Bubba Wallace enters his ninth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, and his sixth as driver of the No. 23 for 23XI Racing, looking to take that next step and grab what’s been left on the table in years past.
The Mobile, Alabama-native comes off one of the strongest seasons of his career to date, where he captured a victory in the prestigious Brickyard 400 and set new career-high numbers in top-fives, top 10s, and laps led. Yet there’s reason to believe the team hasn’t reached its full potential.
Those impressive results came during a slog of a campaign, where distractions were at an all-time high with an antitrust lawsuit between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, calling the team’s future into question. Plus, Wallace spent last season working out the kinks with first-year crew chief Charles Denike, who made a major jump to the Cup Series after spending several years crew chiefing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
So, with the lawsuit settled over the off-season, and the Denike-Wallace relationship progressing into its second year, there’s certainly reason to be excited about the year ahead for the No. 23 team.
“Charles [Denike] is super easy going, I think I am too,” Wallace said. “We have a really good relationship that started right off the bat. That helps new pairings and new relationships. He’s been very confident with the work he’s been doing. Halfway through the year, he’s leading some of our meetings. You expect a guy who hasn’t been there for long to lean back, but he wanted to insert his philosophy and his mindset as quickly as he could. That says a lot about who he is and who he wants to be. He’s the type of person who takes his job very seriously. He pays attention to detail, and I’m excited to have another trip around the sun with him.”
Heading into the DAYTONA 500, an event that has been kind to Wallace in the past, at least in terms of raw speed (and some results), the 32-year-old says he has a feeling that it’s going to be a good weekend, as he attempts to become the first African-American driver to win the DAYTONA 500.
“I feel really good about it. Getting a lot of signs that it’s going to be a good weekend, so don’t ask me what said signs were, but they were good ones,” Wallace said about the impending weekend. “I feel good about our chances. We’ve obviously grown and matured as a team from last year and from the start of 23XI and the start of the No. 23 team; we’ve grown in a lot of spots. To come into this year more confident and more focused. We’ve just got to dot our I’s and cross our T’s, I think I say that every year here at DAYTONA 500 media day. We just have to put it all together.”
Wallace is one of three full-time drivers for 23XI Racing in 2026, the organization’s sixth year in the NASCAR Cup Series, with Riley Herbst and Tyler Reddick alongside him as teammates. Additionally, Corey Heim, the team’s first and only development driver, will be running a 12-race NASCAR Cup Series schedule in a fourth entry, the No. 67.
It’s a sign of how quickly 23XI Racing has grown over the years, beginning in 2021 as a single-car effort for Bubba Wallace, and quickly expanding into a multi-car team. Now, the team will be looking to put four cars in the DAYTONA 500, should Heim make the show.
This isn’t the end of the growth for the organization, though. In fact, Wallace says the organization co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan has lofty goals for its future, which include disrupting the likes of Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, and Team Penske.
“We want to disrupt the big three. We want to put our name in that category, and they are really passionate about that,” Wallace said about 23XI Racing. “We had a great leadership meeting a couple of weeks ago that emphasized a lot of key notes, and it was a big reflection of all of us in that room. So just high expectations.”
“It starts with waking up with the right attitude, being present, and being on time, and giving it your all every day. How can you be better than the previous day? It’s understanding that mindset and adapting to that is going to be huge for us. Just keep pushing. This sport is really hard; the big three have been around for a while. Key people come and go, and they insert their philosophies. We are still growing, but we’ve already done some pretty cool things in a short amount of time, and we have to keep pushing for more.”
Wallace will look for his fourth top-five in the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday, February 15, at 2:30 PM ET on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. However, first, the No. 23 XFINITY Toyota Camry XSE will look to capture the pole for ‘The Great American Race’ on Wednesday, February 11, at 8:15 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
