u2019s Hwy 30 Music Fest (Oct. 19-22). The year wraps up with the family-favorite and speedway tradition Gift of Lights holiday light show.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WallaceNCS092323-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of TMS Media Relations FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 Championship contender Bubba Wallace opened the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 in promising fashion by earning the pole position in Saturday\u2019s qualifying for the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Wallace, driver of the No. 23 McDonald\u2019s Toyota for 23XI Racing, posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":43418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-43472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1697291429-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bja","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43473,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43472\/revisions\/43473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}