Bubba Wallace Makes History with Electrifying Brickyard 400 Win
Bubba Wallace jumped out of the No. 23 car on Sunday, pumping his fists in celebration, rushing to his family, and soaking in every epic second of his Brickyard 400 triumph. And boy, he earned every bit of it.
The 31-year-old driver battled through an 18-minute rain delay, two nail-biting overtimes, a serious fuel scare, and the relentless pressure from defending champ Kyle Larson to make history at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Wallace is now the first Black driver to win a major race on the track’s iconic 2.5-mile oval. While no Black driver has yet won the Indianapolis 500, and Formula 1 events are held on the venue’s road course, this victory was monumental.
"This one's really cool," Wallace said. "Coming off Turn 4, I knew I was gonna get there — unless we ran out of gas. I was surprised I wasn’t crying like a little baby."
This marked Wallace’s third career NASCAR Cup Series victory, and his first win among the sport’s four crown jewels — the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500, and now the Brickyard 400. It also ended a 100-race drought dating back to his Kansas win in 2022. His first-ever victory came at Talladega in 2021.
The finish? A razor-thin 0.222-second margin — but that number didn’t show the chaos behind the scenes.
With 14 laps to go, Wallace had built a 5.057-second cushion, but Larson cut that to just three seconds before a rain caution reset everything. As the cars came to a halt with four laps left, Wallace had to mentally gear up — and stay sharp.
"The whole time I’m thinking, are we going or not?" he recalled. "I kept telling myself, ‘Be ready. Don’t get comfortable.’"
And he was. On the first restart, Wallace outpaced Larson through Turn 2, but a wreck behind them triggered a second overtime, and Wallace’s team had to do some quick math: Did they have enough fuel?
Wallace didn’t flinch.
"My first thought was, ‘Here we go again,’" he said. "But then I told myself, ‘I want to win this straight up. Let’s go racing.’ And we did."
He nailed the restart again, pulled away from Larson, and crushed his bid to become the race’s fourth repeat winner.
This win also helped wash away the sting from Saturday’s qualifying, where Wallace led for most of the session until Chase Briscoe snatched the No. 1 starting spot with one of the final runs.
Come Sunday, Wallace made damn sure there’d be no repeat disappointment. His win gave a massive morale jolt to 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and last week’s race winner Denny Hamlin, as they continue a fierce legal battle with NASCAR over charter status.
"Those last 20 laps were an emotional rollercoaster," Wallace admitted. "At one point, I told myself I wasn’t going to pull it off. But then I saw it was Larson. He’s the guy who won here last year and might be the best out there. To beat the best, we had to be the best today."
Meanwhile, the side event — the first-ever In-Season Challenge — went to Ty Gibbs, who topped Ty Dillon thanks to a better car both in qualifying and on race day. Though Gibbs finished 21st, that was enough to secure the win in the March Madness-style elimination tournament, earning him a $1 million payday.
Dillon, the unexpected Cinderella story who squeezed into the finals as the 32nd seed, came in 28th.
"They gave me these money guns, but they jammed," laughed Gibbs. "So I just grabbed all the cash and started throwing it to the fans — and they went wild! Wrestling and fighting for it. It was awesome. This whole experience is just super cool."