Nashville – Syndication Server

Wolfe felt fuel gamble was ‘worth the risk’ in Nashville

Paul Wolfe came close to calling Joey Logano down pit road for fuel before the final overtime attempt at Nashville Superspeedway but figured the team had gone that far, and it was worth the gamble to stick it out. Logano made it work and drove a …

Logano made it work and drove a stumbling fuel tank across the finish line for the No. 22 team’s first win. A win that cliches the Team Penske group a spot in the postseason instead of bouncing around the bubble spot.

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Wolfe and Logano went 110 laps on their final tank of fuel. A rash of cautions in the final stage, including five overtime attempts, helped make the risk pay off.

“It was (a hard decision to stay on track), and I was so close to calling him down that last one because, at that point, you’re only so accurate,” Wolfe said. “My engineers are figuring the fuel mileage manually, and then we have simulations tools and things predicting how many laps we can run, which is based … you can tell when the engine’s running how much Joey’s saving. And they weren’t totally lining up. But I went with the one that told us we could run the longest. But that last one, that one said we were running out, so at that point, it was very tough.

“I thought it was worth the risk. It’s hard … I know we’re on the points cuff, but you have to figure over the next few weeks someone else is going to win a race, and then it’s all about winning, I feel like. So, I think that made the decision a little easier knowing someone else behind us in points is pretty likely to win a race with all the different style tracks coming up as we lead into the playoffs.”

The fuel window for Nashville Superspeedway is approximately 80 laps. But with Logano running in the middle of the field as opposed to in clean air as the leader, plus the caution periods, the variables fell his way.

Logano was running 15th with 15 laps to go (lap 285) in the race’s scheduled distance. His final pit stop was on lap 221, when the team also elected to take two tires. When the caution came out with two laps to go, setting up the first overtime, Logano restarted seventh, having moved up in the running order because of those who pitted in front of him and through the choose rule.

For the second and third overtime attempts, Logano restarted fifth. He moved into third position at the time of the caution that set up the fourth overtime restart, and he was the leader for that attempt because Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. had to pit for fuel in front of him.

Logano held serve on the fourth and fifth overtime restarts. But as he crossed the finish line, he told his team he was out of fuel. And yet, somehow, Logano returned to do a burnout before going to victory lane.

“We felt good it was full when we made that last stop, and at that point, I think we said we were 10 laps to the good,” Wolfe said. “If it ran regular distance, we felt we could run to (lap) 310. The first overtime, my guys were like, ‘We’re all right. We can maybe do one more.’ Then another one came, and it was like, we’re pushing it, but I think we can do it.

“Then after the second one, yeah, it was nerve-wracking for sure. By the last one, I was kind of numb to it at that point. I’m like, ‘It is what it is.’ I said, ‘If you feel it stumble, bring it to us.’ It was a big roller coaster of emotions there going through all those late-race overtime cautions.”

Dominant Bell on Nashville defeat: ‘I lost my cool’

Christopher Bell admitted that he “lost (his) cool” before crashing in the final stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. Bell was the dominant car in the Ally 400. In addition to sweeping both stages, Bell led a …

Christopher Bell admitted that he “lost (his) cool” before crashing in the final stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.

Bell was the dominant car in the Ally 400. In addition to sweeping both stages, Bell led a race-high 131 laps before his incident.

But a caution on lap 219 changed his afternoon. Bell came down pit road in second position, having lost the lead to Tyler Reddick after the two battled side-by-side for a handful of laps. When the caution came out, NASCAR deemed Reddick was ahead of Bell.

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On pit road, Bell’s No. 20 team elected for four tires. He came off pit road seventh before Reddick, who also took four tires. The five drivers in front of them, however, had elected for either two tires or fuel only. There were also five drivers who stayed on track.

The turn of events buried Bell in the pack for the restart. He restarted 13th and was running 15th when he lost control in Turn 2, spun, and hit the outside wall with the driver’s side of his Toyota.

“I just put myself in a pretty bad spot going into Turn 1,” said Bell, who finished 36th. “I got bottled up there and just lost my cool to make something happen, and I put myself in a bad spot and spun out.”

