Bubba Wallace wins his first NASCAR Cup Series race during the "YellaWood" 500 at Talladgea Superspeedway

 

Bubba Wallace scores his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory (NASCAR on NBC/NBC Sports)

    Bubba Wallace has officially won the NASCAR Cup Series "YellaWood" 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, scoring his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in a very rainy fashion.

Darrell (Bubba) Wallace Jr. has just become the first black driver to win in NASCAR's highest series since Wendell Scott did in 1963, becoming only the 2nd black Cup Series winner ever. While Wallace's victory is a big deal because of his race, it's also a big deal because of his racing. Bubba Wallace has been successful in the NASCAR Truck Series and Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series, scoring multiple wins before his move to Cup. Wallace has been there for many exciting finishes as he raced for Richard Petty Motorsports and now 23XI Racing in the Cup Series . With many opportunities in the NASCAR Cup Series, Wallace has been up front and in prime position to win, but unfortunately simply unable to find himself in victory lane. That ended today. The win today was about so much more than Bubba's skin color, but for some fans it certainly was a notable aspect of it. 

This race which was originally scheduled to take place at 2:00 PM ET on Sunday, October 3rd, 2021 at Talladega Superspeedway but saw it's fair share of delays and red flags as days worth of rain clouds plowed into Talladega County just before the race's starting time. Luckily due to careful planning, NASACR fans did not see a repeat of 2020's Fall Texas race, and instead saw the race rescheduled for the following Monday, October 4th (today). With all the luck in the world on NASCAR's side, storm cells just nearly missed the speedway and the Cup event was underway. 

Drivers like Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and others showed their hand during todays race. Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin just kept on finding themselves holding (or battling) for the lead, but even though they showed dominant speed (surprising for 2021's Kevin Harvick) in true Superspeedway fashion they were simply shuffled further back in the pack, time and time again.

 Brad Keselowski who has won at Talladega several times throughout his career gave it one last shot in the Team Penske No. 2, but with the threat of rain living up to its name Keselowski would not make a repeat of this Spring's "Geico" 500 as he would score a close runner up. His teammate Joey Logano found himself in a very similar situation finishing 3rd simply without enough time to take the victory. 

While they are not yet teammates, next season Keselowski will join Chris Buescher to race the No. 6 over at Roush Fenway Racing as an Owner/Driver. Today we saw a lot out of Buescher in the No. 17 car as he held his place in the front of the field. Keselowski and Buescher worked together to push ahead of the approaching racing lanes, and showed an early glimpse of some of the teamwork we can expect out of the drivers next season.

The Hendrick Motorsports cars suffered today, and that is not an exaggeration on my part. While all of the Hendrick Motorsports cars showed plenty of speed and some even led the race at times, none were to be seen in the top-10 finishers. Kyle Larson who saw the earliest issues was slammed right into the outside retaining wall by Justin Allgaier in the Spire Motorsports No. 77. This of course was to no fault of Justin Allgaier as he simply had too hard of a push from the man behind him, but it definitely had big implications for Larson. The damage caused by this incident dropped Larson in the playoff standings immensely, as the car barely met minimum speed, had its steering completely out of whack, and then cut a tire and slammed into the wall again. Larson's car survived until the early race end, but just barely. 

Kyle Larson's Cincinnati No. 5 Camaro after a wreck with Justin Allgaier during the "YellaWood" 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (John Harrelson/Motorsports Images)

Just before the race was called early because of precipitation both Alex Bowman and William Byron saw their days go up in smoke (quite literally for Byron). While approaching a pass on the leader, dominoes fell behind Bowman as Chase Elliott got a push, who gave Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a push, who gave Alex Bowman a push, who spun sideways into the wall. Bowman fell through the field spinning, collecting drivers like Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Junior. Luckily for the drivers collected, not all of them saw their days ended by the incident. 

Alex Bowman gets turned into outside retaining wall during "YellaWood" 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (NASCAR on NBC broadcast)

For William Byron he was not at fault for his wrecking, instead he was simply a victim of Talladega. Ryan Preece who was running near the top-10 saw a similar situation to Bowman as he was getting a push from behind, and he was meant to be one of the dominoes. Unfortunately for Ryan Preece the push was too much considering he had a car right in front of him, and he spun sideways out of line, and eventually collected William Byron. This impact caused the No. 24 Camaro of Byron to spill fuel all over the track and it caught fire as it left the car's fuel cell. This wreck would end Byron's day, and would be the eventual end to the race as rain poured in afterwards.

Even though today's (and technically yesterday's) race was short, it was action packed, and I guarantee it is not one that the fans will soon forget. Even more racing could have meant more opportunities for different drivers, though the finish to today's race was memorable, even with the downpours included.

Chris Buescher won stage one, and Bubba Wallace technically is scored as the winner of stage two.

The following are the complete race results (CLICK TO ENLARGE):

NASCAR.com (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

First of many. pic.twitter.com/NRyRmO0wOw

— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) October 4, 2021