HAMPTON, Ga. — A week later, it’s safe to say Bubba Wallace did not have a great weekend at Pocono Raceway.
After a promising practice run in Pennsylvania, the No. 23 23XI Racing driver had a wrench thrown into his pre-race prep after his hot rod did not fire to make a qualifying run. Wallace started toward the rear of the field and had 400 miles to work with to make his way back to the front.
Those hopes all came crashing down after Wallace suffered a brake failure going into Turn 2, ending his day prematurely. While the 31-year-old veteran was upbeat after climbing out of his car, Wallace admitted Friday at EchoPark Speedway that it almost evoked an old mentality.
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“That was the most frustrated I’ve been in a long time,” Wallace said. “That was like a gut punch … really hard to swallow. Yeah, it’s qualifying … whatever. But it took me back to like a-few-years-ago Bubba, where it’s like, yeah, here we go. You ride on the momentum high and you get excited and have some optimism, and then you’re just smacked in the face with some B-S.
“I woke up Sunday. It was a new day and was excited to move forward in the race. Take our time. Didn’t move as forward as fast as we liked, but knew it was going to be a grind and then the brakes explode. Long story short — super frustrating.”
All three 23XI cars suffered similar fates at Pocono, with Riley Herbst having the first of the brake failures before Wallace’s. Tyler Reddick brought his No. 45 Toyota to the garage as a precaution to avoid a possible failure.
23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin discussed earlier in the week about Wallace’s mentality and the positive strides he’s made to not get too down on himself.
Hamlin also noted that Wallace hasn’t let the organization off the hook in these situations.
“It’s not like he’s giving 23XI a free pass, right? I think that it’s just so much easier if you have issues and you want to kick and scream, like do it to us,” Hamlin said. When you do it outwardly and into the public and the media, then it just creates a lot of other distractions that you have to deal with, and he’s made it easier.”
Wallace has failed to finish in six of the 17 races already in the 2025 season, but currently holds a 29-point cushion over the playoff cutline.
It’s a testament to the 110 stage points the No. 23 has tallied so far and finishing no worse than 12th in the three prior races to Pocono.
“I think it just shows how really strong they are and what they’re capable of doing,” Hamlin said. “I truthfully think the biggest change has just come from him within more so than anything I’ve done with him or the team has done with him. We look at the biggest change obviously coming in his personal life mid last year and whatnot and I think that that’s changed [him] the most.”
A new week and new opportunity arises for Wallace and the No. 23 crew as the series hits the midpoint of the calendar in Atlanta Saturday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Wallace ultimately qualified 24th for the Quaker State 400 and is looking forward to the task at hand to get back in the right direction.
“We’re back at the track, so I got to keep saying it: ‘fresh set of downs’, Wallace said. “It’ll be fun. We’ll get out of this little slump that we’re in.”
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