NASCAR Crash Course: The evolution of Bubba Wallace that led to victory at Kansas Speedway – CBS Sports

The best NBA player of his generation turned NASCAR car owner, Michael Jordan, famously said, "You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them." He wasn't at Kansas Speedway Sunday, but was surely beaming with pride watching his driver, Bubba Wallace, figure out the difference in real time.

"If you don't show up with confidence," Wallace explained after winning his second career NASCAR Cup Series race, "Then you're not going to run very good."

It's been the missing link in a trailblazing career, the second African-American driver to ever win at the sport's top level.

In his second year driving for 23XI Racing, both the team and Wallace seemed ready to take a step forward this season only to fall victim to their own mistakes. Kansas in May? That was one of those times, Wallace charging forward from 24th before suffering through not one but two pit road penalties. Teammate Kurt Busch wound up in victory lane while Wallace, finishing 10th, was dead last among six Toyota drivers in the field.

So it went in a regular season that didn't start clicking until a surprise third at New Hampshire in July. Quietly, while falling short of the playoffs, Wallace started closing out races and learning how to battle through adversity on the tracks. Four straight top-10 finishes for the first time in his career peaked with a pole at Michigan and a runner-up result to Kevin Harvick.

That gave Jordan and Denny Hamlin the confidence to switch Wallace into Busch's No. 45 for the final 10 races and compete for an owner's title (Busch himself is sidelined through a concussion suffered in late July).

On Sunday, Wallace started sixth only to experience more adversity at the end of stage one. A loose wheel forced an extra stop under caution, dropping Wallace outside the top 20 in the type of scenario that's tripped him up like clockwork.

But this time, the driver never flinched.

"That's the pivotal point of the race where I think that he has really improved," Hamlin said. "When that happens, no offense to Bubba, but sometimes the wires get crossed. Today it just seemed like he was very methodical in his way back. This is overcoming adversity."

By the end of stage two, some 80 laps later, Wallace was in fourth -- one position higher than he was before the penalty. Then, during the final stage, he let the car come to him, taking some 30 laps to find pace and then passing Alex Bowman for the lead.

By the time final green-flag pit stops came, his advantage was a healthy four seconds.

"A testament to Bubba," his crew chief, Bootie Barker said. "He didn't push his car He didn't get anxious. He didn't make any mistakes. He didn't burn his stuff up. He knew the guys were behind him, and he just ran what he had to do. That takes a tremendous amount of discipline and not letting the moment get too big. He didn't at all."

Wallace is the 18th different winner in 28 races as NASCAR's Next Gen chassis has clearly leveled the playing field. But for a driver that's constantly under the microscope,active over racial injusticewhile openwith his battles over depressionand mental health, this win could be an inflection point while leveling up with the talent ever present inside himself.

Green: Christopher Bell -- Bell became the lone driver locked inside the Round of 12 after starting the playoffs with back-to-back top-5 finishes. In a year filled with drama and transition at Joe Gibbs Racing, he's neck-and-neck with Hamlin as their best chance to make the Championship 4.

Yellow: Team Penske -- Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano look in solid shape to make the next playoff round while rookie Austin Cindric is a surprise 12th. But a combined position differential of -28 through two playoff races shows the team is wasting strong qualifying efforts.

Red: Kevin Harvick -- What a nightmare playoff start for the 2014 Cup champion.Darlington ended on firebefore Harvick made a rare mistake, getting a little too aggressive during 3-abreast racing on a restart and crashing out just 34 laps in.

It's the first time in Harvick's career (782 Cup starts) he's posted three straight DNFs. The timing couldn't be worse.

Speeding Ticket: Equipment interference -- A season-high six teams, four of them title contenders, got hit with this penalty. It's assessed when a tire, air wrench or some other piece of equipment pushes into someone else's stall, contacting a crew member or another car.

The consequences are part of a set of very specific rules NASCAR has to protect pit crews; expect them to be further enforcedwith their safety record coming under scrutiny in recent weeks. Of the playoff drivers affected, only Hamlin (2nd) and Suarez (10th) were able to fully overcome it, precious points lost that could come back to bite them after Bristol Saturday night.

Kyle Busch was trying a little too hard to recover from that penalty when he spun the No. 18 by himself off turn 4. It's not often you see a two-time Cup champion just lose it with no one around him.

Busch wound up 26th, two laps down, and is now on the outside of the top 12 looking in heading to Bristol. His JGR team will be further distracted this week byan expected Tuesday announcementhe'll be leaving for Richard Childress Racing in 2023.

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NASCAR Crash Course: The evolution of Bubba Wallace that led to victory at Kansas Speedway - CBS Sports