It’s been a mixed bag of performances for Bubba Wallace in the first 12 races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup season. The 23XI Racing driver currently sits in 10th place in the Cup standings heading into this Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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Wallace has had rough outings in his last two races, finishing 33rd at both Texas and Kansas. Despite crashes in each event, he still feels he’s had a good first third of the season. He and his team have met many of their goals, but there’s still one goal left to achieve.
“Me in victory lane,” Wallace told Racer.com with a laugh. With the next three races on intermediate tracks — Charlotte, Nashville and Michigan — Wallace feels this is his time to shine and to make a big move up the standings. And getting to victory lane is at the top of his list, especially since he hasn’t been there since 2022.
Wallace comes into the longest race of the year on Sunday with two top 5 and four top 10 finishes.
“I feel like our mile-and-a-halfs are really, really strong,” Wallace added. “I was really happy with the car the first 30 laps of Kansas; we had our penalty and then were mired back in traffic and weren’t the same there. But I was really happy with how the weekend went.
Wallace said he was really happy with how the weekend in Texas went until the crash. Reflecting on similar races from the previous year, he noted there hadn’t been much to write about when they turned up to mile-and-a-half tracks, as they typically just ground out top-10 finishes.
However, he said, “But we’re getting stage points now, we’re competitive, our name is in the hat. We just now have to close out the deal. I think through the summer stretch, yes, I’m excited for what’s next.”
Bubba Wallace on the road and street course challenges ahead
Right after the Michigan race, Wallace and the rest of the Cup drivers go on a stretch of road or street course events sandwiched in-between two very fast tracks — starting with the inaugural race in Mexico City, followed by Pocono and Atlanta, and then back to turning left and right at the street race in Chicago and the road course race at Sonoma.
Although Wallace has never been a good non-oval driver, he is optimistic that things may be different for him this year.
“I think it’s just going to be surviving there, capitalizing on the good moments, not having any mistakes,” Wallace said. “I look at Sonoma (as) probably the biggest road course I need to figure out, but Chicago, we’ve always had speed. It’s been really good to us. So, I don’t see any hints of doubt through the next couple months, which is nice to have.”
Wallace said other than their personalities, there’s really no difference between new crew chief Charles Denike and former crew chief Bootie Barker, who was promoted within the organization after last season.
“I’ve never been 10th in points 12 races in,” Wallace said. “I’ve been the drama for the last four races leading up to the playoffs of trying to make it in. I’m not saying we’re locked in by any means but… Kansas sucked, we lost 20 points there… but 56 points to the good, I’ve never said that before. It’s cool to say that.”
Victory lane may still await Wallace, but the foundation for a strong playoff run is firmly in place.