The result is the first blemish on the stat sheet for Bell in two months. Not since the race at Dover Motor Speedway (April 28) had he finished outside the top 13. In that time frame, Bell led 462 laps, won two races and seven stages. Bell now leads the series in playoff points and is tied with a series-leading three victories.

“It’s disappointing, but there’s a lot to be positive about,” Bell said of Nashville. “We won two stages, so we got more playoff points, which is really good. And the performance of our team is doing really well, so hopefully, we can keep the ball rolling, and I think we can win a lot more races.”

One restart too many for Hamlin in Nashville

Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing team held the lead until the fuel tank ran dry at Nashville Superspeedway and ended their chances at a victory. Hamlin led the Ally 400 when the caution flew before the white flag in the scheduled distance. Austin …

Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing team held the lead until the fuel tank ran dry at Nashville Superspeedway and ended their chances at a victory.

Hamlin led the Ally 400 when the caution flew before the white flag in the scheduled distance. Austin Cindric spun on the backstretch after contact with Noah Gragson. He’d taken the lead with seven laps to go after chasing down Ross Chastain from over two seconds behind when the pit cycle settled the leaderboard.

Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief, told his driver they had enough fuel for one overtime attempt. Hamlin made it through three before having to pit before the restart for the fourth attempt, ultimately finishing the race in 12th.

“We ran out there under that caution,” Hamlin said of the third overtime attempt.

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“He (Gabehart) was monitoring fuel pressure or I let him know what the fuel pressure was, so we were fine with just running out of gas, and we did under caution,” Hamlin said. “It was the right call. I was going down pitlane there out of gas. I’m surprised we lasted that many green-white-checkers, honestly. Certainly, it stinks being 15 seconds from a win at the end and, then 10 seconds from a win at the end, and then to finish 12th. It’s just part of it.”

The first overtime attempt didn’t make it through the first two corners. Hamlin led the way with Ross Chastain to his outside and Kyle Larson in the bottom lane behind Hamlin’s Toyota. Larson washed up the track and collided with Chastain.

The second overtime attempt made it to the backstretch where a multi car crash broke out. On the third attempt, Larson didn’t launch in the outside lane and stacked up the field, which resulted in Kyle Busch being spun. Hamlin held the lead through all three restarts.

But Hamlin and his team knew their window was quickly closing. Hamlin was continually coached about saving fuel and switching to different fuel pumps. During the second overtime, Gabehart conceded there was no need to pit because it wouldn’t win the race, so they would run until the car was out of fuel (with three wins already, it wasn’t a dire situation).

When the caution came out to set up the fourth overtime attempt, Gabehart honestly told his driver they would not win the race. Hamlin admitted that was a “bummer” but understood the situation.

“That’s NASCAR Cup series racing,” he said. “Once you get into one of these green-white-checkers, it’s just going to be chaos, and everyone is just going to run into each other. That’s just part of it. You know there’s multiple green-white-checkers coming, and certainly, when we’re strategizing for a race, you can’t really predict for that.

“So, we just needed Cindric not to spin out the first time, and this would have been over. But it’s part of racing.”

Commanders, D.C., attempting to bring NFL draft to the city

Could the NFL draft be coming to Washington?

The NFL announced this week that Pittsburgh would host the 2026 NFL draft. Next year’s NFL draft will take place in Green Bay.

Dallas, Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Las Vegas and Detroit have hosted the draft since it went on the road in 2015. For years, the NFL draft was held in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.

With the next two host cities known, the 2027 NFL draft is the next one up for grabs. Which NFL city could be the next host?

If the Washington Commanders have a say, it will be in Washington, D.C.

According to Nicki Jhabvala and Mark Maske of The Washington Post, D.C. representatives and Commanders officials are vying to host the event and are confident they can land it in 2027.

As expected, the District will have plenty of competition.

But while several of those connected to the D.C. effort are confident that Washington will be selected as the site of an NFL draft in the coming years, others within the league cautioned that the competition is intense, as many cities with NFL franchises aspire to be picked to host the popular and increasingly lucrative event.

Per the Post’s report, the Commanders were among 12 teams in Detroit at the 2024 NFL draft to conduct site surveys.

