Bubba Wallace’s Southern 500 may not have ended in Victory Lane, but his No. 23 team still left Darlington Raceway with a place in the NASCAR record book.
Wallace’s 23XI Racing pit crew ripped off a 7.86-second four-tire pit stop during Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500, setting a new record for the fastest known four-tire stop in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
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The stop broke the previous mark of 7.98 seconds set earlier this season by Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing crew at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
And Wallace’s crew didn’t just make history for the sake of a stopwatch. The lightning-fast work helped Wallace gain four positions under caution during a race in which every second on pit road mattered.
Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Crew Sets NASCAR Pit Stop Record
Wallace’s record-setting stop came during NASCAR’s 2026 Southern 500 at Darlington, the opening race of The Chase.
The No. 23 crew changed all four tires in just 7.86 seconds, lowering Bell’s previous record by 0.12 seconds. According to Motorsport, Wallace’s and Bell’s crews are the only two known to have completed four-tire stops in under eight seconds.
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The five members of Wallace’s crew responsible for the record-setting stop were front tire changer Austin Dickey, rear tire changer Adam Hartman, tire carrier Joe Crossen, jackman Nathan Ricketts and fueler Joshua Pech.
It was a remarkable display of precision from a group that has only seconds to service a car before sending it back into traffic.
Pit stops have become considerably quicker during NASCAR’s Next Gen era. The car introduced in 2022 replaced the traditional five lug nuts on each wheel with a single center-locking lug, changing both the mechanics and choreography of Cup Series pit stops.
Four years later, Wallace’s crew has pushed that evolution to a new benchmark.
Bubba Wallace Gains Ground During Record-Setting Stop
The record wasn’t merely a statistical footnote for Wallace.
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His No. 23 Toyota gained four positions during the yellow-flag pit sequence, giving Wallace immediate track position as the Southern 500 unfolded.
Wallace ultimately finished eighth, earning a top-10 result in the first race of NASCAR’s 10-race Chase for the Cup Series championship.
Christopher Bell, whose crew previously owned the pit-stop record, went on to win the Southern 500. Ty Gibbs finished second, while Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick finished third.
But Bell wasn’t the only one leaving Darlington with something significant.
For Wallace and 23XI Racing, a 7.86-second trip down pit road was enough to rewrite the NASCAR record book and raise the bar once again for every Cup Series pit crew chasing them.
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