For Bubba Wallace, fatherhood seems to have flipped a switch. The arrival of his son, Beck, in 2024 has helped him keep a steadier hand on the wheel and his eyes firmly on the big prize. Last season, he broke through at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ending a 100-race win drought by leading 30 laps and holding off Kyle Larson by 0.222 seconds in overtime. Now, he wants that feeling to become a regular one.
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Wallace backed that up with six top-five finishes, 14 top-10s, and 378 laps led across 36 races in 2025, and he wants to crash a party long ruled by Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Team Penske. He believes 23XI Racing can go toe-to-toe with the sport’s heavy hitters, and he is not shy about saying so.
“We want to disrupt the big three,” Wallace said on Daytona Media Day. “We want to put our name in that category, and they are really passionate about that. We had a great leadership meeting a couple weeks ago that emphasized on 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, and being present and being on time and giving it your all every day.”
For Wallace, who qualified in 13th place for the 2026 Daytona 500, it is about arranging one brick at a time and eventually getting better than yesterday. He knows NASCAR has the potential to chew the drivers up if they let it. And in that environment, the powerhouses have built their empires over the years, plugging in people and philosophies without missing a beat.
Meanwhile, 23XI is still laying its foundation, but it has already turned heads in short order. That’s why Wallace sees no reason to lift off the gas. The Next Gen car, rule tweaks, stage breaks, none of it has knocked the giants off their perch. And even though his co-owner, Denny Hamlin, drives for one of those camps, Wallace wants to knock on that same door and step inside.
In 2025, the No. 23 Toyota driver showed gains across track types, even smoothing out past trouble spots on road courses. He ran closer to the front more often and had a path to the semifinal round within reach. And if he carries that momentum forward, another trip to Victory Lane and more battles at the front may be there for the taking.
With another year alongside crew chief Charles Denike, the pieces are in place for Wallace already.