The draft has proven to be an economic boom to each of the previous host cities, so landing the draft would be good for D.C. and the Commanders. With Dan Snyder no longer in the picture, Washington’s chances have dramatically improved.

Brandt Snedeker’s childhood municipal golf course is getting a $2 million upgrade

“It’s in dire need of an upgrade … We have a jewel here that has kind of been underserved the last 15 to 20 years.”

NASHVILLE — Brandt Snedeker pointed out Thursday that Shelby Golf Course, where he often played as a youth, is the least-played course in the Metro Parks system in this Tennessee city. But that might not be the case much longer.

Snedeker, a nine-time PGA Tour winner and the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, attended a media event at the golf course Thursday where Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a $2 million renovation project that will begin at Shelby and VinnyLinks, also located in Shelby Park, in March.

The upgrades slated for Shelby include combining the winter and summer greens into one green complex on each hole; expansion of the practice putting green at the clubhouse to more than five times its current size; new irrigation; replacing and expanding six tee boxes; and work on the cart path.

The main scope at VinnyLinks will be an improvement of all nine tee boxes and tree work.

The renovations coincide with Shelby Golf Course’s 100th anniversary in 2024.

“Being a Nashvillian, I grew up playing golf courses around here but Shelby is where I spent most of my time,” Snedeker said. “My dad would play here every day with the old chief of police Joe Casey. They had a 12 o’clock standing tee time and I’d come out here when I was 16, 17, 18 years old and play. It was awesome getting to spend time playing golf with my dad and to have this momentous day where we’re doing a redo of this course with Metro Parks wanting to bring it back to the way it was designed is a really special moment.”

Snedeker, who estimated he has played thousands of rounds at Shelby, also mentioned how unique the 18-hole course is with its location so close to downtown.

“The access that this course can provide to a lot of Nashvillians that have not been traditional golfers is huge,” he said. “But it’s in dire need of an upgrade . . . We have a jewel here that has kind of been underserved the last 15 to 20 years.”

Shelby, a 6,079-yard, par-72 course, has long been the least-played municipal golf course of the seven in the Metro Parks system. It had more than 39,000 nine-hole rounds played in the past fiscal year, compared to McCabe, which had the most at more than 122,000.

Whit Turnbow, president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, which will oversee the renovations executed by architect Bruce Hepner and Hepner Golf Design LLC, expects the average rounds per year to double or even triple after the improvements. The foundation has a guarantee on cost overruns that might occur with the project.

Cooper said the improvements are part of those that began three years ago after a tornado caused severe damage to homes and businesses in East Nashville.

“The homes and businesses that have been rebuilt have been substantially repaired but now this is the last link to the tornado damage,” Cooper said. “The $2 million for the project is funded, it’s ready to go and work is going to start in March.”

Hepner recently finished similar renovations at Percy Warner Golf Course.

“What we’re trying to do here is upgrade the facility,” Hepner said. “It’s the least-played golf course (in Metro) and it might be because of conditions, it might be because we still have the old winter/summer greens. So we’re trying to improve the playing characteristics of the golf course so we can get this community involved here in playing golf.”

The renovations are expected to take a year to complete. Turnbow said Cooper, who is a golfer, would be invited back to tee off on the first hole when the project is done.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X, formerly Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.

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Rasmussen dominates Indy NXT in Nashville

Christian Rasmussen led from pole to checkered flag, holding off Hunter McElrea to claim his third win of the Indy NXT by Firestone season and extend his points lead. The 19-car field was insufficiently packed up for race control, so the first start …

Christian Rasmussen led from pole to checkered flag, holding off Hunter McElrea to claim his third win of the Indy NXT by Firestone season and extend his points lead.

The 19-car field was insufficiently packed up for race control, so the first start was waved off although that first lap held under yellow counted toward the 35-lap total.

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With the grid lined up in championship order following the cancellation of qualifying due to bad weather, Christian Rasmussen got the jump from pole with HMD Motorsports tucking in behind to remain second, while Andretti Autowport’s Hunter McElrea jumped ahead of Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports).

