Bubba Wallace picked a great time to score his first top 10 starting spot at the Texas Motor Speedway. The 23XI Racing driver went 188.337 mph in his No. 23 Toyota in the final round of qualifying on Saturday to score his second career NASCAR Cup Series pole. He’ll lead the field to green in Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN).
Wallace now has four top 10 starting spots in the last five races and after his first top 10 finish on the 1.44-mile track since his rookie start in April 2018.
He’ll be joined on the front row via Texan Chris Buescher. The Roush Fenway Racing driver went 188.081 mph for his second top 10 start here in the last three races. This is his first top five starting spot since Michigan in early August. It’s a race that he won too.
His teammate, Brad Keselowski (187.891 mph) gave RFK 2 of the top 3 starters. Keselowski now has 3 top 6 starting spots in the last 4 races on the season to go along with starting spots of 8th, 6th, 3rd, 7th, 1st in his previous 5 starts here as well.
Rookie Ty Gibbs (187.761 mph) and Ross Chastain (187.702 mph) rounded out the top five.
7 of the top 10 starters are playoff drivers. Kyle Larson (11th), Tyler Reddick (15th), Martin Truex Jr. (16th), William Byron (18th) and Ryan Blaney (23rd) failed to make the final round.
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