Wallace, who drives the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, entered the 2023 playoffs without a win or any playoff points so advancing out of the first round was going to be a challenge.
He started with a seventh-place finish at Darlington but a wreck and 32nd place effort last week at Kansas left him one of the most likely to be eliminated at Bristol.
A difficult 14th place finish Saturday, combined with bad races by former series champions Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick, allowed Wallace to move on to the Round of 12 by four points.
And he continues to embrace those who would prefer not to see him succeed.
“I love that (expletive) right there – counting us out,” Wallace said referring to boos coming from the crowd. “Like (U.S. Open winner) Coco Gauff said, ‘All they’re doing is adding fuel to the fire. I love it.
“I love where I’m at with this team. Wish my mom, dad, sister were here to celebrate with me. I mean, (it’s been) a career year. Just got to keep it going.”
At this point, Wallace can’t finish any worse than 12th overall in the series standings, even without a victory so far. His best effort prior to this season was 21st in 2021.
Since the advent of stage racing in NASCAR, Wallace is one of only three drivers – Alex Bowman (2018) and Clint Bowyer (2019) are the others – to advance to the Round of 12 despite not having any playoff points.
What that means is Wallace’s continued participation in the playoffs won’t come easy.
There is some good news, however.
Toyotas in general have been very competitive on intermediate tracks such as next weekend’s race at Texas. He has performed well on superspeedways and owns a Cup victory at Talladega, the second race of the next round.
“We know next week’s a reset. We just got to go out and have some fun, work our asses of,” he said. “Thank you to the ones that believe in me. Keep it going. Yeah, on to next week.”