On lap 3, Siegel lost momentum as McElrea passed him and soon he had fallen to fifth, now behind Abel and Louis Foster (Andretti). This battle for second was a blessing for Rasmussen, who by lap 4 had a 3.5s lead over McElrea. Behind Siegel ran two of his teammates, Reece Gold and Danial Frost, while eighth placed James Roe of Andretti was pursued by two more HMD cars, Ernie Francis Jr. and Kyffin Simpson. Cape Motorsports’ Matt Brabham and Jagger Jones were up to 11th and 12th from 15th and 14th.

On lap 6, Frost passed Gold for sixth, and Francis took Roe for eighth.

By lap 8, McElrea had stablized his deficit to Rasmussen at around 3.5s, while pulling over three seconds away from Abel, who had Foster filling his mirrors. Siegel had fallen four seconds behind this pair.

His issues were as nothing compared with Gold, who on lap 10 tumbled down the order, apparently locking his front brakes at every corner.

The following lap, Foster finally used his push to pass boost over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge on the way to Turn 9 to get past Abel despite a couple of rubs, and third was his. Immediately he set his fastest lap of the race, trying to close down the 3.5s gap to McElrea who had now slipped to 4.5s behind leader Rasmussen. At the same time, all three had to bear in mind the potential of a yellow flag period, so they didn’t want to take too much life out of their Firestones.

That circumstance almost arrived on lap 16 when Brabham’s attempted pass on Simpson at Turn 4 ended in a gentle run-on into the tires, from which he had to reverse and rejoin in 15th. On lap 17, that full-course caution appeared, when Christian Bogle smacked into the wall at Turn 10. With his broken front wing, he dropped some debris in the middle of the track which needed retrieving as he tried to limp to the pits.

The green flag dropped at the start of lap 20, and the only order change was Rasmus Lindh of Juncos Hollinger Racing passing Simpson for ninth. However, two laps later Francis and Roe jumped Frost to claim sixth and seventh respectively.

Up front, meanwhile, McElrea was not letting go of Rasmussen, the pair of them eking out a small gap over Foster, even before the next caution flag flew on lap 24, when Francis’s charge ended after ripping off his right-front on the tires at the exit of Turn 4.

At the end of lap 27, the restart saw Rasmussen kept clear of his pursuers, but on lap 28 Abel muscled past Foster on the run to Turn 11 to reclaim third. Then out came the next yellow, as Lindh and Frost came together, with the latter ending up in the wall at Turn 4.

There was less than six minutes remaining in the time-constrained race, so the full 35-lap distance looked unlikely. The very edgy battle between Abel and Foster ended in tears for the Andretti driver, as he disappeared briefly down the Turn 11 escape road. However, Abel was penalized for blocking and had to cede a position to Siegel. However, Abel came right back at the HMD driver and reclaimed third a couple of corners later.

Up front, Rasmussen showed the same form he had displayed in the opening laps, and pulled clear of McElrea, who was eight seconds ahead of Abel after the Canadian’s shenanigans.

On the final lap, Roe passed Siegel, while the recovering Foster demoted Lindh to claim sixth at the checker. Siegel’s fall to fifth meant that Rasmussen’s third win extends his points lead to 45 with five rounds to go.

RESULTS

IndyCar confirms Nashville will host 2024 season finale

The organizers of the Music City Grand Prix held on the streets of Nashville and the NTT IndyCar Series have completed a new multi-year agreement that will build upon the initial three-year contract that concludes with this weekend’s visit to …

As RACER recently wrote, the Nashville race will move in 2024 from its current position on the calendar to September 13-15, when it will host the IndyCar season finale and serve as the location for the series’ championship banquet on Sept. 16.

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Next year’s Nashville event will feature a revised layout with the fewest number of corners of any road or street course, and which incorporates the city’s most popular street. According to IndyCar, “The new 2.17-mile, seven-turn circuit will continue across the iconic Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge and route directly past the Country Music Hall of Fame. The racecourse will run through the city’s honkytonk district, home to bars owned by the biggest names in country music. Each day of racing will culminate with a takeover of Broadway and a massive street party that only Nashville can throw, featuring live performances by many of music’s biggest artists.”

Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles is confident the shift of season-ending venues from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to Nashville will be a positive for the series.

“Nashville and the Music City Grand Prix team are ready to host a can’t miss, action-packed event that transforms the NTT IndyCar Series season finale and elevates it to an even higher peak on the global stage,” Miles said.

