Why Nashville is a crucial race for Bubba Wallace amid playoff push

In the heat of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Nashville may be one of the most important races of Bubba Wallace's career.

With the Chicago street course looming and the No. 23 team not putting forth a top-10 effort since Darlington on May 12, there's never been a better time for Wallace to put together one of the best runs of his career at a track that perfectly fits both him and 23XI Racing.

Wallace enters Sunday's Ally 400 17th on the Cup Series playoff grid, 13 points out of a playoff spot. The Mobile, Alabama native seemed primed to increase his advantage over the playoff cutline at New Hampshire with Joey Logano finishing 32nd, but Wallace instead countered with a 34th-place finish after a late-race run in with Noah Gragson.

With finishes of 12th and 15th in the two Next-Gen races at Nashville, Wallace has proven that he can run up front at the Tennessee track. With Logano struggling on intermediates so far this season, it's a golden opportunity for the No. 23 team to jump back into the provisional playoff picture.

Including Sunday's race at Nashville, just eight races remain in NASCAR's 26 race regular-season, and with six playoff spots still open, it's anyone's guess as to who will battle it out for the championship.

If Wallace wants to be included in the championship fight for the second consecutive season, however, Nashville is a pivotal race. While good tracks for Wallace's team in Pocono and Indianapolis lay down the road in July, one possible demon is looming large — the eccentric Chicago street race on July 7, where Wallace finished 31st one year ago.

There's no doubt that Wallace has improved on road-courses — even to the point where a 12th-place run at Watkins Glen helped gain him a playoff berth in 2023 — but with Chicago being a beast of its own, the outlook for the No. 23 team's day in the shadows of Chicago's skyscrapers is less than optimistic.

If Wallace can come out of Nashville with a top-15 effort and some stage points or better, it could set the No. 23 team up for a legitimate playoff push. If Nashville yields another poor day, however, it could spell doom for Wallace's chances of making the 16-driver playoff field.