It took several minutes for Bubba Wallace to climb out of the iconic No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet on Monday following the conclusion to the Food City 500.

The 24-year-old rookie wasn’t injured, nor was he exhausted. On a day in which he led the first six laps of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career and contended in the final stage at Thunder Valley, Wallace was frustrated that he didn’t close out.

Wallace passed a dominant Brad Keselowski, the winner of the first two stages, with 126 laps to go but was quickly overtaken by eventual winner Kyle Busch. From there, Wallace started sinking through the field on older tires and eventually fell off the lead lap, finishing 16th.

Ultimately, Wallace lost grip and speed due to severely blistered left sides after having to wait for the extra shipment of tires that NASCAR and Goodyear made available due to the postponement on Sunday night.

Wallace was bit by the same strategy and misfortune that cost Keselowski a chance to win, too.

The latest protégé of the legendary Richard Petty, Wallace said he didn’t expect to have a car capable of winning on Monday until the race resumed.

"Didn't know what to expect firing off and we fired off like a freaking badass and got our way up to 10th in that second stage," said Wallace. "That was good – get some stage points, and [then] got up to the lead. I was as surprised as anybody.

"Going through the emotions – we were really good and that last caution came out and we were struggling with left front problems there late in runs, locking up easily but still was able to make decent ground. Then all of a sudden, it went to shit there. Man, just blindsided there by that."

He said leading was "cool as shit" over the radio during the caution after he lost the lead. Having experienced the front of the field and not being able to maintain it over the final two runs left him emotional on the cool-down lap.

Wallace said he needed to compose himself before stepping out of the car.

"Oh, I was frustrated," Wallace said. "I could go run another 500 miles here – that was easy. Especially when you have a good car like my guys gave me.

"Our STP Chevrolet was on rails and then all of a sudden it was like a kick in the teeth. That was just the look of dejection, devastated, everything that relates to that."

Veteran crew chief Drew Blickensderfer told Autoweek on Tuesday that he felt the frustration too, but urged his young driver to focus on the positives.

"I feel these kind of losses, too," Blickensderfer said. "But being a veteran, you have to compartmentalize it. Richard (Petty) was here an hour ago and I'm told him, "I'm fine, but I think you should go talk to Bubba." He's won 200 races, but he's lost a thousand. That's good perspective.

"So I told Bubba to take in the positives. It's the day after and now we have to go to work on Richmond. But what impresses me, is that his frustration was just as much for us in the shop as it was for himself. He doesn't want to let us down, and he didn't."

Blickensderfer agreed with the notion that the 43 team is ahead of schedule in what was intended to be a rebuilding season. Wallace made only four starts in the 43 last season for the injured Aric Almirola and has experience a ‘trial by fire’ type of season.

Richard Petty Motorsports is also in the first year of a new technical partnership with Chevrolet, ECR Engines and Richard Childress Racing.

He finished second in the Daytona 500, led a practice session at Atlanta and was a top-5 contender at Texas. Wallace is 21st in the championship standings, but has impressed Blickensderfer with his approach.

"He races well," Blickensderfer said. "Take yesterday, he didn't just ride behind guys. When he has an opportunity to pass, he takes it, and it's clean. That doesn't always come easy to rookies. That's going to serve him well at Richmond because that place is wider and fits his driving style.

"He was really good on the throttle when his tires went away. There are just a lot of little things that really excite me about where we're going right now."

For Wallace, a defeat like Sunday is about the aforementioned perspective. Having the ability to lead laps and contend for wins is much better than even Petty himself expected in his first full-time season. Wallace took the moment as a loss, when it was more accurately, progress.

"The momentum is still here, I'm just dejected because I'm scratching my head on where the hell we went wrong or what went wrong," Wallace said. "I don't think we did anything wrong. I guess that's big-time auto racing. But it was a good day."

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