“Next year’s race in Nashville will be an unbridled celebration of the most fierce and competitive motorsport on the planet, set against the backdrop of an innovative and breathtaking stage that includes one of the premier global entertainment districts in the world. We’ll have more to share soon on an entire weekend of activities, both on and off track, that fully taps into the growing reach and relevance of an ascendant and marquee city.”

Miles also confirmed Laguna Seca’s return, which RACER expects to shift to the early stages of the 2024 calendar.

“WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca remains a beloved, historic venue for our teams, drivers and fans in an important and scenic market,” he said.

Notre Dame apparently too stuffy of a place for Brian Kelly

Sorry you had to work harder with the Irish, Brian.

We get it. We know you don’t want to hear about Brian Kelly anymore. He’s part of Notre Dame’s past and just want to leave him there. But some things are just hard to ignore.

Kelly, entering his second season as LSU coach, was in Nashville for the annual SEC Media Days. Even though he’s been gone for the Irish for over a year-and-a-half now, he simply can’t avoid questions about his former employer. It seemed inevitable that someone would pose one, and it came while he was interviewed by SiriusXM College Sports Radio. When asked to compare coaching the Irish as opposed to the Tigers, he said this:

“Well, I don’t think you have to wear a tie every day at the job if you know what I mean. It’s a little bit more relaxed from that perspective. That’s not good or bad, but there is a much more relaxed [feeling] because you’re in the south. You’re around people that are very easy to get along with. Not that they were hard to get along with, but there are rules you have to follow in an environment like Notre Dame. And you can’t cross those lines. So there is a little bit of a difference there.

Well, excuse Notre Dame for wanting everyone to look and dress proper, Mr. Kelly. We’re not sure what you expected from a Catholic university with high academic standards, but we guess everyone has their thing.

Not only that, but Kelly doesn’t seem to like traveling far for recruiting either:

“I would say the biggest one other than that small narrative that I gave you is that I had to be on a plane and I had to pull the best player out of California, out of Texas, out of New Jersey. I don’t have to do that at LSU. The best player in the state of Louisiana, if we do a really good job recruiting him, he wants to be a Tiger. That’s a difference that, more than anything else, allows you to really focus on what’s important within your program and that is the state of Louisiana and player development.”

Based on this, maybe Kelly never was comfortable with Notre Dame being a national school and having to do everything to keep that reputation going. But it’s OK because not everyone embraces the national spotlight. Sometimes, it’s best to stay regional, which he seems to enjoy in Baton Rouge. Good for him, we guess.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

TV ratings: Nashville to the end of the line

NASCAR’s annual switch from FOX Sports to NBC Sports got off to a promising start in TV audience. Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series round from Nashville averaged a 1.83 Nielsen rating and 3.211 million household viewers, per numbers from …

NASCAR’s annual switch from FOX Sports to NBC Sports got off to a promising start in TV audience. Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series round from Nashville averaged a 1.83 Nielsen rating and 3.211 million household viewers, per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com. NBC Sports reports that the Total Audience Delivery for the race, including streaming via Peacock and the NBC Sports app, was 3.230 million, making it NBC Sports’ most-watched season opener in three years — up 16% on 2022 — as well as the most-watched sporting event of the weekend. Last year’s race averaged 1.81/2.921m on NBC.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Nashville on Saturday averaged 0.48/823,000 viewers on USA Network, compared to 0.50/796,000 last year on the same cable network.

Back on FOX for its finals from Norwalk on Sunday afternoon, the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series averaged 0.49/818,000. That was a healthy increase on last year — also on FOX — which averaged 0.45/702,000 viewers.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series action from Nashville Friday night on FS1 averaged 0.29/509,000 viewers, down slightly from last year’s 0.30/534K.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship averaged 0.12/174,000 for the second half of the Watkins Glen Six Hours on the USA network.

Editor’s note: ShowBuzzDaily.com announced this week that it is ending its public reporting of ratings figures for television programming, partly in response to the evolution of TV viewing away from linear TV networks to streaming platforms, which has made the reporting of traditional ratings data both more problematic and less informative.

