Wallace Focused On Building Playoff Push With 23XI

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – After his crown jewel Brickyard 400 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway two weeks ago, Bubba Wallace has his eyes on even bigger things to close out 2025.

Last season he missed the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs due to not winning a race. This time around, for the first time in his career, he enters the final regular season races not having to worry about locking himself into the field.

Although he had an impressive and resilient effort at Iowa Speedway, Wallace is putting focus towards the 10- week postseason stretch.

His aim is to compete at a high level until then, but all attention is going towards the Round of 16 opener at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, the 76th Southern 500 on Aug. 31.

“I could care less what happens in the next three weeks. Our win gives us a chance to go push ourselves and try different things to see if there are any issues related to speed,” said Wallace. “You start out the year that way, but every point matters and [team co-owner] Denny Hamlin has been very adamant about that the last couple of months.”

To that point, Wallace referenced a moment at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course where preventable contact with Alex Bowman spoiled a strong day, which gave him a 28th place result. At that moment, he was in a vulnerable spot in points and dropped himself even closer to the cutline.

“After Chicago, it was unfortunate how that played out, because all of it was my doing. My wife was very upset with me. It was eye-opening, she basically said ‘Get your stuff together. I don’t want to see you in the spot you’ve been for so many years,” he said. “I said ‘I’ll win Indy,’ and there you go. I’ve never been in this spot, but if we’re 30th or if we qualify 35th I don’t care. We’re locked in.”

The Mobile, Ala., native won his first race since 2022 at IMS, which ended a 100-race winless streak.

Since Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway on July 20, Wallace has three straight top 10s, with a season total of nine to go along with four top fives.

“I’ve always said from the beginning that I show up as a race car driver first, and let everything else settle in after that. At Indy the first thing I thought about was finally no more day count since I last won,” Wallace said. “No more being on the cut line during the last race going into Daytona. There have been so many times I’ve questioned myself if I could do this again, and all that was gone in that moment.”

Wallace said he acknowledged the impact his win also had as an African-American. He became the first Black racer to win on the Indy oval. He admitted that there’s a lot of opinions around his background, but he embraces the person and driver he is today.

 

“I’m a race car driver and enjoy where I am at in life. People say ‘All he cares about is being Black’, but that’s not true. I love who I am and love to be competitive. I’m able to showcase that at the highest level in NASCAR.”

The microscope and expectations come from the weight his name holds. Even though it will always be remembered as a sensitive subject in NASCAR history, he became a face of the sport due to the sport’s culture shift with diversity and inclusion in 2020.

Since then, the 31-year-old is one of the most marketed drivers in NASCAR. Five seasons at 23XI Racing with NASCAR great Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan as team owners has only bolstered the spotlight on him.

After his Indianapolis win, Wallace made national headlines and was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter and numerous national news stations. He noted that he felt he had an essential role in NASCAR’s growth due to his representation. Not winning in almost three years had carried a burden.

In an interview from April 2 with iHeart Radio’s “The Breakfast Club” he said, “I need to win. Golf didn’t change too much, but Tiger Woods was dominant and created a lot of buzz. I’ve only had two wins in my eight years being in the Cup Series. To me, that’s unacceptable.

“I’ll take full responsibility in helping grow the NASCAR [fan] base.”

At the end of the day, when someone is heavily advertised as one of the faces of a sports league, that person must have success.

Wallace once struggled with sponsorship earlier in his career with now RFK Racing’s former Xfinity Series team, and at times with Richard Petty Motorsports prior to 2020.

But times have changed, big corporate brands believe in him like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Pepper, DoorDash, DraftKings and CashApp. With investment from those companies, the mission is to win, and Wallace finally did that.

Now his focus can shift towards making the most out of the playoff run. The goal remains to iron out any kinks in his No. 23 team so there aren’t any controllable mistakes by both team and driver across the 10 races that culminate at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway in November.

Wallace boasts two wins, eight top fives, and 19 top 10s at playoff tracks in the Next Gen era.

Wallace thinks his team can win multiple races, but said it will take work, and they aren't satisfied with just Indianapolis. He credited his crew chief Charles Denike for the change in performance this season, due largely to Denike’s attention to detail and structure.

Before the playoffs however, Wallace will try his best at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l, where his career best finish is 12th in 2023. But he looks forward to Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway. He finished fourth at Richmond last summer and he has five top fives at Daytona.

“I told my team right before we started our meeting that if you think fatherhood looks good on me, wait until you see Bubba Wallace locked into the playoffs looking good on me, because it’s going to look good.”

Coverage of the Go Bowling at the Glen begins Sunday, Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.