“The balance of home viewing, for better or worse, has swung toward streaming, and the proprietors of those companies have chosen to be opaque with their information, providing data that’s incomplete and unverified when it’s available at all,” ShowBuzzDaily.com’s Mitch Salem noted in announcing the site would be ending its operations. “That very lack of transparency is one of the key issues in the ongoing Writers Guild strike. Meanwhile, scrutiny of linear numbers is becoming a preoccupation akin to documenting angels on the head of a pin.”

The same issue has become an increasing point of concern for RACER, as we’ve worked to keep our readers informed of TV audience numbers for motorsports events while also recognizing the interests of the various racing series and the teams that compete in them in ensuring that a complete and fair picture is presented. RACER has therefore made the difficult decision to suspend its regular weekly reports of racing’s TV ratings, although we will continue to monitor the industry and relate significant viewing figures as they are made available.

Wallace encouraged by playoff position but still ‘a lot of work to do’

Bubba Wallace is not comfortable with his position on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid, but what a difference a year makes when coming to Nashville Superspeedway. Wallace goes into Sunday night’s race (7 p.m. ET, NBC) above the cutline by 26 …

Bubba Wallace is not comfortable with his position on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid, but what a difference a year makes when coming to Nashville Superspeedway.

Wallace goes into Sunday night’s race (7 p.m. ET, NBC) above the cutline by 26 points in 15th position. There are 10 races left in the regular season, and Wallace is looking for his first postseason berth.

Saturday afternoon, as Wallace reviewed practice tape for the Ally 400, he was struck by a graphic NBC Sports displayed.

“They put up the points bubble, and it’s cool to see your name above the cutline,” Wallace said. “I think in my last five years, we weren’t even in the top 20 at this point. So, it’s cool. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think moving forward, we’ve just got to realize the situation that presents itself each and every weekend and capitalize on that if it’s a good one.”

Nashville could be one of those races. Wallace said his team has a lot of speed in the No. 23 Toyota, which was good enough to be sixth-fastest overall in practice. In qualifying, where Wallace advanced to the final round, he spun off Turn 4 and didn’t get to complete a fast lap. But he’ll start inside the top 10 — so long as the team does not make any adjustments to the car before the green flag.

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It’s been an up-and-down few weeks for Wallace. He scored three consecutive top-five finishes in Kansas, Darlington, and Charlotte but finished 30th in St. Louis after a brake rotor issue and was 17th on the Sonoma road course.

“Sonoma, we survived,” Wallace said. “[The issue at World Wide Technology Raceway], that was unfortunate; five laps to go, gave away a lot of points. Fortunately, the guys we’re racing around had bad days, so it wasn’t that big of a hit, but we could be a lot more.

“But if we win, we’re in. So that’s our main goal.”

Wallace feels he and the 23 team are better poised to make the most of their potential this year early enough to make playoff race wins really count. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images

Both of Wallace’s two wins in the Cup Series have come late in the year — but they were races in the playoffs, which Wallace was not a part of.

Despite his precarious position as the regular season winds down, Wallace said he and the team will not change “a thing.” Wallace will not focus on protecting his spot on the playoff grid, and crew chief Bootie Barker will not start calling races differently.

It’s a bit ironic Wallace returns to Nashville in this position. Nashville was the race last year that was a turning point for Wallace and his team. Although they had speed, it was a race filled with mistakes that took him out of contention and capped off by Wallace losing his cool on the radio.

But it gave way to a solid end to the regular season as Wallace earned four top-10 finishes in the final nine races. The foundation built last year has carried over into 2023 — which Wallace said he was eager for before the end of last season.

The difference, he says, is “not making mistakes” with the car and on pit road and “not making mistakes on my side. I’m maturing as a driver, a person.”

And so, as Wallace gets ready for Nashville once more, he now knows what it takes to compete for a playoff spot and has the whole package to do it.

“I got the team, got the car, got the crew, got the pit crew, manufacturer, sponsors,” he said. “But we got the driver, too. It’s fun to be where we’re at. Confidence is high. It’s continued to be high from last year, but I realized you can’t just say that your confidence is up and not back it up. You’ve got to put in the work to equal out that confidence, and we’ve been able to do that.

“It’s been fun the last couple of months, just being up front, having your name in the mix and getting after it.”